Our Philosophy

NVCP works to build a more equitable and accessible food system through education, land access, and community engagement. A primary focus of ours is creating opportunities for participation while fostering connections with the earth, plants, and animals.

Values

Core Principles

Day-to-Day Principles

Our Values

Presence

We strive to meet each moment with openness, care, and attention — for ourselves, our surroundings, and for one another.

Wonder

We cultivate reverence, curiosity and awe.

Belonging

We foster belonging through connection to nature, team work, agency and welcome.

Trust

We trust ourselves, each other and the wisdom of life unfolding.

Balance

We embrace balance — between being and doing, people and planet, tradition and transformation.

We give and receive with gratitude — nourishing what nourishes us, and giving back to our community.

Harmony

Presence

At New Village Community Partners, we embrace presence as a guiding principle: a way of being that cultivates deeper connection, clarity, and compassion in all we do. Presence means bringing our full selves to each moment with openness, care, and attention — for ourselves, our surroundings, and one another.

To be present is to slow down enough to listen, to the needs of a neighbor, the silence in a room, the wisdom of the land, or the stirrings within ourselves. It asks us to let go of distractions and assumptions so we can meet each interaction, task, or challenge with fresh eyes and a grounded body.

Presence is also relational. It invites us to hold space for others without judgment, to witness their stories with dignity, and to respond with empathy. Whether we are gathering in community, building partnerships, or tending to everyday responsibilities, we aim to do so with attentiveness and integrity.

In practice, presence looks like:

Deep listening that values understanding
Responsive rather than reactive engagement
A posture of curiosity instead of certainty
Mindfulness of the environment and the impact of our actions
A commitment to being fully where we are, even when it’s uncomfortable

This way of being isn’t just a practice, it’s a form of care. When we show up with presence, we affirm the worth of the moment and of those we share it with. It’s through presence that we create a culture of trust, mutual respect, and collective growth.

Wonder

At New Village Community Partners, we cultivate reverence, curiosity, and awe, holding space for the mystery, beauty, and complexity of life. Wonder is both a way of seeing and a way of relating: it deepens our connection to the world, fuels our desire to learn, and invites us to approach life with humility and delight.

To live in wonder is to recognize that not everything needs to be solved or explained. It is to be moved by a child’s question, the changing light of day, the resilience of a community, or the quiet wisdom of an elder. Wonder reminds us that the world is not a problem to fix, but a miracle to behold, even in its brokenness.

In cultivating wonder, we:

Honor mystery, embracing what we cannot fully know or control
Ask meaningful questions, not to dominate with answers, but to deepen understanding
Celebrate beauty and complexity, in people, places, processes, and possibilities
Nurture curiosity, encouraging exploration, imagination, and a willingness to be surprised
Respect life’s rhythms, finding grace in cycles of growth, rest, and transformation

Wonder also grounds us in reverence — a quiet, abiding respect for life in all its forms. It teaches us to slow down, to notice, to cherish. It bridges the practical and the poetic, inviting us to see meaning not only in outcomes, but in the journey itself.

In our work, wonder acts as both compass and companion. It inspires creative solutions, invites deeper reflection, and allows joy to be part of even the hardest work. When we lead with wonder, we change how we build, relate, and imagine what’s possible.

Belonging

At New Village Community Partners, we believe that belonging is essential to wellness. It is the experience of being accepted, valued, and connected — not just as part of a group, but as a full and unique self. We foster belonging through connection to nature, teamwork, agency, and welcome, creating spaces where people feel rooted, empowered, and at home.

Belonging begins with welcome, a spirit of hospitality that says, You matter. You’re not a guest here; you’re a part of this. It deepens through teamwork, where collaboration becomes a pathway to mutual respect and shared purpose. It grows through agency, as each person is invited to contribute meaningfully and shape the life of the community. And it is sustained through connection to nature, which reminds us that we are all part of something larger, interconnected, interdependent, and worthy of care.

In practice, our commitment to belonging means:

Designing inclusive and affirming environments where all people feel safe and seen
Encouraging shared leadership, where every voice matters and participation is real
Honoring cultural, generational, and experiential diversity as strengths
Grounding ourselves in natural rhythms and the land we share
Creating rituals and routines that foster connection, celebration, and mutual care

Belonging is not something we assume, it’s something we actively build. It takes intention, courage, and love. At New Village, we hold space for people to be themselves, to grow in community, and to know they are not alone. Because when we belong, we thrive- and so does the village.

Trust

At New Village Community Partners, we hold trust as a foundation for how we live, work, and grow together. We trust ourselves, each other, and the wisdom of life unfolding — believing that trust is both a personal practice and a collective commitment.

To trust ourselves is to listen inward, to honor our instincts, and to lead from a place of integrity. It means recognizing our own inner wisdom, even in the face of doubt or uncertainty. When we trust ourselves, we become more present, more courageous, and more aligned in our choices.

To trust each other is to see one another as capable, honest, and worthy of care. It is choosing to give the benefit of the doubt, to repair when harm occurs, and to show up with consistency and compassion. Trust allows us to collaborate authentically, take risks together, and move forward as a unified whole, even when we don’t have all the answers.

And to trust the wisdom of life unfolding is to embrace the unknown with openness. It’s an invitation to release control, to learn from what is emerging, and to find meaning in both the challenges and the joys. This kind of trust invites patience, humility, and deep listening- to ourselves, to one another, and to the rhythms of nature and time.

In practice, our philosophy of trust looks like:

Creating environments of psychological safety where vulnerability is welcomed
Following through on commitments and being accountable with care
Encouraging shared leadership and believing in others’ capacities
Being present with uncertainty without forcing outcomes
Listening deeply before reacting — to people, to place, and to process

Trust doesn’t mean perfection. It means being in relationship with honesty and resilience, in ourselves, in community, and in the unfolding path ahead. At New Village, we trust that the work we are doing together matters and that who we are becoming along the way matters just as much.

Balance

At New Village Community Partners, we embrace balance as a living principle: a way to navigate complexity with integrity, clarity, and care. We seek balance between being and doing, people and planet, tradition and transformation, knowing that wholeness arises not from extremes, but from thoughtful, intentional being.

Balance between being and doing reminds us that impact is not only measured by productivity, but also by presence. We value stillness alongside action, reflection alongside progress, and rest as essential to resilience. In a world that often demands urgency, we practice the discipline of slowing down, trusting that sustainable change is rooted in mindful, grounded effort.

Balance between people and planet affirms that our well-being is inseparable from the health of the Earth. We hold the human and ecological in relationship, making choices that honor the dignity of all people and the sacredness of the natural world. This balance calls us to listen to the land, to design for regeneration, and to live in ways that support mutual thriving.

Balance between tradition and transformation honors where we come from while creating space for what wants to emerge. We carry forward ancestral wisdom, cultural practices, and community memory, not as fixed scripts, but as evolving guides. At the same time, we stay open to innovation, adaptation, and the creative unfolding of what’s next.

In our daily work, balance means:

Making space for both structure and flexibility
Honoring diverse needs, paces, and ways of knowing
Weaving together vision and practicality
Listening to feedback from the environment, our bodies, and our communities
Navigating tensions with curiosity, rather than control

Balance is not a static state but a continual practice, one that invites awareness, choice, and care. At New Village, we cultivate this balance to stay rooted in purpose, responsive to change, and aligned with our values so that both people and place can flourish, together.

Harmony

At New Village Community Partners, we live by a philosophy of harmony, a way of being that honors mutual care, reciprocity, and right relationship. We give and receive with gratitude, nourishing what nourishes us and giving back to our community with intention and love.

Harmony is not about avoiding conflict or flattening differences. Rather, it is the practice of tending to balance and flow- within ourselves, with one another, and with the natural world. It asks us to pay attention to the give and take of life, and to engage in ways that are sustainable, respectful, and life-affirming.

To live in harmony means recognizing that we are part of an interconnected whole. Every action, every offering, every choice becomes part of a larger story. When we receive with gratitude, we acknowledge the unseen labor, history, and care that brought us what we have. When we give back with generosity, we become stewards of community well-being, contributing to cycles that sustain not just ourselves, but future generations.

In practice, our commitment to harmony shows up in how we:

Care for the land and resources that sustain us
Share time, skills, and abundance with humility and joy
Celebrate interdependence, recognizing that no one thrives alone
Honor the wisdom of those who came before and the potential of those yet to come
Pause to reflect, give thanks, and align our actions with our values

Harmony invites us to be in rhythm: with seasons, with people, with purpose. It teaches us that fulfillment is not found in accumulation, but in circulation. When we give and receive in ways that are rooted in gratitude and respect, we co-create a culture of care, one that nourishes life in all its forms.

At New Village, harmony is not just a value, it’s a way of living in right relationship, so that generosity flows freely, and all that we do supports the thriving of the whole.

Core Principles

We belong to our world and it is not separate from us. Our relationship to it is at the core of our wellbeing and our humanity.

Awakening our awareness of the earth, plants and animals and working with them enhances our belonging, confidence and wellness.

All creatures and persons have value and we encourage them to express the fullness and uniqueness of their essential selves. We actively support the freedom to be.

We value the challenges of life unfolding, we seek to support each other in encountering conflict, death, grief, obstacles and limitations with compassion and awareness.

Agriculture can coexist with and complement nature.

Agricultural systems can benefit from being more closely modeled after nature rather than the more mechanistic activities of industry.

We all benefit from shifting agricultural systems away from exclusively cost, productivity and efficiency driven activities.

We support community agriculture that keeps people in contact and connection with land and planet.

Day-to-Day Principles

We make the work of tending to land, gardens and animals accessible to children and adults alike. (We keep alert to tool sizes, path widths, weight of feed containers to make them manageable for many hands and allow for traffic patterns that protect delicate soil, plants and animals.)

We make nature accessible and engaging to children in their free time here. (We minimize playground structures, sports equipment, etc. to maximize the draw of marshes, climbing trees, forests, frozen puddles, snow, meadows of flowers, mounds of earth or wood chips, gardens, etc.)

We invite and support engagement and participation so that children know that their actions on the farm contribute and matter, we seek to have it be inherent to them that all their actions positive and negative matter always.

We add responsibility as participants rise to the work, keeping them engaged and their capacities growing.

We strive to minimize rules and support children in making safe and positive choices on their own. (Our 3 primary guidelines are: Take care of yourself, each other, and the place. We ask children to explore their behaviors in relationship to these guidelines. This supports them in understanding the impact of their actions.)

We meet life as it unfolds, allowing the curriculum to shift as the needs of the animals, gardens and farm shift. (We do not dismiss or minimize death, and a discussion and burial might replace other plans if we encounter dead animals. Likewise, we might dig all the potatoes if rain risks them rotting in the ground before the gardener can get to them.)

We actively seek out projects that serve farms and ecosystems, such as nest boxes, bird, bat or pollinator houses, or sawhorses, that can serve as a basis for teaching crafts but do not require impeccable wood working skills.

We allow our animals to live out the essential expressions of their species. (Our ruminants graze as much as possible, our dairy cows and goats nurse their calves, our hens can brood and hatch chicks, and our rabbit cages are frequently moved to fresh grass.)

We allow ourselves and others to express our own essential nature in our unique and quirky ways. We value our differences.