By Sumara Love

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to take a workshop with Colette Hoff at the annual Women of Wisdom conference in Seattle this year.  She is one of the founding members and administrators of the Goodenough Community, which has incorporated as the American Association for the Furtherance of Community. The  community's purpose is to collaborate with other communities to inspire culturally creative people to grace the world with hope and sustain a common faith in humanity, as well as to share their vision of a Village without Walls.

Colette, in the WOW Community workshop you spoke about the events in your life that led you to creating a community of your own. Could you please share with our readers what those experiences were?

My dad was one of the first paraplegics discharged from World War II and he became instrumental in supporting other disabled veterans. He developed a community among the disabled for mutual support and provided leadership to several organizations. My mother was also involved with the wives of these vets and was instrumental in creating family experiences. So I grew up with a sense of community.

Girl scouting provided another form of community. I was active through high school and appreciated the value of learning and developing myself. Each summer at Girl Scout camp, with other counselors, I experienced the shared purpose of providing stimulating, growthful adventures for the campers and we formed community among the staff for the campers. I enjoyed watching the children grow and change within two weeks, not only from activities, but form the relationships that grew among them.

In 1977, I attended a human relations laboratory that was transformational for me. It was sponsored by an organization called Human Alternatives Northwest and grew out of the human potential movement. Experiential learning was the method of learning with both large and small group process, focusing on the skills of intimacy The approach was exciting. Each year a group of people came together in a laboratory setting to literally create a community and shape it to meet their needs and interests. We were learning to create the experiences to learn from and to practice new skills. It was an exciting educational format that held me responsible to learn what I needed from the experiences I participated in. I knew then that this was the culture that I needed for my own development. I might add that the director of the lab became a friend, a companion and eventually my husband. Twenty-seven years later, we are still developing community wherever we can.

Entering its 35^th year, this year the human relations laboratory has the theme: Your Life as a Story of Goodwill. The theme will help participants recognize the goodness that has animated their life story. To quote the brochure:

“People shouldn’t have to wait for their own funeral to know what a good person they have become. The theme of this lab - your life as a story of good will – is intended to help you see your good intentions back through your life and thereby claim the person you are becoming. This is the third year in which this event has gathered storytellers to create unusual opportunities for people to write, sing, dance, dramatize, sculpt and draw their life stories. Our purpose is to help each other learn from our stories, even as we tell them.

The transpersonal perspective of the program staff means that you will be learning not only about your self, but also about your relationships and the importance of right attitude. The experiments and experiences we build collectively will lead us to a place no one of us could reach alone, a week of feeling more and more at home and empowered.”

25 years ago you and your husband started the Goodenough Community in Seattle, WA. How did that come about?

As the human relations laboratory continued, people naturally began to form meaningful relationships, live and work together and provide practical friendship to each other. We also found that people needed more than one event per year to help them continue to grow and develop. The desire to organize became strong and with the vision of my husband, John Hoff, a pastoral counselor and organizational development specialist with training from the National Training Laboratories, we formally incorporated the American Association for the Furtherance of Community. The name Goodenough Community became the familiar name of this group of people. The term “Goodenough” came out of the work of psychologist, D.W. Winnicott, whose work with children and parents after the war in England, realized that children need goodenough parents to be goodenough children. We value the non-judgmental attitude of being goodenough.

The following statement about the Goodenough Community was prepared for the Intentional Communities International Directory, a project of the Fellowship of Intentional Communities. It provides a history of the community and gives a description of the current focus. The community covenant which is foundational to relationship among members is found at the end of this statement.

The Goodenough Community is a 30 year old intentional community. It was formed by a group of friends who wished to show the value of community in helping people mature, form healthy and lasting relationships, and learn and practice the skills of leadership and membership necessary for any group wishing to make a contribution to the greater good. It is a demonstration of how living in community can both transform individual lives and bring about social change. The community has a strong interfaith spiritual core, following the Perennial Wisdom.

The Goodenough Community was formally created as the first demonstration project of the American Association for the Furtherance of Community (incorporated 1981). This non-profit educational organization traces its beginnings to 1970, where it began as collaboration among leaders of the human potential movement in the Northwest. For many years its primary expression was an annual human relations laboratory that gathered people together to grow, learn, and play (now in its 36th year – August 14-20, 2005). For a week each summer, people experienced a way of life based on freedom, respect, and the value of personal growth. Over time they sought a way to continue that experience throughout the year. They discovered that a network of like-minded friends and colleagues was essential for sustaining an authentically improving life. Thus the Goodenough Community came into being. (Other projects of the Association include Convocation: a Church and Ministry (incorporated 1987), the Private School for Human Development (founded 1986), the Northwest Center for the Living Arts (founded 2003) and the Village Without Walls, a collaborative venture with other communities, whose website is www.aboutcommunity.org.)

The Goodenough Community is a multi-generational, multi-residential membership community with 25 adult full members. It serves 100 – 200 individuals and families throughout each year with programs, cultural events, retreats and daily living. The community has always intended to be both a caring, healing environment and a learning/training laboratory. The community is now seeking like-minded people to join the efforts of an intentional demonstration community—an on-going human relations laboratory for developing knowledge about community and about training leadership in service to communities. Many people have shared life with us--sometimes for years at a time—and have begun other communities or are active in the communitarian movement.

In 2001, retreat property was acquired in Mason County, less than 2 hours west of Seattle. Sahale Learning Center is shared by all members and families. It is also used for retreats and workshops for other like minded organizations. Sahale is on 65 acres of cultivated and forested land, with a river, orchards, wide vistas, and an abundance of wild life. Internships are available for both the land stewardship program at Sahale and for the work of the community “in-town”, in Seattle.

Members of the community, some already living together in residences in Seattle, are seeking to form a larger shared living residence in the Seattle area. They have engaged in several years of development work in seeking the right property for shared multi-generational residence.

The Goodenough Community offers consultation services to other communities, co-housing groups, and other groups forming around a shared purpose. Consultants are trained and experienced leaders and teachers who have studied community organization and group dynamics for decades, both as members and leaders in the Goodenough Community and in their professional lives. For more information, call the community office.

Our covenant expresses our sincere longing to live, learn, and relate well together:

Our Covenant:

As a member of the Goodenough Community, I commit to being the best version of myself:

By entering fully into life’s experiences;

By giving my self fully to the process of transformation through the expression of love;

By trusting the good intentions of each one of us;

By relating to others with respect and acceptance;

By making and keeping agreements with great care;

By being constant through conflict;

By honoring leadership in others as a method to develop the leader in myself;

By taking responsibility for my unique and significant role in the world;

By acknowledging the inner and interconnectedness of all creation, thus being safe and at home in the universe.

So be it!

Having lived in a community, what would you say are the benefits that you have experienced personally?

Community living has challenged my growth and development as a human being and as a woman. It has provided a context to develop and practice leadership skills, facilitation skills, as well as spiritual development. It has given me an outlet for creativity in various forms and helped me learn the value of being related to a group of people over a lifetime. My husband and I have had the privilege of serving our couples culture. The Conscious Couples Network offers support and mutual learning for married couples in the community. Our community has also helped my 23-year old daughter have a safe container for her growth. She had the sense of a village supporting her becoming. Through the women’s culture, I have embraced feminine spirituality as my core beliefs, utilizing the goddess tradition and mythology to enrich learning and expression.

What are the mechanics of your community? What makes it work?

          Our community is governed by a Council of 17 leaders, who each have a specific role and area of responsibility. Considered a learning game, the Game of Goodenough, provides four quadrants:

• Dream: The focus of this are is the future. They hold the long-range vision for the community dreams. They are also responsible for outreach and marketing. The business of the Association is managed by this group.

• Resources: These leaders focus on providing orientation and training, put teams together for effective working together, and ensure the work environment is safe and pleasant. Educational offerings and curriculum development is handled here as well as coordination of gender cultures, family and couples culture and developmental groups for 25 to 40 year olds as well as the third age for people over 55.

• Implementation: This group provides the implementation of projects, after researching the best method of approach. The financial life of the community is handled in this quadrant.

• Quality Assurance: The focus here is on evaluation. The question: has the result met the original goals for the project, course, or process is answered by the work of these people. The spiritual life of the community is also a focus for this quadrant.

What is your mission and what are your goals as a community?

Our Mission

The mission of The American Association for the Furtherance of Community and the two divisions it does business as: The Goodenough Community and The Northwest Center for the Living Arts, is to provide a living system of persons, programs, and organizations—an intentional, multi-residential, multi-generational community. Together, our lives reflect an experiment in social creativity emboldened by our courage and skills. We are a living demonstration of:

• A methodology of culture and lifeways that encourage awakening, learning, human development, and personal and social transformation.

• A social contract, or covenant, that balances individual initiative with consensual democracy.

• A Center for the Living Arts that provides brief, focused learning experiences for individuals, couples, and families in order to develop gracefulness and artistry in daily living. The Northwest Center’s first programs were offered in the spring of 2004.

• A formal collaboration with other communities, co-housing groups, and people living in shared housing by choosing to live with them in our shared vision of a Village Without Walls. The membership of the Association is committed to making a difference in society

The current goals include:

Sustainability: Super-Intending Our Future

          Objectives for this goal include:

• A sound organization

• Orientation and training in membership-as-citizenship

• Positive contributions to society and the communitarian movement

• Ecological awareness and action

• Joining like-minded individuals, organizations, and movements; for example, web site linkages, and peace efforts.

Resource Development: Super-Intending Our Resources

          Objectives of this goal include:

• The people of the Village and the people we serve as our greatest resource

• Revenue producing services, facilities, and marketable products

• Educational programs and workshops

• Acquisition of facilities to meet our mission

• Fundraising

• Marketing and public relations.

Demonstration: Super-Intending an Intentional and Fulfilled Life

          Several demonstrations will be engaged soon or will unfold over the next few years. These include:

1. Human relations Laboratory, 2005

2. marketing Sahale Learning Center

3. Fundraising

4. Village publications-web sites including a new one called aboutcommunity.org intended to be an on-line news journal serving the communitarian movement.

Service: Super-Intending Our Lives

The objectives for this goal include:

• Effective service in relationship

• Providing pastoral care to members and friends

• Facilitating the expressing lifeswork

• Proclaiming our Teachers and their teaching

• Participating in the world at large, for example the peace movement

• Outreach

If someone would like to start a community, where would they begin?

Starting a community requires a bonded relationship among the people who are intending to join together. Few people are prepared for the rigors of community life.

Is there some kind of community network to bring communities together?

The fellowship of Intentional Communities (www.ic.org) offers such a network.

In a nutshell, what are the five most important components to having a successful community?

1. The commitment to human development and mental health

2. The value of relationship and developing relational skills

3. The importance of leadership and leadership training

4. Agreed upon process for making decisions, resolving conflict, ensuring standards are maintained.

5. A covenant to provide the basis of connection and improvement.

Any closing comments?

Thank you for this opportunity. Members of the Goodenough Community are available for consultation to developing groups who want to form community.

Our Organizations:

The American Association

for the Furtherance of Community

The Goodenough Community

The Northwest Center for the Living Arts

The Village without Walls

2007 33rd Avenue South

Seattle, WA 98144

206/323-4653

www.goodenough.org

E-mail: goodenough@aboutcommunity.org