Orientation
TO THE GOODENOUGH COMMUNITY
The story of any community begins in the lives of individuals and their relationships and very slowly becomes an organized social response to their own needs, intentions, and values. It was like that for the Goodenough Community.
For more than a decade a loosely knit group of friends, many of whom were professionals in a variety of human service fields, worked and played together. Then on the weekend of Jan. 10-12, 1981, 105 of these friends gathered at Pilgrim Firs Conference Center in Port Orchard, WA, to discuss the process of becoming formally a community.
The idea excited people enough that they moved immediately to incorporate as a non-profit corporation with a mandate to research, educate, and train people for active community involvement. This corporation, The American Association for the Furtherance of Community (AAFC), had a mandate to research, educate, and train. Its first project was to create a learning community.
Many people were studying the potential contributions of community to society, as well as identifying how a community could serve its members in practical ways. It was in the ferment of studying communities, old and modern, that a group of adherents called for the formation of a multi-generational, multi-residential community that would describe its vision, mission, and goals prior to considering extensive shared housing.
AAFC INITIATIVES
1
The development of a culturally oriented community of friends whose primary purpose is to develop themselves and improve their relationships under the guidance of the Goodenough Community System. This is The Goodenough Community.
2
A spiritual initiative that has deepened their lives and motivated them to support a church with its ongoing programs of spiritual guidance and general watchcare. This is Convocation: A Church and Ministry.
3
An initiative that values people living collaboratively and developing among themselves a quality of life that lifts their sights as to what is humanly possible. The challenge of the Goodenough Village Cooperative has provided valuable experience for forming additional close living groups. Thus, Sahale Learning Center is made up of ecologically informed persons who are demonstrating sustainability. We intend to be ecologically wise, preparing ourselves for social challenges and adjustments, while being spiritually open to being changed ourselves. We do this because we want to demonstrate a community in service to the greater good and to the larger society.