We dream of a good life for everybody – We dream of a region in change

As young people that are aware of the challenges and global crisis of our time, we yearn for a fairer, more beautiful and free world, to which everybody will have equal access. We are looking for ways to respond to the necessity of system change with our actions. This yearning leads us to the question, that is forgotten much too often: It’s the question of utopia. Which patterns have led us here and how can we change them? What could the world look like in our most daring imaginations? How would it feel, sound, smell, taste? How would our children ask us to live?

How would this way of life look like in a region?

When we ask ourselves this question, our minds start painting images. And we contemplate these images on four different levels of communal living in society.

Societal

An inclusive, participatory and transparent form of self-organization emerges. Everyone who is affected by a decision has the most possible direct influence on them. In doing so, we also want to practice taking into account the needs of future human and non-human generations. Together we care for equal access of all to a holistic education, health insurance and other resources. We live in a network of community to which all people can be part of in their own way and we celebrate their diversity. We are aware which structures of discrimination and exclusion have shaped our society and still do. We reflect on them, with the aim to dismantle them.

Ecology

Many minds and hands are working to mitigate the created damage that has been done to our ecosystem to transform them into rich habitats of biodiversity. We are looking onto colorfully stocked fields and forest gardens on which people are chatting to one another, while they harvest the food for themselves and their neighbors. For mobility, we’re sharing our cars and revitalize the train stations. Our vehicles and houses are fueled by solar energy rather than oil. The resources of the earth are handled in a regenerative way and our consumption leaves a valuable contribution for the natural cycles.

Economy

We practice a collective economy together rather than against each other, in shifting the focus onto the common wellbeing instead of private profit and pointless growth. People organize their occupations on the basis of voluntariness and responsibility, balanced between desire and necessity. We can follow what we’re passionate about and with that we contribute a valuable part to society. We also value caregiving and reproductive work. We’ll create commons, collective businesses that we manage ourselves. We’ll work together for equal access to resources that we distribute based on needs, so that there is enough for everybody.

Culture

Together, we’re leaning to better listen to each other and have more time for the youngest as well as the oldest of our community again. In relationships with ourselves and others, we practice empathy and consideration, self-determination, methods of conflict resolution, the appreciation of diversity and also set boundaries for its protection. We occupy ourselves with the old and invent new things. We strengthen our mindfulness for discrimination and privilege. We are committed to work for non-violence for all life in acknowledgment that it is a privilege to change in a non-violent way.

These pictures keep us moving, give us strength and motivation to make them a reality. For that, we want to come together in a region to ask the people there what they wish for in order to build communal structures of solidarity. It’s our wish to weave regional networks of transformation with many small projects, communities and households to achieve grassroots system change. We want to find out how we can stand in relation to the world with our change here in the region and include and think about the global circumstances of the world.

Luckily, many things already exist on all of these levels on which we want to build on and develop further! From solidary agriculture, permaculture, agroforestry, community gardens and reforestation, from commons structures, communal economies, cost-free shops and open workshops, to neighborly encounters, citizen’s assemblies, non-violent communication, sociocracy and much more. The wealth of ideas and possibilities is great and, full of thirst for action, we can’t wait to start realizing them.

At the same time, we want to pause and listen, research and discuss, begin and try, fail and begin again. It is important for us to keep reflecting whilst doing all this because we know that we don’t yet know many things and will only learn most of it during the process. We can go in the direction of our ideas, in full acknowledgment that there are many different paths of transformation to walk and that all of them have their own legitimacy.

What happened so far

On October 1st, 2020, we, 12 young people from different backgrounds, moved into the beautiful Fuchsmühle (Fox mill) at the edge of the town Waldkappel. Until February 2021, we committed ourselves to a “Prototype” – a time, in which we will practice living and working communally. During this time period, we want to build a solid foundation to become active in this region and to build a long-lasting community. We’re also getting to know more and more people from Waldkappel and are very grateful for the warm and friendly welcome and support that we receive from them. Also, we are currently connecting with different actors from the region. Until February 2021 we have time to create the legal and financial conditions for us to buy the Fuchsmühle as a starting point for our work in the region. For that cause, we just started a cooperative. It is also the legal framework to acquire more houses in which people can live in self-management and under long-term fair conditions. The cooperative can also acquire agricultural and forestry fields and buildings in which people can be active on a voluntary and needs-orientated basis. We also founded an association for our non-profit work and projects. With it, we can for example implement participation processes, cost-free shops, nature conservation projects, educational work and many more projects. That’s how a network of community and solidarity can emerge in which many people can be part of in their own ways.

You would like to be part of the region in change? You would like to move here, with your family, affinity group, community or alone? You would like to participate from a far? You would like to support us with your knowledge, capabilities or perspectives? You have your own projects in mind that fit to the idea of region in change and you would like to realize them with our community, association and our solidarity? You would like to build networks and bonds? You need a space to recover from experiences of discrimination or your activism? You need a space for the self-organization of a group? Then write to us at: regionimwandel@riseup.net

We’re excited to hear from you!