We’ve had two responsibilities at Knoll Farm: to refine our skills at building soil and growing food for others, and to do the same around our commitment to social justice and reciprocity that we express through radical hospitality here at the farm and what grows from that into efforts all over this country. We call this Making Refuge, a life’s work that arises from our values and purpose. Making Refuge is our long-term commitment to a making a healthy homestead, sharing it openly with others to build relationships across difference, and then to nurture the work that blossoms elsewhere as a result.

Every year, we have brought cohorts of people doing important social and environmental change work together at Knoll Farm. For the first 12 years, we focused that intention through the organization we created called Center for Whole Communities, and the offering was focused on cultural change: in bringing together people who care for the earth with people who care for our communities, we hoped to close the gap in understanding between the two. That work helped to nurture a generation of leaders who could bring conservation and social justice together. We helped birth an innovative curriculum based on systems-thinking, inclusion, and working across difference.

There are many ways that the convenings at Knoll Farm have led directly to courageous change-making efforts in places around our country. Our collaboration in land justice in Maine called First Light is a current great example.

The last of those retreats at Knoll Farm occurred in 2015, just as our nation was beginning to understand the gravity of political choices we would face in the presidential election.  Dozens of alumni returned that summer to help us build the Water Temple in honor of our departed friend and mentor, Bill Coperthwaite. It was a time of looking back, searching, beginning to build something new. For many reasons, the 2016 presidential election was an inflection point. We were strongly aware of an even more divided nation. What took shape initially was a simple offering of time to our alumni and their colleagues– to remember and restore one’s long work, and take time to pursue individual projects.  The concept was not to teach or train, but to support people already on their journey. Out of that intuition was born the Better Selves Fellowship, which is growing stronger each year.

In addition to hosting our Better Selves Fellowship program, Knoll Farm continues to host other groups like the ACLU, Academy for Change, 350.org, National Parks Conservation Association and many other institutions leading the way for change in their respective fields.  These trips and retreats at Knoll Farm are valuable learning experiences in their own right, but they also contribute significantly to the over-all financial stability of the farm to be a place of learning and change-making.