In 2009, Ann Kreilkamp bought the house next door to hers because it had a large sunny lawn. Over the next two years, the lawn was converted to a permaculture garden via workshops with permaculture teachers and neighborhood involvement. Both houses now hold three people each, two young people in their 20s, and one old woman in her 60s, one in her 70s. The young and old need each other and are learning from each other. Over the last year, the garden itself has become a subset of community, partly due to weekly Community Dinners that are offered free to all. As the village atmosphere grows, the people are beginning to move into the area because they want to participate in this new template for suburban living.

Green Acres Village is well known to the city of Bloomington, and we consider the nurturing of relationships with city officials to be an important aspect of our work as permaculturists. We are also extremely interested in intergenerational connections, especially given that most young people are saddled with debt and old people have most of the money. How can we join forces to regenerate our communities? Green Acres Village offers one template for doing exactly that. We work for the regeneration of society and Earth on many levels — social, cultural, psychological, physical, and environmental. We encourage each other to discover and integrate our own “shadow” material so that we do not unconsciously spew it onto others. We recognize our project as an experiment in human living, and evolve as we go.

Presented By: Ann Kreilkamp

2016 Convergence Workshop: The Evolution of Green Acres Urban Village