The Camphill School

Global Ecovillage Network logo with a turtle and leaf design.
  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Established
  • English
  • Ecological
  • Rural

Founding year

  • 1963

What we do

We are part of the worldwide Camphill movement and the only Camphill community in North America for children. We offer residential and day academic and prevocational programs, as well as therapeutic care for children in kindergarten through grade twelve. We also offer a Transition Program for young people ages eighteen to twenty-one.
Students participate in a full range of conventional and holistic therapies along with prevocational programs, community-based instruction, entrepreneurial ventures, and care for animals and the natural world. In addition, students develop meaningful relationships with peers and staff who reside both on- and off-campus.
The Camphill School was formed when Downingtown Special School and Donegal Springs, curative homes for children that began in 1954 and 1961 in Pennsylvania, merged. After an extensive search for a location to house an ever-growing number of children and live-in volunteers, a beautiful fifty-seven-acre farm in rural East Nantmeal, Pennsylvania, was purchased in October 1963. All around the world, more than one hundred Camphill communities in over twenty countries take different forms. Every community, however, is dedicated to social renewal through community building — with children, youth, and adults with disabilities. The Camphill ideal is to engage all the members of each community in meeting their own needs, as well as those of the community at large, to whatever extent their abilities allow.
We are currently looking for individuals who would be interested in joining our community for 3 – 12 months as a Live-in Volunteer. Volunteers live and work in our community in extended family-like settings with residential students and faculty. They guide a group of neuro-diverse children through daily functional and academic learning goals, and any challenges they might encounter along the way

  • Purpose
  • Ecological
  • Languages
  • English
  • Community type
  • Cohousing
  • Intentional Neighborhoods
  • Land-Based Communities
  • Activities
  • Education

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 1963
  • Started living together

Video

  • Open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
100

How to join

If you are interested in joining the community or learning more about us, please email me at: aharris@camphillschool.org
or visit our website: www.camphillschool.org
Also check out our Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube accounts!
facebook.com/thecamphillschool
instagram.com/thecamphillschool
youtube.com/thecamphillschool

Guest Book

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Location

  • United States

Promoted Needs and Offers

  • Events
10 years ago

Gaia Ashram Internship

The Gaia Ashram Internship is a one month program on Ecovillage Design, Permaculture and Deep Ecology. The internship will be a holistic participatory learning experience & process. Interns will experience being part of the Gaia Ashram Community and we will live together for one month at– Gaia Ashram-. At Gaia Ashram we belief in holistic learning that balances the head, hands & heart. Gaia Ashram encourages participatory learning & values the power of community in holding the learning space. We design the daily & weekly structure of the internship and of our lives here based on these values and principles. Theoretical learning (Head) The theoretical sessions will be participatory and interactive. It will cover the 4 keys of Ecovillage Design Education (Social, Economical, Ecological and Worldview inspired by Gaia Education). Each week will cover one of the Ecovillage Design Keys and integrated into this we will be introduced to Permaculture Design & Deep Ecology in terms of philosophy, movement and personal experiences. Overall, We will have a maximum of 2-3 hours of theory per day on the session days, to also create lots of space for practical experiential learning. See more details of the key content below. Practical learning (Hands – on) For the hands – on practical learning we will be developing the Gaia Ashram’s farm and restoring nature on the Gaia Ashram land using permaculture strategies & techniques that are appropriate for the Rainy Season & the land and its local context. The hands-on work will focus on Gardening work i.e. developing the vegetable gardens, planting seeds & seedlings, transplanting, propagation of plants, making composts, growing and maintaining a Food Forest, planting green manures, planting lots of trees, planting seasonal crops. Apart from the Gardening we will also will be doing some natural building which mostly will focus on creating natural finishes using mud plasters and art works on
  • Events
10 years ago

Deep Ecology and Mindful Gardening

Deepen our connection with nature through our head, heart, hands and spirit. Join us for this two weeks contemplative learning where we will learn together What is Deep Ecology as a philosophy, as a way to see and interpret life, as an approach to deepen our connection with nature and as a way of living. This two weeks program is designed to have balance of the learning through different channel of our being: Head: Theoretical learning, critical thinking, debate, discussion, deep reflection & deep questioning. The learning through the head help us to understand deeply of what is happening around us and in the world. Understanding and deeply questioning the reality presented to us is a way to liberate ourselves from it. Heart: listening to what we are feeling when we engage ourselves in nature and her stories. Allowing the heart to feel the love, joy, compassion or the feeling of sadness & fear allowing ourselves to feel the pain ourselves, the world & Mother Earth. We will use the activities of The Work That Reconnect of Joanna Macy and other practices to help our heart to learn deeply. We need the learning through our heart to bring about transformation at a deep level. Hand: Mindfully working with nature in the garden. When we are mindful we love, respect and connect as we are physically engaged. Practical work help us to ground our believes, philosophy and vision. It empowers us and assures us that the new reality we wish for is possible. It makes what’s in our head and heart become real and tangible. Spirit : Spirituality, Meaning & purpose. Learning at this level is about being conscious of our values and purpose, seeing ourselves as part of a greater universe and realizing our connection, relationship and responsibility in that picture. a learning at this level helps us to stay connected with our core and bring meaning to life.

Information

Communities

A residential project: people live here as their primary home.

Organizations

An institution, business, network, or project that isn’t a residence (e.g. a learning center, farm, or network with no one living there full-time).

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