Adaptive Communities - Seeding Our Future

Strengthening local communities will be crucial in the years ahead, to help us all to live with increasing levels of disruption, e.g. to food supplies, utilities, weather patterns, and probably social cohesion. SoF can offer a range of insights and processes, drawn from our pilot projects and research, to help communities: these are summarised lower down this page. Our current focus is a major new project led by the Network for Social change, in which Alan is one of the core team.

Community Climate Resilience Project

This project aims to increase substantially the capacity of local communities across the UK to sustain themselves and adapt in the face of mounting disruption from climate change and other sources. Our plan is designed to achieve proof of concept for a number of initiatives early on, and to share them on a much wider scale in Years 2 and 3, helped by other funders.

Marginalised communities will feel the brunt most, but none will remain untouched. As UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres commented recently, “the surging seas are coming for us all”. It is clear that national and local governments are ill-prepared to meet the likely scale of disruption, and we believe that local community groups are best placed to raise resilience and adaptation capacity quickly – not only materially, but also emotionally and even spiritually. Strengthening social infrastructure can make a huge difference in times of crisis, as documented in Rebecca Solnit’s book A Paradise Built in Hell and Adam Greenfield’s more recent Lifehouse.

This project is therefore designed to contribute to a more general vision of community empowerment, care and togetherness, with a commitment to inclusive methods such as deliberative democracy. This will also contribute to linking climate action to improved wellbeing for all, connecting grassroots action to local and central government policies, increasing links across sectors and collaboration between communities. We recognise that the scale of the climate crisis, and other systemic issues such as social and economic injustice, cannot be rectified by any project, but it looks clear that strengthening the social infrastructure of local communities is one of the most effective interventions which is realistically achievable.

For a three-page briefing on the project, including Year 1 Plan, partner organisations, etc., click here.

Resources

Future Risks Review 2030: In 2023, Seeding our Future commissioned desk research from Schumacher Institute exploring the major challenges likely to hit communities in the UK over the next 10 years. This gives a useful indication of some of the key issues, and resource gaps in responding to them: see report here.
Future Conversations: This is a set of workshops which SoF has successfully piloted, to help communities build resilience skills. See more here.
Deep Adaptation: This approach, originated by Professor Jem Bendell, offers a range of processes for practical and emotional adaptation to climate change and other major disruptions. SoF has led a variety of workshops helping community groups and others to explore and apply Deep Adaptation approaches. See more here.
Intentional communities: Cohousing neighbourhoods and similar projects have evolved good processes for group-forming, decisions, resource-sharing, etc., which can be useful for communities of all kinds. Alan Heeks co-founded and lived in a cohousing community for 5 years, and has also taught on the Eco-village Training at Findhorn Foundation.
Garden Hamlets: this recent blog gives an overview of my ideas on two of the main ways to evolve Adaptive Communities: click h ere.
Natural Happiness: this is my model of learning about human resilience and wellbeing from natural ecosystems. For the overall Seven Seeds model, see here. To see how community qualities in ecosystems can help you, see here.
Community resilience: In 2015-17, I ran a project, Facing The 2020’s, exploring how local communities can grow their resilience and their capacity for positive collective action. For an overview of my conclusions, see here.
Cohousing: this is a community which combines some shared resources (e.g. market garden, dining/group room, guest bedrooms, pool cars) with private dwellings, each with their own front door. I have started two cohousing projects, and lived in one for five years. Creating a new bricks-and-mortar cohousing project can take many years, but there may be quicker ways to do this using Tiny Homes or converting existing buildings. For a case study and resources, see here.
Seven kinds of community: you may get confused because the term community is used in different ways. For a simple guide, see here.
Ecovillages: these are larger, low-impact communities where people live, work, and play, in harmony with the Earth. Learn more via the Global Ecovillage Network: www.ecovillage.org. For a briefing on the Dorset Ecovillage project which I explored in 2003-2007, see here. Such a project could be a brilliant catalyst for positive change: I stopped my work on it because the planning authorities at the time were unsympathetic, and we did not have access to the scale of funds we needed.

Current Events

Faith, Hope, Resilience | Saturday November 9

A reflective day With Alan Heeks and Simon Lockett How can we find our steady centre in these uncertain times? Where do we place our faith and our hope? What would spiritual resilience look like, for us and our communities? This day of exploration and support will include times of prayer, meditation and sharing, with periods outside for walking contemplation as a micro pilgrimage, and for communing with Nature as a micro vision quest: recognising the power of space and silence. Our venue is Garn Farm, a conservation smallholding and woodland near Longtown, in a beautiful valley overlooking the Black Mountains. We’ll have a warm indoor group room with woodburner and kitchen, and wonderful spaces outside. See more at www.warmthandwonder.co.uk. Alan Heeks has many years’ experience exploring Nature and faith as sources of resilience, and is deeply interested in how communities can deepen to help us adapt to climate change. Simon Lockett is a pioneer in re-introducing pilgrimage to Herefordshire, and has a long-standing love for contemplative prayer and spiritual connection with the natural world. Practicalities Cost: £40, concessions £25. Bring lunch to share. Timing: Arrive 9.30am for 10am start. Finish 4.30pm. Venue: Garn Farm, near Clodock, Longtown, Herefordshire HR2 0PD. There is some overnight accommodation at Garn Farm: contact Alan about this. Bookings/enquiries: Contact Alan Heeks, , 07494 203014. Group size limited to 12 people.

Featured Blog

Nourishing body and soul

Reinventing spiritual community We live in a time of impending crisis, when I hear many people urging the need for sanctuary, hospicing, and a deeper sense of community. Implicit in such words, but rarely discussed, is the huge spiritual vacuum in our relentlessly materialistic society. Role models for what we need aren’t obvious, but I’d like to describe some of the spiritual communities which have inspired me. Walking the Camino San Benedetto in Italy for two weeks, I’ve learned what a crucial role monasteries played in the chaos of medieval Italy. Amid times of frequent civil strife, sickness and uncertainty, the monasteries were places of support, trust, stability. They would mediate in disputes, provide food and health care, and just as importantly, nourished the soul. Whilst there was some corruption in monasteries too, this shouldn’t blind us to the ways they mostly served. A Ricostruttori monastery One of the reasons I have found Jem Bendell’s Deep Adaptation approach so valuable is that he sees the climate crisis as a spiritual crisis: it calls into question the meaning and purpose of our lives, and asks us to face into our mortality. I’ve been exploring spiritual paths for 30 years, so I’m painfully aware of how original teachings have been distorted and overlaid by patriarchal religion, in Christianity and other faiths. Many people miss out because they confuse spirituality with religion, and reject both. One modern role model which may be relevant is the Findhorn Foundation: this is a spiritual community in Scotland where the main shared practices are silent meditation and connection with Nature. It’s an inclusive, welcoming place for people of all faiths and none. This was the approach we followed when six of us set up a ‘spiritual’ cohousing community in 2004, the Threshold Centre. Here’s another role model, also from Italy, which is a modern reinvention of the monastery as a welcoming spiritual community with a Christian core and an interfaith flavour. The Ricostruttori di Pace (Reconstructors of Peace) were founded in 1978 by a Jesuit priest, Father Cappelletto, who wanted to offer a spiritual path for young people, very different from mainstream Catholicism. He drew on Eastern spirituality through meditation, as well as devotional movement. A Ricostruttori monastery I have visited one of their 30 monasteries several times, and find it very inspiring. The Ricostruttori take on derelict rural buildings with land, restore them beautifully, grow much of their food, and practise crafts like stained glass and fine woodwork. My impression of the Ricostruttori is that they are living as Jesus lived: in poverty, simplicity, and close to the land. A typical monastery will have two or three ‘monks’, who have taken vows of poverty and chastity, and include men and women, plus a lay community of 20-30 people, mostly young, who may live there for weeks, months or years. In our current crisis times, I believe there’s a widespread thirst for spiritual meaning and purpose, but most people don’t know where to turn. Although there is a new monasticism movement, I believe that monasteries feel too remote, otherworldly, and formal for most people. Instead, I am exploring a vision to create a Searching Spirit Centre, which would be an accessible spiritual community to support people in their exploration, staying for a week to six months. See our vision statement here. If this vision appeals to you, and you’d like to help create it, please contact me.