Community Programmes

Exploring Community Life as a Working Guest | wwoof | volunteers

Exploring Community Life as a Working Guest

This programme will allow you to experience community life for a while, for personal learning and growth or to become eligible to apply to become a member of our staff.

According to your needs you can choose the full time or part time option, the latter gives more freedom to explore the surroundings and requires less work commitment.

Summer in Findhorn: July - August 2008

This summer we will reserve spaces in our best guest rooms for people who want to experiment the Findhorn wider community and the beauty of the area.

During these months only the part time option is available at a reduced price (see price list in this page).

Be part of the Newbold House Family

Newbold House is a small community (5 steady members and an average of 3 temporary), so providing a sense of familiarity and warmth.

You may be interested to know that our community is currently managing a "stand by" period which will lead to create a new project in October 2008.

During this transitional period you may find the community different from what is depicted in this web site. Our main mission is at the moment to run our workshop programme.

Each working day begins with a brief community meeting. Once a week we meet together for a sharing time. Like everybody else in the community working guests have two days off, or equivalent, per week.

You will work in the tasks that constitute the working day of the community in various areas: kitchen, home care, maintenance, etc. As for all residents here there will be three or four times per week when you will be on kitchen clean-up. You may find yourself to work with other people or on your own.

Connect to the Findhorn Wider Community

Staying at Newbold House is also a big opportunity for an introduction to the Wider Findhorn Community of which we are a part.

This wider Findhorn Community, started in 1962, is about 400 people living in different locations in the neighbourhood of Forres and Findhorn Village (north-East Scotland) These people share a common ground of spiritual and social values and keep alive a rich environment of activities and events. (See www.findhorn.com).

The value of belonging to the Newbold House Family and to the Findhorn Wider Community by membership of the New Findhorn Association (NFA) provides a unique experience for a healthy balance between close and intense personal relationships in a small group and lighter stimulating and rich connections with a lot of interesting people coming from all walks of life and countries.

There will be some advice for exploring the area with a particular focus on the Findhorn wider community activities and places of interest.

The Part time option: exploring the area

According to your individuality you can choose to come as a full time or a part time working guest.

In the full time option you will share the same work rhythm as the long term members of the community: 5 days a week for about 6/7 hours a day.

As a part time working guest you will work only in the morning for 6 days a week, having more freedom to explore the area and attend its activities, or simply to rest and regenerate.

We will provide you with guidance to enjoy the amazing beauty and places of interest of the area (see www.newboldhouse.org/surrondings).

When the programme starts

Working guests are accepted for a minimum of 2 weeks (possible exceptions of one week can be negotiated) up to a maximum of 6 weeks.

Payments

• Part time option: £200 per week, full board, for first two weeks, £150 per week thereafter. Bookings for less than two weeks will be charged pro rata with a minimum of £250
• Full time option: Payment for this programme is by attunement. This means that you will be guided in a process to help you decide how much to pay once here. As the community we need an average payment of £85 per week to meet the community's basic needs.
• Summer 2008 (July and August). Only part time option at £150 a week with a minimum of 2 weeks. One week option is still available at £200.
  

A non refundable deposit of £50 is payable in all cases through our secure server https://www.newboldhouse.org/booking_secure.html, or by sending a check by mail to our address.

Accommodation

Our sleeping accommodation is varied. You may find yourself sleeping in a small caravan in the garden or one of our guest rooms sharing with other working guests of the same sex.

Requirements and Reviews

This experience requires an interest in “service”, an ability to handle active physical work (in our kitchen, dining room, homecare, gardens, and maintenance departments), and to hold a sense of responsibility for the work done.

It also requires an ability to relate and communicate well with others of diverse backgrounds, ages, languages and skills.

The working guest programme is not a workshop run by trainers or a healing programme for addressing personal issues. We require that people coming are able to look after themselves at a physical, mental and emotional level. A Working Guest will have a review at the end of the second week to see if our relationship is working for you and us.

What happens after six weeks of Working Guest: co-workers and members

At the end of six weeks working guests interested to stay here more may become co-workers following a successful review.

Co-workers cooperate with the community in a work exchange programme (i.e. not paying and not being paid). A co-worker can remain in the community subject to periodical reviews. After 7 weeks a co-worker may also apply for steady staff.

Please ask details on this at edu@newboldhouse.org since some limitations apply for the part time option.

How to subscribe to the programme

If you are considering this option, please send an email (edu@newboldhouse.org) with a brief summary of yourself, your interests and skills, and state why you would like to experience community living, and to which work areas you could envisage yourself contributing.

The WWOOF Scheme

WWOOF an acronym for “world wide opportunities on organic farms”. Woofers are registered to the international organisation (www.wwoof.org) that keeps them informed of the farms, communities and working opportunities available to them.

Accommodation is likely to be basic; mostly in caravans.

Again, a letter or email to us (edu@newboldhouse.org), describing yourself, your interests, talents and reasons for Woofing with us will be the starting point for entry into this programme. Our response will often be governed by the availability of accommodation.

Woofers are limited in numbers (usually one or two) and accepted for a maximum of one week. We usually encourage wwoofers interested to deepen their relationship with us to join our working guest programme after their wwoofer week.

Until October 2008 Woofers are only accepted if they commit to stay at least a second week in the full time working guest programme. During the "Holidays at Findhorn" period (July and August 2008) woofers are not accepted.

Regular non residential volunteers