Description

Building Sustainable Communities with Yana Ludwig

Building Belonging, Together Resilient, The Cooperative Culture Handbook

by Yana Ludwig (and Karen Gimnig)

For many people exploring intentional community, it is not just about the social fabric or the economic benefits. We also create and nurture community for the care of the earth.

Building sustainable communities is something author Yana Ludwig knows a lot about. And her compilation of publications takes you on that journey from examples to exercises to step-by-step advice toward building your own sustainable community. 

Together Resilient (2017) examines with real examples of how intentional communities are modeling low-carbon lifestyles and action-oriented living. This book is a great entry into the intentional community movement or inspiration to stay on the path.

The Cooperative Culture Handbook (2020) is the follow-up guide with 52 exercises for groups to effectively problem solve and work together towards a more just and healthy culture. This handbook will give you the tools to effectively move toward tangible solutions.

Building Belonging: Your Guide to Starting a Residential Intentional Community (2023) is both a practical guide for how to start a residential intentional community and a collective framework for addressing the racial, social, ecological and economic disparities affecting all aspects of the living experience for humans, land, and its co-inhabitants.

Together Resilient:

Building Community in the Age of Climate Disruption

Real hope comes from looking unflinchingly at our current circumstances and then committing wholeheartedly to creative action. Never has that been more urgently needed than right now, with the climate crisis looming larger every day.

Together Resilient is a book that advocates for citizen-led, community-based action first and foremost: why wait for the government when you can take action today, with your neighbors?

From small solutions to the full re-invention of the systems we find ourselves in, this book mixes anecdote with data-based research to bring you a wide range of options that all embody compassion, creativity, and cooperation.

Together Resilient looks at intentional community as a model for a low carbon future. While looking realistically at the state of the world and the realities of climate disruption, it finds hope in examples of communities that already live high quality lives that the planet can sustain.

It also looks at community as an essential element for surviving the coming (and already present) changes with more resilience and grace, and offers concrete examples of building community as a tool for reducing carbon emissions, outside the context of residential intentional communities.

Cooperative Culture Handbook:

A Social Change Manual to Dismantle Toxic Culture & Build Connection

by Yana Ludwig and Karen Gimnig

Cooperative groups are our best hope for addressing climate disruption, racism, poverty, homelessness, oppression and even pandemics. The good news is that groups form every day to address these issues. The bad news is that they struggle with conflict, gridlock, power battles, and falling participation.

In short, we lack the skills to convert our passion and intelligence into effective action.

With 52 transformative group and individual exercises, here’s a practical toolkit for groups to solve problems, build community, and change culture towards greater empathy and authenticity. This is an essential resource for leaders, facilitators and changemakers to develop core practices in discernment, curiosity, communication and engagement.

Building Belonging:

Your Guide to Starting a Residential Intentional Community

 Building Belonging is both a practical guide for how to start a residential intentional community and a collective framework for addressing the racial, social, ecological and economic disparities affecting all aspects of the living experience for humans, land, and its co-inhabitants.

It offers an unprecedented perspective to creating intentional community that speaks directly to the reader who wants collective answers and who sees the deep benefit of community living as a key piece to addressing systemic issues.

Author Yana Ludwig brings wisdom and perspective from 25 years of intentional community experience and many years of training founders in starting intentional community. It is a give-back to the movement that nurtured Yana’s personal and professional growth for all those years,  transforming her knowledge into a practical and honest guide unlike any other, uniquely built for its time. 

The dream to create a more whole and connected life is one that awakens in people of all walks of life, with various histories and levels of access to land and wealth. The yearning to belong to a place and a people could be said to be inherent in our very nature. 

About The Author: Yana Ludwig

Yana has 25 years of cooperative living experience, including four community start-ups. She served for over a decade on the Board of the Foundation for Intentional Community, and as a trainer, facilitator, and consultant for progressive projects since 2005. Yana is co-author of The Cooperative Culture Handbook: A Social Change Manual to Dismantle Toxic Culture and Build Connection and author of Together Resilient: Building Community in the Age of Climate Disruption, which won the 2017 Communal Studies Association Book of the Year Award.

Yana’s 2013 TEDx talk, Sustainable is Possible! (And it doesn’t suck…) kicked off an era for her as a public speaker and advocate for communities. She is a founding member of the Solidarity Collective, an income sharing community in Laramie, WY. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the North Coast Food Web in Astoria OR, where she lives with her partner, Matt Stannard, and a very large dog.

Find out more about Yana on her website: https://www.yanaludwig.net/