Intentional Community

Volunteer residents and students enjoy the courtyard at the Center for Purposeful Living In addition to being a non-profit all-volunteer service-learning organization, the Center for Purposeful Living has fostered the establishment of a service-oriented residential community of about fifty people who serve together cooperatively and purposefully.

The community consists of sixteen condominiums housing individuals and families, and a main Center building, where students and CPL Fellows, recent graduates of Volunteers painting the deck. CPL’s Transformation Through Service program, live. The entire community shares in the beautification and upkeep of the 15-acre grounds. Recreational and educational programs are conducted periodically for community members in the Alliance Center, a multi-purpose building on campus.

Unlike many intentional communities, which begin living communally and then seek to discover a cohesive purpose, CPL started more than twenty years ago from the shared purpose of its core members—service to others —and then evolved into a physical as well as spiritual community. It is that purpose that makes it so extraordinarily stable and its environment so uncommonly free of conflict, personal agendas, criticism, and gossip that can infect and degrade even the best-intentioned of communities.

Building a Strong Community—Based on Aspirational Relationships.

Imagine the possibilities when we know in our innermost self that we are on track and that what really matters is living a life focused on looking for the good. Profiled here in their own words are single members of the Center for Purposeful Living community—spiritually minded people of all ages who are dedicated to making a difference in the world without being “anti-” anything. What could be better than sharing the highest and best of yourself with another, and it is responded to with respect and encouragement? If meeting people who are hard-working, fiscally responsible, sophisticated, and just plain fun—and of forming friendships and relationships based on mutually held values and sense of purpose—appeals to you, go here.