Ecovillage Pathways 2018 - La Cité Écologique of New Hampshire This year’s gathering was hosted at La Cité Écologique of New Hampshire, an ecovillage with 35+ years and three generations of experience. Participants learned from the community’s alternative school, ecological businesses and hillside organic farm.
Present at the event were 30+ participants, ages ranging from 3 to 80 years old. Together they explored the emergent future of thriving community.
The first day of the event was focused on exploring intergenerational relations, with a facilitated dialogue and a video call with community movement elders from around the world. Elders from La Cité expressed tears of gratitude for feeling deeply seen as respected leaders of the community and sharing their burden of responsibility with the youth. The second day was organized using Open Space Technology to give participants an opportunity to share about their knowledge and passions.
"Movement building requires accumulative knowledge so that each younger generation doesn’t start at the square one again,” said participant Crystal who is creating Feminist Oasis, a community advancing equitable practices and building sustainable alternatives to systemic oppression. “The generational respect and honor for elders experience while remaining open for new universal shifts guided by the youth was very refreshing and inspiring to witness and be part of.”
Ecovillage Pathways organizers were able to offer significant scholarships to participants who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to attend the event, including a family with a three-year-old daughter hoping to start a community school in India. The organizers are starting to plan their 6th event and invite donations to make scholarships available for participants. Visit http://www.nextgenna.org/donate.html to support this initiative.
Youth Ecovillage Summit 2016 - La Cité Ecologique The third annual Youth Ecovillage Summit (YES) was held at La Cité Ecologique in the beautiful rural hills of Quebec, Canada, from June 9th to the 12th, 2016. Over 30 years ago, La Cité began as a summer camp for children. The youth saw that another way of life was possible and convinced their parents to join them. Today this "Green City" is the largest ecovillage in Canada, with its own school for village youth, several thriving ecologically minded businesses, and acres of organic food gardens. Given the community’s history and youth-focused mission that is strong to this day, it was the perfect location for YES. The setting was a continual reminder of what is possible when we come together with intention.
Click here to view the event page on our website or follow the button below to download a full report of YES 2016 as a PDF.
Youth Ecovillage Summit 2015 - Earthaven Ecovillage The second annual Youth Ecovillage Summit (YES) was held at Earthaven Ecovillage, near Asheville in North Carolina, from October 8th to the 11th, 2015. Under the colorful leaves of autumn in the mountains, this year’s YES participants came together from a diversity of places and backgrounds (some as far away as Texas, Costa Rica, and Brazil) to share in a weekend of powerful connection.
Click here to view the event page on our website or follow the button below to download a full report of YES 2015 as a PDF.
NextGEN NA presentation at La Cité 30th Anniversary On August 2014, NextGEN presented the ecovillage movement and the realizations of La Cité Écologique in the 4 filed of sustainability over the last 30 year. Also, during the presentation various inspiring project where represented featuring mostly Canadian initiative, but also international ones.
NextGEN NA YES Conference, April 2014 The first-ever Youth Ecovillage Summit (YES) in North America took place during the 24-27th of April 2014. The event was hosted by NextGEN and held at Sirius Community, a 35+ year-old ecovillage in Massachusetts, U.S.A. An educational event, the Summit brought together some of the most exciting activists, educators, and students inspired by the ecovillage as a place to live, learn, and share. Over forty individuals from across North America attended, including a dozen from Canada and two from as far away as California. Although a mixed group, the majority was comprised of our target audience of university students and twenty-somethings from the East Coast. The diversity helped conversations flourish around the dinner tables. In their evaluation forms, participants gave high reviews and all said they would like to attend a similar event in the future.
NextGEN NA at BISE d'Autonme 2013 On November 2013, NextGEN was invited to present the ecovillage La Cité Écologique during the seminar BISE d'Automne which received 125 students in Montreal. (The event was for french-speaking participants)