Havens: Stories of True Community Healing

This book really inspired me and made me want to live in a community like those described in the book! The authors do a good job of exploring a wide range of healing communities and discussing how and why they work. I think that community is something that many of us have forfeited in exchange for material possessions, privacy, and individual ambitions...this book makes you realize what we have lost in doing that, and what we could gain if we went back to a more communal way of living and thinking. Though the book focuses on people who have addiction, mental illness, disabilities or health problems, I think many of the benefits of community for these groups could apply to all of us. This book challenges the current model of professionals creating fake residenteial environments and trying to use them to "fix" people, and it makes a very strong case that people can heal themselves if they are given the chance to live in an affirming, supportive, and natural community. This book shows that these types of settings can thrive and prosper, and that they make a real difference in peoples' lives. Right now our society heavily favors settings that are institutional in nature, and this book maintains that this really isn't the most efficient use of resources.