About Us
When people arrive at The Center, they often feel a strong sense of welcome from and connection to the people, plants, and creatures here. This welcome inspires people to embody and share their rich, full authentic selves. Essential to our work is the recognition that everyone has something of value to share.
This sharing of self and shared sense of beloved place is at the core of The Center.
Sometimes a person or group will feel a calling to generate ideas for activities or programs that can happen at The Center. This is pure gold for our community-making, and we welcome hosting projects that are in alignment with our mission!
Our Mission
The Center at Orchard Hill is a gathering place in service to creating a nurturing and accessible community for all.
Our Vision
We envision a world where people share their authenticity, strengths, and culture. Harnessing the spirit of possibility, we envision a truly inclusive, harmonious world.
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Our Values
Orchard Hill is a place of possibility and emergence. Our values guide us as we build and maintain the connective tissue that weaves together people and the land.
Nature/Nurture
The land and the people who come here heal and are healed. People heal land. Land heals people. People heal people. Land heals land.
Regenerative Community
We host an evershifting space of interdependent activity. Our community is a place where you can enact and be received as your fullest self, with others.
Authenticity
We bring our full, messy, complex selves, histories, and social identities to our work and invite people who come here to do so as well.
Accessibility/Inclusion
We proactively welcome and are in solidarity with people who are socially disadvantaged because of ability, race, gender, sexual orientation, educational/economic status, and in other ways.
Cultural Exchange and Creation
We honor and hold space for the many different cultural traditions, rituals, and ceremonies of people who come to Orchard Hill.
Reciprocity
There are many ways to be in exchange with us, including the sharing of time, energy, creativity, and funds. Reciprocity means our relationships are mutual; we give what we are capable of giving and warmly receive what is offered.
Hello From Our Team!
The leaders at The Center are heeding a call to sustain the land and the people who come through. We work collectively and ground ourselves in group practices of reflection, care, and celebration, so that we can be exquisitely attentive to each other and the emerging needs of the people who come to Orchard Hill. We are a fluid group, and our composition expands and contracts as individual leaders are called to work with the Center. Our day-to-day work involves the administration, program planning, and maintaining of The Center.
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Eleanor, Co-Director & Founder
Eleanor leads and directs all Day Camps at Orchard Hill and mentors child and youth programs. Eleanor embodies the heart and soul of The Center at Orchard Hill, a long-time advocate for inclusion for all children and families. She continues to find immense joy in empowering all ages and stages as they are given space to explore culture, self, and their own gifts to the world. Eleanor is an active presence in our community festivals throughout the year.
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Andrea, Co-Director & Office Manager
In this small organization, each of us wears many hats and Andrea can be found at the computer, as well as in the garden, or cleaning and tending the building. She leads Make Something Day and is active in community festivals and events around the year. Andrea has been gratefully involved at Orchard Hill since 2008 when her children began attending preschool and kindergarten at The Orchard School and she is delighted to be giving her energy building community at The Center at Orchard Hill.
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Sammy, Resident Artist & Teacher
As our long term artist-in-residence, Sammy brings his visionary and poetic leadership to our work. As an artist, musician and teacher he believes in the power of shared transformation through play and creativity. A passionate educator of teen-aged humans, he spends his work week as beloved art and music teacher at LEAF Charter High School and co-leads our summer teen programs.