Family Center

Creative Village Family Centre is currently operating out of a 2500 sq ft home in North Austin. Located on one and one-half acres, this site provides families with natural beauty as well as functional space. The objectives of this facility are:

• To create a hospitable physical site for families to form a community of support thereby alleviating some of the stress and isolation experienced by most families. This site provides the space necessary for collaboration and coordinated action by these families as they seek creative solutions to the common problems they face.

• To introduce the concept of nonviolent communication to family and community discussions. This allows for respectful dialogue that encourages each person’s contribution to the community. The collective wisdom and intelligence of the community is then available to all.

• To develop a space where children are loved and respected by their families as well as a community of compassionate children and adults. Such a space can provide consistent and respectful boundaries that ensure the safety of all children while encouraging the development of each child’s unique constellation of abilities.

• To create a learning environment for children that is child-led and emphasizes creative expression, cooperation instead of competition, extensive interaction with nature, and copious opportunity for unstructured play, both alone and with multi-aged peers, including adults.

• To guide the development of an all-ages learning environment which supports the development of optimal learning relationships and produces competent and joyful life-long learners.

• To facilitate the discovery and understanding of research findings and programs that will empower families to make informed and intelligent decisions regarding their health, learning, and other aspects of family life.

After 18 months of experimenting with these goals we have made some important discoveries that we wish to share:

1. Resources useful to our community-building effforts: 

Nonviolent Communication, by Marshall Rosenberg, describes a model for respectful communication.  "Through its emphasis on deep listening--to ourselves as well as others--NVC fosters respect, attentiveness, and empathy, and engenders a mutual desire to give from the heart. 

"The Healing Gap" an article by Scott Noelle (scottnoelle.com) refers to the gap between the parent that we are, and the one that we wish to become.  Scott eloquently articulates the need to heal from our detachment parenting childhoods before we can become the attachment parents that we are striving to become. 

"Four Stages of Community" by M. Scott Peck.  "Any group of strangers coming together to create a community goes through four distinct and predictable phases: pseudocommunity, chaos, emptiness, and true community."  Being cognizant of these stages can help you navigate to your destination of true community.

2.  Components that we believe have been crucial to the Centre's mission:

Time:  A commitment to spend at least 4-6 hours per week together as a community allows for unhurried, predictable, and more peaceful interaction for parents and children alike.  Our parents report that the decreased sense of stress and increased sense of support can last for several days after a day at the Centre. 

Support for learning NVC:  Learning a new language requires a focused effort and lots of support.  Nonviolent communication may appeal to your common sense but most of our culture is set up to counter the learning of this language of peace and compassion.  Working together to practice role-playing, learn how to identify your needs and emotions, and receive empathy for the difficulty of the task, are key to incorporating NVC into your life.

Parenting as emotional healing:  Despite the immense joy that parenting brings, nearly all parents will find that parenting can also be challenging and difficult.  Recognizing that our own upbringing may have left some needs unmet, we can learn how to keep our trauma from being passed on to our children.  Healing our trauma allows us to grow to our full potential.

>