5 Amazing Community Initatives From Around The World

Our world is changing rapidly, and some of the most exciting are being seen in the spaces in which we live together. There are some very ambitious groups around the world seeking to completely redefine how we live in communities. These movements are extremely exciting because changing such a basic element of our society will have more far-reaching implications than most any other change.

Here are a few of examples of such movements.

Transition Initiative

A Transition Initiative (TI) is “a place where there’s a community-led process that helps that town/village/city/neighborhood become stronger and happier.” This is Valhalla for preexisting communities. What starts as a few town people coming together grows into an entire town dividing up tasks, creating a local currency and working together for the good of the collective.

TI is like Valhalla, but for preexisting towns/cities. If you don’t want to go to the extreme of creating your own community from scratch, this is a fantastic way of changing what you have now. The TI website provides mountains of material explaining how to go about starting an initiative in your town, step-by-step.

TI currently has 421 official initiatives & 1000+ registered initiatives in over 34 countries.

Charter Cities

A city created within the borders of one country, but with completely separate rules and regulations from that country. This effectively returns all power to the people, forcing city governments to compete for residents by offering the most popular set of rules.

The idea of Charter Cities was thought up by Paul Romer and presented in a TED talk in 2007. He was later contacted by some Hondurans who wanted his help to present the idea to their government. The initiative was accepted in a landslide vote and construction is currently underway.

Finca Bellavista

A sustainable treehouse community in the beautiful rainforests of Costa Rica. Enough said.

Free and Real

A group of Greek youth became fed up with their economy/government and built a sustainable community on a small island.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_96v72EgVE

The Valhalla Movement

The website you’re on right now! We aim to make communal, sustainable living mainstream. We’re starting by creating our first community in Montreal, Canada on 60 acres of land. Through this first experience we will compile a template for others to do the same in their respective parts of the world.

Together we can create the world our hearts tell us is possible.

Learn more on our Mission Page or watch our videos on our Media Page.