About the project
The roots of this project go back to the Community Canvas, a community-building framework co-created by Fabian Pfortmüller, Sascha Mombartz and Nico Luchsinger. We were inspired by the Canvas and wanted to develop a next version. Over the years we were in dialogue with 100+ community weavers, mapped shared challenges, hosted learning journeys, had conversation with Elders and explored different ways of knowing such as Ancestral and Indigenous wisdom. And gradually, through these explorations, the Community Weaving Framework emerged.
We hope that the framework will provide shared language to talk about communities in a meaningful way. And that this model doesn’t become just another theoretical framework, but a lived practice that will continue to evolve and deepen as we (re)learn with you about how to weave healthy communities.
Do you have feedback, ideas or opportunities you’d like to share? Please message us at hello@community-weaving.org - we’d love to hear from you.
The co-creators
Erin Dixon
Erin, Gizhigate, comes from the crystal-clear waters of Benessai Ochininissing, Skeleton Lake, in Algonquian, Anishinaabe speaking lands and shares her Otipemisiwak, Cree-Métis and Icelandic-Isles heritage. She walks in vision with all of life in mind and sits with the Bawaajiewin Dream Drum Society. Erin is woven across fields of change - movements, committed to the spirit of place, reweaving our Indigenous, ancestral knowledge systems, in the nature of our sphere intelligence and horizons of planetary health transformation. She relates to living into our prophecy stories, co-creating ethical spaces in the power of right relations, wayfinding pathways towards what is possible and the essence of what is being called to life.
Fabian Pfortmüller
Fabian is a partner at Together Institute and co-founder of several purpose-driven communities. He is the co-author of the Community Canvas, a community building framework, and a co-creator of the Wasan Network. Previously, Fabian was an Innovator in Residence with the Kauffman Foundation, co-founder of Sandbox, a global community of young change makers, and co-founder of the mindfulness brand Holstee. He writes a regular blog about community and loves hiking. [LinkedIn]
Michel Bachmann
Michel is a partner at Together Institute and facilitates the co-creation of planetary communities. He works with a variety of global networks such as the League of Intrapreneurs, Bioregional Weaving Labs and WWF to help grow community and cultivate a culture of genuine co-creation. Previously, Michel co-founded Impact Hub Zürich and led the transition of the global Impact Hub network towards a distributed organization with 100+ spaces across the world. He loves working with the body and is a passionate contact dancer. [LinkedIn]
Sita Magnuson
Sita is a transdisciplinary artist and process facilitator working at the intersections of systems, focused on intergenerational, cross-cultural learning and knowledge co-production. She co-founded dpict, where she helps people imagine, learn, and collaborate, and is a board member of the Co-Intelligence Institute and Lighthouse Holyoke. She is passionate about experimenting with new models for learning and decision-making in education, bioregional planning, and global Communities of Practice. [LinkedIn]
The designers
Alfredo Carlo
Alfredo is a designer of collaborative processes and a graphic facilitator, founding partner of Housatonic Design Network, member of The Value Web and partner of Matter Group. He has translated his interest in design and interaction between human beings into his profession. Resident artist of the social art collective DMAV, partner of the food lab Pasto Nomade, and author of the project Rassegna Stampa per Bambini, he spreads his passion for creativity through various channels and media. [LinkedIn]
Linh Trịnh
Linh Trinh is an explorer of the world and an interdisciplinary artist. Her works explore the interconnection between community, nature and wellbeing. She is a co-founder of contemporary handicrafts brand Collective Sonson and art director of mural-for-school group To Dam. When she doesn’t draw, Linh hosts several retreats around movement and art improvisation around Vietnam. www.tingalinh.com
About Together Institute
Together Institute is stewarding this project as it continues to evolve.
We work with purpose-driven communities and networks to help them thrive. We do this by supporting values-aligned organizations with co-developing network-driven strategies, programming and training, and through self-initiated projects such as the Community Weaving Framework. For us, this work is personal: we have founded, stewarded and supported impact-driven communities for a combined 40+ years, and we’re grateful to do this work in collaboration with leading community practitioners worldwide. Learn more about us here.
Thank you to all our contributors!
This project was co-created with many, many community weavers from across the globe who over the course of several years supported us, answered our questions, gave feedback, sat for interviews and much more. It’s hard to overstate how much their support has meant to us and how much better the framework is today thanks to all of them.
Thank you to all our colleagues who were part of the project team along the journey and have shaped the project in many ways:
Chris Chavez, Christian Deligia, Daniel Brooks, Giulia Ferrari, Khuyen Bui, Lana Jelenjev, Marcello Petruzzi, Nettra Pan, Sascha Mombartz, Valentina Fuzzi. A special thanks to Sascha Mombartz for his extraordinary creativity and ongoing support and Lana Jelenjev for all the beauty and wisdom she brought to the project. And a thank you to our partners Jim Bliss, John Rice, Kati Pfrunder and Mansi Gupta for their love and support.
Thank you to our contributors for sharing feedback to countless Google Docs and generously spending hours in Zoom calls with us. Your patience, care and thoughtful guidance has kept us going and is deeply part of the framework:
Adrian Röbke, Alícia Trepat Pont, Amarit Charoenphan, Ana Janosev, Andee Chua, André Pawan Vashist, Andrés Felipe Vera-Ramirez, Andrea Mazariegos, Andy Stoll, Anika Horn, Annalyn Lavey, Anne Seubert, Ants Cabraal, Arsene Ngombe, Audrey Buchanan, Avani Parekh, Belinda Esterhammer, Ben Morag, Betsy Ribble Pine, Brendon Johnson, Brian Stout, Camila da Silva, Carolina Carvalho, Casper ter Kuile, Cecilia Wessinger, Cheryll Stewart, Chiara Nenci, Chuck Peters, Christine Lai, Claire Wathen, Corina Angelescu, Damian Madray, Daniela Peralvo, Daniela Restrepo Ortiz, Darius Polok, Dave Lim, David Ehrlichman, Deborah Chang, Diego Ontaneda, Eder Delgado, Elan Babchuck, Eli Malinsky, Erica Dorn, Ese Emerhi, Evie O'Brien, Farah Fauzi, Fay Horwitt, Florencia Estrade, Francesca Pick, Gary Sheng, Georgie Nightingall, Grace Clapham, Handrich Kongdro, Immy Robinson, Iona Lawrence, Isaac Jumba, Jaime Arredondo, James Suru Boyon, Jamil Moises Frare Assis, Jane Wei-Skillern, Jen Bailey, Johannes Lukas Gartner, John Rice, Jonathan Imme, Joy Karanja, Kapil Dawda, Kavita Anand, Khuyen Bui, Lana Fern, Leen Sadder, Lina Patel, Luz Avruj, Mansi Gupta, Margaux Pelen, Mariana Santos, Marischa Weiser, Marta Kanarkiewicz, Mel Chan, Melanie Kahl, Melinda Varfi, Michelle Arevalo-Carpenter, Michelle Chakkalackal, Minahil Khan, Misraim Macías Cervantes, Nathalie Alvaray, Nenad Maljković, Nick McGirl, Nico Luchsinger, Niels Rot, Paul Fehlinger, Paula Rodriguez, Philippe Ceulen, Phuong Bui, Rachele Tardi, Ramsés Gómez Molina, Richard Bartlett, Ross Hall, Ruth Blackshaw, Sam Rye, Serena Bian, Shubha Somashekar, Sifiso Lynette Maposa, Songyi Lee, Svenja Rüger, Tash Purple, Tatiana Glad, Tibet Sprague, Tim Neubauer, Valerie Marouche, Victoria Stoyanova, Vinzenz Himmighofen, Vlad Gazda, Xymena Salado, Yael Oren, Yan Liu.
And thank you to our organizational partners for their generosity and support
Housatonic, International Alumni Center (iac Berlin), Skoll Foundation (to read more about our project finances check out Open Collective).
