What We Do: Self-Directed Recreation (SDR) Program for Homeschoolers
If you homeschool or are interested in homeschooling, take a look at our drop-off Self-Directed Recreation program on Mondays through Wednesdays, from 10:00–3:00. Click below for more details!
Current Focus: A Regenerative Co-Op Garden
Our vision for the future is very large in scope, but the first step for getting there is simple: Work together to cooperatively tend a garden that both gives back to the community tending it while also giving new life to the soil that so desperately needs it.
Communitas is for you if you can check any of these boxes...
- You’re looking for a place where kids (and adults alike) can freely discover and pursue their interests and passions.
- You're looking for a place in which your kids are free to become the fullest versions of themselves.
- You’re tired of doing the homeschooling alone and are looking for a supportive community.
- You're looking for community built around cooperation, social justice, and equity.
One of our explicit goals is to make self-directed learning opportunities accessible to groups of people who have historically been underrepresented in homeschooling spaces. This includes BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled people, immigrant, refugee, low-income, rural families, and other groups facing systemic inequity. Our focus on liberatory and anti-oppressive approaches to youth programs seeks to create a space in which we can all thrive alongside one another as we co-create this community. Our tuition structure and scholarships are also designed to be financially accessible – please let us know if you have any questions at all or any concerns regarding affordability.
If this sort of learning community is of interest to you and your family, please reach out to us or join our mailing list (see the bottom of the page). If you want to schedule a time to talk over Zoom, you can quickly do so using the button below. We’ll post announcements in local homeschooling and self-directed learning FaceBook groups once registration is open.
We’re excited to share that we plan for our activities in the mornings and early afternoons to take place at the Learning Farm. The Learning Farm’s beautiful indoor and outdoor spaces will provide the rich environment we need for community members to more deeply connect with each other, with the natural world, and with their own interests and passions.
If this sort of learning community is of interest to you and your family, we’d like to talk to you! Please reach out to us or join our mailing list. We want to learn more about your family’s interests and needs, to answer your questions about Communitas, and to simply connect with local families. Please use the button below to schedule a time to talk in the next few weeks.
Support us!
Our program serves a big need for families in Tompkins County – both homeschooling families (through our SDR Program) and school families (through our Game Program) – who are looking for opportunities for their kids to hang out with others and feel the freedom to be themselves. If you have the ability to financially support our work, please consider donating using the link below.
Funding Support
We’re a young program and have already received a lot of funding support from organizations doing exciting work to positively impact our community. Below is a list of grant support we’ve received so far.
- Grant from VELA Education Fund to cover staff and rent expenses not covered by program tuition.
- Grant from Sustainable Tompkins to purchase equipment to support youth in connecting with nature (e.g., a telescope, monoculars, magnifying glasses, bug boxes, and wood carving knives).
- Grant from Friends of the Tompkins County Public Library for the purchase of instructional magic books for the magic performing arts program housed at Communitas ALC (https://thisiscommunitas.org/magic/)
- Grant from the Rotary Club of Ithaca to purchase magic supplies for magic performing arts program.
- Grant from JM McDonald Foundation to purchase supplies for our makerspace (e.g., electronics, robotics).
We list these organizations here to publicly acknowledge and express our deepest gratitude for their support of our program. As a small nonprofit working to offer a program that’s financially accessible to ALL families, we rely on this grant support. We’re also very grateful to the individual donors who have also seen the value in our work and made generous contributions.
We're hiring!
Do you want to play an active role in supporting the growth of a liberatory self-directed learning community? Does the idea of being an Agile Learning Facilitator excite you? If so, click the button below!
Communitas
[“kuh-MYOO-ni-tahs”]
A Latin word used in Anthropology to describe the pleasure of togetherness that emerges through non-hierarchical interactions between people and with the natural world.
Our Vision
Our activities work towards re-weaving community, livelihood, learning, and nature together. We believe the future well-being of people and planet depend on it.
Our Core Values
The image below depicts who we are (Community), what we pursue (Regenerative self-determination), why we pursue it (Reconnection), and how we work together throughout the process (Interdependence)
Land Acknowledgement
Communitas ALC is currently operating in Ithaca, NY, on the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the Gayogohó:no’ (Cayuga Nation), a nation of people still working to tend these lands for future generations. The Gayogohó:no’ are one of the five nations to first form the Hodino̱hsǫ́:nih (Iroquois Confederacy). We think it is important to say the traditional territory names that have been silenced for too long.