Our History
The work of Center for Whole Communities began on the shoulders of many influential and courageous lives of the past half century. Our sense of justice and public service was taught to us by the life work of Chuck Matthei. Our commitment to equity and compassion has been inspired by Vine Deloria and Van Jones and through being witness to the truth of our own journeys. Our understanding of the collaboration between heart and mind is regularly rekindled by our memory of Dana Meadows. Our comprehension of how the land heals people, and of how people heal the land, was taught to us by Helen and Scott Nearing. Our belief in the power of right livelihood and democracy has been shaped by Bill Coperthwaite. Our faith in inspiration and beauty comes from Paul Winter. Our belief in the power of story comes from Thomas Berry and Arundhati Roy. Our faith in the transformative power of the land has been guided by Jeanette Armstrong, Linda Hogan and Wendell Berry. Our commitment to peace in this world through the love of one place comes to us from Gary Snyder.
Photograph by Melissa Nelson
The Vermont Land Trust had conserved this historic property, which had been farmed for over two centuries, so that it would not be subdivided and developed. But conservation alone would not keep Knoll Farm healthy. It needed a new vision, and sometimes a story finds the storyteller. In the Mad River Valley, a community of small farms, big mountains and deep woods has yielded to a landscape that struggles to hold it all together: population growth, paved roads, major subdivisions, tourism, vacation homes, and differences of opinion. As a humble response to this American story, Peter Forbes and Helen Whybrow, our co-founders, wanted to do more than just farm. They want to bring as many people as they could to Knoll Farm, to experience what it is to grow one's own food, to find the strength in one another to live in service to their own ideals and vision, and to re-kindle their purpose and passion.
In 2001, Peter and Helen invested every penny they had and bought Knoll Farm. In 2002 they launched Center for Whole Communities and began the first season of Whole Thinking Retreats that summer.
The first grant came from the Merck Family Fund of Boston, which enabled twenty leaders, some of whom devoted their lives to wilderness and others who loved working landscapes, to find common ground and shared courage. Scott Russell Sanders, Wendy Johnson, and John Elder were the early teachers who believed in the vision and lent us their good will and great skill. Their partnership, along with a founding board of directors of nine, launched Center for Whole Communities.
Our first staff member was Cara Robechek and critical early support came from Ann Day, Tom Johnson, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and Panta Rhea Foundation. We experimented with educational formats and types of retreats and settled into the Whole Thinking Retreat as our primary curriculum: by year three we were awarding almost fifty fellowships annually. That year we also launched our other two programs -- the Whole Thinking Workshops and Whole Measures -- and Peter and Helen started getting paid.
In year four, we added two more staff and convened our first retreat away from Knoll Farm, at the Penn Center in South Carolina. We adopted an organizational statement on race, power and privilege
and began an intentional transition in governance from the founding board to a governing board, thereby opening the control of the organization and expanding its reach.
In 2007, the vision for our work continues to grow more solid and mature. Our retreats and workshops are held for nine weeks in the summer at Knoll Farm and can be found the rest of the year in the Rocky Mountains, on the west coast, and in the Pacific Northwest. There are now 14 regional and national foundations, along with more than 200 individual donors, who make this work possible. As a result, in 2007, we will award more than 160 fellowships to our programs, which will build upon an existing alumni from almost every state and more than 230 organizations.