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Project Overview
We are Katy and Kyle Chandler-Isacksen and the Be the Change Project is part of an international movement dedicated to the upliftment of all beings. Its mission is to promote deep connections within ourselves, with each other, nature, and spirit to awaken to our true nature, which we believe is love. This is done through five practices:
- Radical Simplicity
- Service
- Inner Work
- Nonviolent Social and Political Activism
- Honoring Nature
The Be the Change Project will be an urban homestead devoted to family learning and service in a low-income neighborhood in the heart of Reno, Nevada. It will be an open and welcoming community space offering classes & workshops, family support, and a place to connect with nature and our higher selves. The electricity and car-free sanctuary will be an organic micro-farm, act as a Permaculture & Natural Building demonstration site, and host the regional headquarters of the Bicycling Superheroes service group. It will grow into a multi-generational Free-University and Free-School, sharing the power and challenge of Gandhian non-violence and radical simplicity with the globe. In alignment with our mission, Be the Change will be wholly operated on the Gift Economy, with everything offered freely in a spirit of gratitude and celebration.
We are currently looking for land to be the home
for the project. Our ideal plot would be a half acre or more, in a
bike-able and low-income neighborhood, near open natural space, and free or very
inexpensive (under $50K) so we can be debt-free to do the work to which we feel
called. We are currently raising $55,000 towards the purchase of land and
structures. In under two weeks we have raised nearly $38,000!
The Be the Change Project is inspired by our friends and teachers at the
Possibility Alliance in northeast Missouri, Jane Addams Hull House in Chicago,
and the Catholic Worker Movement.
We believe a better world is possible. And, we know that with spirit, love, and support, each of us can be the change we wish to see in the world.
Our Story
For us, this effort is the culmination of nearly 15 years of work, study, and exploration, and its a full expression of our life and ideals.
We are former middle and high school teachers who spent ten years working with young people and being inspired by the love and heroic efforts of many great teachers while equally disappointed by the failures of a system that supports our unsustainable and unjust culture. After receiving a $150,000 grant to start a middle school and creating what we felt was a powerful community-and project-based program, we found that even this model was mired in many of the same systemic failures. Around the same time, we worked as political organizers in 2004, and again, despite the amazing work and inspiring intentions, the game of politics left us totally dispirited.
In 2007, we walked away. We quit our teaching jobs, we moved out of our house and into a 200 sq foot strawbale cabin with our two young sons, we became war tax resisters, we gave away most of our possessions, we disconnected from news and media, and began the process of recreating our lives and rediscovering our deep connections to nature and spirit. In the last four years weve apprenticed, studied, and gained new skills and passions in permaculture, gardening, radical simplicity, and natural building. We aligned our family's lifestyle with our values of justice, fair-share, and connection to nature and spirit.
But something was missing. We were
happy with our own lives, but felt disconnected from the broader society and
unsure how to participate and make a difference. We left Reno
in search of a vision to give our lives to.
After an amazing 6-month natural building apprenticeship and learning
about unschooling at House Alive in Oregon,
we moved on to the Possibility Alliance in Northeast Missouri.
We found it! The Possibility Alliance
has created an integrated vision of how to authentically live our values and
contribute to the upliftment of all beings (ourselves included). The PA is a community dedicated to service
and Gandhian Nonviolence and is leading the effort of generating a radically
different America.
We lived and learned there for six months and then discovered the similar but
urban models embodied in the Catholic Worker Movement. When someone asked, What would you do if you
knew you couldnt fail? We answered (much to our surprise) with, Wed start
an urban project in Reno! It was time to go home and rejoin our friends
and family and create the Be The Change Project. Inspired by the Possibility Alliance, the
Catholic Worker Movement, and Jane Addams Hull House, we were ready.
The Impact
Over 1200 people visit the Possibility Alliance each year. They leave inspired, shaken out of their smallness, ready to change their lives and give their energy to big work. They create amazing projects like an urban house and farm in inner city Kansas City and a Peace and Permaculture University. 1200 people a year...with no promotion...and they're in LaPlata, Missouri!
The Reno area is home to 300,000 people and California is only 12 miles away. We're on Amtrak and Interstate 80. Reno is a destination (a strange one at times, but still a destination - like the Burners headed to the Black Rock Desert and Burning Man who migrate here in droves at the end of every summer). We know if we build it they will come. We know that an urban homestead where Permaculture, integral nonviolence, and natural building is lived and taught; where service is a daily act; where at night, the soft glow from beeswax candles shows smiling faces gathered around a table sharing stories, music and dreams, will be irresistible.
We are creating a new culture in the shell of the old. We believe a better world is possible. And, we know that with spirit, love, and support, each of us can be the change we wish to see in the world.
Help us make it so.
What We Need & What You Get
With IndieGoGo we are looking to raise at least $8,000 as part of our $55,000 fund raising campaign.
Your donation is worth twice as much! We have a donor who is willing to match every donation up to $20,000! If we succeed in raising more than $55K in donations and no-interest loans then he will add more money to the pot.
In terms of perks, for every donation above $25 you'll get copy of our kids book titled, "Snakes Wear Socks". It's a fun story about missing socks and cold-blooded critters for kids ages 3 and up. It's being published by Martin Pearl Publishing and due out in November (sorry for the wait).
$50 gets you an organic cotton FARMY shirt. Says FARMY, looks like ARMY. They get lots of happy comments.
$200 brings the award-winning documentary film , "The Perfect Cappuccino" into your world.
$500 Mega Change Maker gets you the shirt, the book, the film, and our undying gratitude.
A donation of $1000 or more gets you a cob oven built by Cobitat
for Humanity! Cob is a mix of clay, sand, and straw (somewhat like
adobe) and a cob oven means home-baked bread and bring-a-topping pizza parties
all year long. See the perks for
details. Or, you can get all the other perks and our undying gratitude.
Other Ways You Can Help
Spread the word and use the share tools of IndieGoGo.
For tax deductible donations, make checks out to "The Rainshadow Foundation" with "Be the Change Project" on the subject line. Mail these to 541 Sunnyside Drive, Reno, NV 89503.
As Mother Theresa used to say, Come and See! Once we purchase the property, there will be plenty of fun, sweaty work, community service, and sharing of dreams and meals to be had.
Some math: We can reach $40K with only 200 donors each contributing $100 (with the $20K match).
