Manual for Starting and Operating a Sustainable Community
All communities are created with the best of intentions. Nobody wishes for their community to fail. However, even if a community is based on amazing philosophies and ideas, it can still destroy itself over little details like day-to-day operations, financial issues, and of course, personality clashes.
We offer a community development manual based on the 14-year success of the Pre-Volcano Hedonisia Hawaii Intentional Community.
If you want to start a community by yourself and just need guidance, you can purchase access to the Hedonisia Handbook and Yin-Yang Entrepreneur ebooks. These evolving and living ebooks were the philosophical foundation for the Hedonisia Hawaii Community. Principles can be applied to any intentional community.
Though our community was destroyed by the 2018 Kilauea volcanic eruption, the lessons we learned on how to Live in a Community in the city or the country. Since our founding in 2004, we developed practices that created harmony among members at Hedonisia while running a profitable eco-community.
To create a sustainable community or business is a great challenge. These guidelines can be applied to any community. The issues we face are shared by many small communities around the world.
To be truly sustainable, an intentional community must be economically viable. Ideally, it should generate enough income from activities aligned with community values to grow and evolve. For example, the Hedonisia community funding is based on ecotourism and social entrepreneur projects with a focus on women’s issues.
Topics covered in the Hedonisia Handbook
- Community of Individuals
- Property Project Management
- Introduction to Social Enterprise
- Sustainable Community OverviewCommunity Safety & Security
- Hedonisia Eco-Practices
- Ethical PR & Human Relations
- ‘Black Hat’, ‘Grey Hat’ and ‘White Hat’ characters
- Sustainable Community Management Guidelines
- Working with Intern Community Manager Team Members
The Hedonisia Handbook applies to a community in the country or the city.
The Hedonisia Handbook is an online resource only as it is continually updated. Here is a movie made about our community three years before the eruption. It describes the joys and challenges of living in an intentional community:
Through hard work and experimentation, we developed a practical set of guidelines to evolve and grow over the years into an ecotourist and ecofeminist community. This ebook is for those who wish to create an urban ‘micro-community’ in the city or an eco-community in the country.
Following the example of Mother Nature, we believe that continual evolution is the only way for a social enterprise to grow as it faces new challenges. So this is not a “static” ebook. As long as you are a member you will see updates.
Hedonisia Community Entrepreneur Member Access
For those who wish to start a business or a community aligned with their values, become a member where you can learn from our lived experience and research.
Sign up as a Hedonisia Community Entrepreneur Member and receive access to:
- Hedonisia Handbook on Sustainable Community Management. Our community may be lost to the volcano but we preserved our entire training materials and manuals.
- BONUS: Yin-Yang Entrepreneur. How to create a business that works with the political system to promote a social, or environmental cause.
