Windward

Windward’s Sustainable Community Apprenticeship

May be what you’re seeking!

Apprenticeship is a 3 month full immersion experience in a land-based intentional community working side-by-side with Stewards of the Windward community gaining practical, hands-on skills with the tools needed to build a life in concert with the natural world.

Apprenticeships are tailored to fit the desires and needs of Apprentices, Windward Stewards, and, if appropriate, academic advisors.

Sustainable systems are multi-faceted & diverse so Apprentices should be prepared to learn and participate in wide ranging projects and tasks while also choosing an area of focus for an in-depth learning experience. Areas of focus are co-created during the application process.

Areas of focus to explore include:

Who are we Looking For?

The challenges of our time are calling for those with courageous hearts, inquiring minds, skillful hands & wild souls. Apprenticeship are self-motivated, community-minded indivudal looking for an opportunity to:

• Co-create an ecologically resilient, and socially sustainable culture
• Engage in the deep learning that is only made possible when fully immersed in the experience of living in and creating sustainable community
• Face the challenges and reap the rewards of living closely with a small group of people committed to live rightly with one another and with nature
• Get their hands dirty while engaging in the life-long work of visioning, building, living in and enjoying a loving, intentional and ecologically conscious culture

In addition to a 3-month experience, a Windward Apprenticeship is also a two-way audition; a time for existing and prospective members to explore living in community together with an eye toward long-term membership.

If, as an apprentice, you find that this life is one that you want to pursue in earnest, and Windward Stewards agree it is a good match, you can proceed directly onto the path of stakeholding membership in the cooperative, building right-livelihood with the land and the community.

More Details

Windward is an expense-sharing cooperative. Our philosophy is simple: by coming together to meet our basic needs, we each have more time, energy, and money to pursue our individual passions.

Each member contributes $400 a month to a common purse. These funds are used to cover the basic collective costs, including food, water, shelter, internet, laundry, gardens and the living infrastructure of the land, and the improvement of community resources.

Like the long-term members, Apprentices are dues-contributing participants in the community/cooperative and contribute $400 a month to the common pool of funds used to cover basic costs of living.

Scholarships

Windward offers apprenticeship-scholarships to those individuals who manifest a strong desire to explore sustainable living and a commitment to use their time at Windward constructively.

If creating a life with Windward is something you deeply desire, we will try and work together to develop a win-win situation surrounding the context and payment of an apprenticeship. whether that be a full-ride scholarship or a partial financial-contribution as an apprentice.

Like a scholarship at a University, apprenticeship-scholarships come with more expectations than an ordinary apprenticeship. In general, our expectations of those on an intern-scholarship include:

Make a good faith commitment to stay the full three months.
Offering someone a scholarship entails the opportunity cost of us not being able to offer another person a scholarship. We hope that those on scholarship recognize the gift being offered to them, and have the courage and character to honor that gift by making the highest and best use of their time here.

However, if you come to feel that this isn’t working for you, we would rather you seek a path suited to your goals than remain here unhappy and unfulfilled in order to finish out an arbitrary amount of time. Similarly, if it becomes apparent that an intern is not taking this opportunity seriously or is not determined to make good use of the resources we offer, then we will ask that intern to seek a more suitable opportunity elsewhere, thereby making room for someone else.

Work on the Community’s priority projects.
Since the community is putting forward the funds to pay the scholarship, the community is going to decide what projects those funds are going to be invested in. Those on Scholarship generally take on a more broad-based work load, with more daily chores related to animal and plant care than other community members who are working on more specific projects.

Help others with their projects.
Windward is a small community, and we have a lot of projects going on simultaneously. For those partipants without

If, during the three months we decide to move forward together on a membership track, Windward’s Stewards will consider extending the intern-scholarship for up to a year so that we can mutually explore and develop funding options suited to your interests and skill set.

Resources About Windward

To help folks orient to life at Windward, we’ve put together some writings on the website:

Reading List – To help bridge the experience-gap between new folks, and Stewards who’ve been living the life for years, we’ve put together a concise list of relevant book that offer some core insights and discussion points that we can weave into your time here. The above section of the website contains links to thought-provoking quotes and discussion about how the books are relevant to what we’re doing.

Articles about Community Living, and Living with Nature – Consolidated thinking related to living in sustainable community, the philosophical underpinnings of what we do, how we approach a life in balance with nature, and what people can expect when entering into community. There are many topics to explore in the Essays.

Internship Experiences – Past Interns share about aspects of the time living at Windward.
We encourage you to weave your thoughts, feelings and impressions into your email conversations with us.

What Past Participant are Saying

“Whether I was able to garner a new insight, come to terms with something, or simply be able to release held up emotions, the conversations I have had with each member of Windward have been so influential, and vital, to my growth. I am so thankful for everyone’s love and support.”
Daniela Panfil, Arizona State University

“My time at Windward helped me to know in my bones the incredible connectedness and peace that can come from living in a natural setting, mindfully interacting with animals and plants on a daily basis and building healthy honest human relationships.”
Jon Cox, Florida

How to Apply

Apprenticeship applications are a conversational process which typically happens over the course of several weeks/months. Conversations may include multiple members of Windward depending on the particular interests of the applying apprentice.

Applications are accept on a rolling basis, and Apprentices may begin almost anytime between March and September.

Since we are going to be sharing our life and working closely for an extended period of time, we want to get to know you!

To begin send us an email at: Wind****@**rge.net, and include “PING!” in the subject line. Below are some subjects to think about answering in your introductory email.

• Where do you come from? both in general and specifically right now in life?
• Where do you want to go? What kinds of life trajectories are you already on?
• How does Windward fit into your big-picture plans?
• What is your Experience living in community and working with nature?
• What do you consider your strengths and weaknesses as it relates being an Windward Apprentice?
• What time-frame you are applying for? What months or season.
• Are you looking to apply for a apprenticeship-scholarship?
• Before you arrive, we will also need you to read and sign Windward’s Information sheet and liability waiver (PDF).

You can download it from the link above, print it out (doublesided if you can), fill it out, sign it, and mail it to us at:

Windward Center
55 Windward lane
Wahkiacus, WA 98670

We look forward to hearing from you!