Central Connecticut River Valley Institute, Inc
The Central Connecticut River Valley Institute ("CCRVI"), a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, exists to create educational programs and innovative social, cultural, and economic institutions which encourage people to experience the physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual benefits of living in deep connection with the natural world, with themselves, and with each other.
CCRVI has a "bioregional" orientation. Ultimately our focus will be primarily in the central portion of the Connecticut River Valley watershed which is the location of what is known as the "transitional forest." This forest is "transitional" between the northern boreal forest and the mid-Atlantic forest. Our Bioregion is very roughly comprised of the following counties: Cheshire and Sullivan in New Hampshire, Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden in Massachusetts, and Windham and Windsor in Vermont.
At this time, however, CCRVI is only working in Massachusetts. We currently have no programs in New Hampshire or Vermont.
NOTE: The Central Connecticut River Valley Institute, Inc. supported the adoption of the Community Preservation Act in Shelburne. Now that the Town has adoped CPA, we will continue to donate space on our website as an online center for CPA information until the Town creates its own CPA website.
Four of CCRVI's current areas of focus are:
Creating a "deep emotional intelligence" educational program which will teach a perspective and a skill set which allows people to become more conscious of the beliefs underlying their lives generally, and their emotional states in particular. By becoming conscious of their beliefs and then changing those that don’t work for them, people can shift toward being the person they wish to become. In the past, CCRVI has been involved in teaching these skill sets to groups of men and women separately and it hopes to develop a teacher-training program for this skill set.
Supporting organizations which are doing work which promotes CCRVI's exempt educational purposes. Currently CCRVI is supporting Western Mass Wilderness Rites, Inc. Click on Current Projects for more details on WMWR.
Creating bioregionally-based, sustainable, and affordable sources for basic human needs such as food, water, energy, housing, sanitation, clothing, transportation, education, etc.; and
Promoting deep-nature connection, sustainable forestry; the conservation of natural resources; the use of earth-friendly building construction materials and methods; the recycling and reuse of everything; the conservation and preservation of land; and high quality relationships between humans and between humans and animals, both wild and domestic.