Residential Membership

Heathcote community welcomes caring, humble, communicative, open-minded, and reliable members. As a care farm, we extend the opportunity to heal, to become empowered, and to reconnect with the land and community to ourselves, not just workshop participants and visitors. Resident members are volunteer staff for our care farm and education center.

Persons interested in resident membership are asked to spend 21 days at Heathcote, with a day counted as spending at least 3 hours here. The majority of the 21-day visit must be completed over consecutive days. A schedule can be worked out between the applicant and community. Upon completion of their visit, anyone petitioning for membership is asked to attend a membership meeting to assess their stay and evaluate whether to move forward with joining. Visitors are asked to leave with their possessions after the initial visit days are completed. Potential non-resident members are asked to spend 7 days, followed by an end of visit interview. After the visit exit interview, a decision will be reached whether to offer provisional membership and residency, as well as terms of housing and possible contribution of time.

During your stay, we distinguish personal from shared items by keeping them in our rooms or clearly labeling them with our names.

Heathcote currently has 4 adult and 1 child resident members living on-site, and more than two dozen off-site non-resident members. We accept membership applications from individuals, families and groups. Group arrangements could include a small group of people that want to join our existing community. Heathcote is dedicated to an economically and socially just society, welcoming applications from all age, ethnic and economic backgrounds.

Many who have lived at Heathcote have had an interest in:

Arts and crafts
Agro-ecology practices applied through bio/organic methods, Permaculture and open-source alternatives, forest agriculture, forage gardening,
Health, nutrition, and well-being
Conflict resolution on a personal and global level
Non-profit development and fundraising, law and financial management
We also look for creativity, intelligence, and enthusiasm to learn or transmit new things, because your needs and ours will never stop changing!

Housing

For those interested in residential membership, space is currently available in two of our residential houses.

Membership

There are different levels of resident membership: Full Members participate in the social life of the community, serve on the board of directors, and take on staff responsibilities that may be actively involved with projects on the land. Full members are asked to work an average of 9.5 hours/week of unpaid community work hours. They usually live on-site in one of our three residential buildings. Nothing precludes members from buying or renting a home nearby. Full members pay a monthly pledge towards community expenses.

Resident Associate Members: Resident Associates have the same responsibilities as Full Members; However, they are not on the Board of Directors. Resident Associate Members become eligible for Full Membership after 12 months of Resident Associate Membership.

Your next steps:

There are several things you can do to learn more about Heathcote:

Connect:

We are on Facebook and Instagram

Visit:

You are welcome come for a visit to see the land and facilities, meet us, and informally discuss your ideas.

View:

Heathcote has prepared videos where past and current residents present an orientation to Heathcote and its history.

Exploring Membership With Us:

Let us know if you want to explore membership for yourself or your family.

Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Heathcote Community is committed to becoming a just and inclusive organization that is representative of a diverse global community. To that end, we are actively seeking new members from all groups, especially those traditionally or currently under-represented in our community and organizational out-reach.