"A place to nourish the Spirit

                 the space to Awaken your Soul"

Community Building

A primary focus of our educational mission is the development of and sharing with others principles and practices for spiritually grounded, environmentally conscious sustainable community development.

The Core principles underlying our community development work are detailed in the Ceres Project.

We also have endorsed the global effort to adopt the Earth Charter as the ethical and moral principles for world wide community development initiatives.

Short Summary of the Earth Charter

The Earth Charter is the first treaty in history to be drafted and promoted by the people - over the past ten years over 100,000 people in 51 countries have contributed to its creation.  The Charter offers principles for living and decision-making that can be used by multinational institution like the United Nations, by governments, by towns, by organizations, and by individuals and families everywhere.  The goal of the Earth Charter is to establish a sound ethical foundation for the emerging global society and to help build a sustainable world based on respect for nature, universal human rights, and a culture of peace.

There are 16 principles that make up the Earth Charter, which in turn are described in more detail by 62 sub-principles.  These principles are organized into four major categories:  1) Respect and care for the Community of Life, 2)  Ecological Integrity, 3)  Social and Economic Justice, and 4)  Democracy, Non-violence, and Peace.  All of them together form a declaration of fundamental principles for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful society in the 21st century.

For more information visit: www.earthcharter.org

Awakening Sanctuary, Inc. Living Earth Grant Program

This grant program is established to seed and foster programs and materials that awaken and support the following broad focus areas: consciousness of the earth as a living being, self awareness, self-esteem, creativity, community and respect for all life.

In any particular year the grant may be geared to a specific class or project; however, the recipient of the grant should be rotated over time so as to benefit each of the classes and diverse projects.  The results of any project should be shared with the whole school community.

We request that children be included in the decision making process regarding the use of the grant resources.

The initial grant for the 1999-2000 school year was $500.