Version: June 2017 (re-visited every two years)

Vision

• Nurturing a supportive, kind and respectful community
• Creating a fun place to live
• Sharing work and ideas openly, happily and equitably
• Creating agreements and processes that empower
• Sustaining an inclusive and affordable legal and financial model
• Supporting each other in low impact living
• Fostering good relationships with the local neighbourhood
• Maintaining and developing a beautiful, productive, stimulating space
• Engaging with others to inspire solutions for a sustainable world
• Encouraging and welcoming diversity

Values

  1. Environmental Sustainability
    This is a core value and encompasses a broad definition of sustainability and sustainable living, balancing economic, social and ecological issues. It also embraces the desire to live low impact, low carbon lifestyles and sees permaculture as a guiding principle.
  2. Self-Governance
    We are people-led rather than institution-led, and focus on the needs of members rather than those of governments or businesses. We do this in a horizontal way, with task teams accountable to the whole membership, and important decisions made by consensus.
  3. Respect
    Respect is at the heart of how we interact with each other and our environment. This includes responsibility to others in our immediate and extended communities.
  4. Learning
    Lilac is a place of learning. We value and share each other’s skills, knowledge and experience to help us be a supportive and sustainable community. We are also committed to sharing our own learning beyond the membership.
  5. Safety and wellbeing
    We value the health and wellbeing of everyone who lives at, or visits, Lilac. We work together to create a safe, supportive and nourishing atmosphere to help us all thrive.

Aims

In its ethos and ongoing activities, Lilac aims to be:

  1. Inspirational
    We aim to be inspired, be inspiring to help build a more socially and ecologically-just community, neighbourhood, city, nation and world.
  2. Affordable
    The project aims to increase its financial accessibility over time, subject to the restrictions of the MHOS model.
  3. Self-reliant
    Members are committed to increasing ownership of their lives and resources, aiming to maximise the benefits of the project (e.g. food, energy, emotional resilience, community finances).
  4. Connected
    We aim to be integrated with our wider community and to actively avoid becoming isolated and inward-facing.
  5. Inclusive
    We aim to accommodate a diversity of people across generations, ethnicities, sexualities and faiths, and accommodate a range of skills and interests. We’d like members’ children to play important roles within the community.