About the Wildcat Center

What’s the Wildcat Center all about?

“Alternative” is a big word around here. We’re all about “alternative crops”, “alternative energy”, “alternative computing”, “alternative economy”… The center exists because we believe there is an alternative to a lot of what we see around us, and we’re committed to exploring it, living it, and passing it on. We’re interested in alternatives for a lot of reasons.

  • One reason is that what’s already out there isn’t working very well. Lots of people are hungry, poor and in debt, and unempowered to take their place in healthy, wholesome communities. We think that it’s very possible to do something about a lot of that.
  • Another is that the world has become a pretty scary place that shows every sign of getting even scarier. The way that people meet their needs and live their lives these days doesn’t do much to prepare for the sort of world that we might live in, if even a small number of the crises that we read about every day actually hit. We think that it’s possible to do a lot better.
  • Finally, we’ve looked at the lives and fruit of people who think, build and play in one of these areas or another, and we’re not content to see all of what they’ve accomplished sit in a corner, without any impact on the lives of people who most need it. We believe in “getting real” about offering alternatives.

So how does the center work?

We’re divided into a number of teams.

  • The Village Garden is home to our agriculture teams, which seek to release the abundance of creation to feed the nations:
    • The garden team learns how to grow food on a scale suitable for families - both rural and urban
    • The experimental kitchen team works with unusual food sources, to learn how to use them as food
    • The agricultural team partners with local farmers to learn how to grow underutilized food plants
  • The Village Workshop is home to our engineering teams, who explore engineering whose practice and results are appropriate for communities with limited resources:
    • The energy team learns how to generate heat, power and electricity affordably and sustainably
    • The engineering team looks at topics ranging from small engines to novel stoves
    • Our construction team uses novel construction materials and methods to make cheap, efficient dwellings and other buildings
  • The Village Outpost is where our outreach teams work to experience and apply what we learn to help others in needy communities

A number of other teams are in the planning stages.

How can I participate?

The Village is both an online community and a “real life” community. We’re working hard to help individuals and teams in many places work and act together as a community. We’re based in Indiana, a short drive from Purdue University (we’re considering bases in several other places around the world as well). We’d love for you to participate, either online or in person. There are lots of things to do and lots of ways to do them.

  • Teams
    We welcome participation at all levels, including:
    • Community or student volunteers who might have a spare Saturday or afternoon from time to time
    • Students looking for an interesting way to spend a summer vacation
    • Interns interested in anything from a semester of service to a dissertation topic
    • Prospective full time team members
  • Community
    If you’re not close enough or don’t have the time to work with us in person, we welcome online participants as well. The Village Web site will include a number of features to help. If you’d like to be part of our online community, feel free to sign up for an account (many of the resources available here are only available to users who’ve signed up.)
  • Outreach
    If your community, church or other group would like to participate in a life-changing time of training and service, we’d love to speak with you.

What’s available on the Web site?

We’ll be adding a lot more, but for the moment, our principal resource is the Village library. Most of the library is only available to registered users. Some of the things in the planning stages include:

  • Access to our database of over 15,000 plant species
  • Access to our knowledge bases on all of the world’s countries and languages

What is the history of the Wildcat Center?

The Wildcat Center was founded in January, 2008, as a continuation of a project founded and run in Hong Kong between 2001 and 2007. The Center is located at 6300W 500S, Delphi, Indiana, on the North Fork of the Wildcat Creek.