Live close to nature, share nourishing meals, contribute meaningful work, swim in waterfalls, explore the island, and learn to communicate, collaborate, and live in harmony with others.
Five participants. One season. Twenty hours of work a week. Memories and lessons to last a lifetime.
Rainbow Bridge is an Intentional Community, Regenerative Permaculture Homestead, and a developing healing sanctuary.
We envision a world where people live in reciprocity with the Earth and each other; where healing is communal, beauty is sacred, and life is guided by awe, purpose, and shared belonging.
This is what we are striving to build at Rainbow Bridge, by bringing people into connection with nature, growing and providing nourishing food, and creating a container for interpersonal healing and connection.
For the last few years, we have seen people from all over the world come through our work-trade program. They would come at different times, stay for different durations, and would overlap with other worktraders for portions of their stay. We started to notice a trend…
The people who seemed to have the deepest, most meaningful experiences were often the ones whose stays overlapped with a consistent group of other worktraders.
These gruops formed deeper relationships. Volunteers became more comfortable being vulnerable and authentic. Friendships formed, and what began as a group of strangers often became a genuine community. Now we’re creating an intentional container to cultivate these kinds of experiences.
Each season, we’ll welcome a small group of five people to live and contribute at Rainbow Bridge together. Over the course of approximately three months, you’ll share the rhythms of daily life…from working on the land and preparing meals to exploring the island, relaxing by the waterfall, and navigating the joys and challenges of living in community.
Wake up surrounded by tropical gardens, forests, animals, and the rhythms of an off-grid homestead.
Share everyday life with a small group of people and develop relationships that have time and space to deepen.
Spend 20 hours each week helping care for the land and build the systems that make Rainbow Bridge possible.
Step outside of your usual routines and create room for reflection, connection, play, and personal growth.
February 15 – May 15
May 24 – August 15
August 23 – November 14
November 29 – February 15
Shared dinners Monday-Thursday
Movie nights, craft nights, camp fires, games, & occasional jam sessions
Time to relax, explore the land, beach trips, volcano adventures, markets, dance, drum circles, and more.
Think summer camp for adults, but instead of paying to be here, you contribute to the place you get to call home.
Rainbow Bridge is a working community, and your contribution is part of becoming a part of it. In exchange for housing, food, and the full community experience, you’ll contribute 20 hours of service work each week, Monday–Thursday, working alongside residents on projects that keep Rainbow Bridge running and help us build our healing sanctuary.
The projects you’ll work on will vary based on your skills and capabilities, as well as the needs of our different project leads. You might find yourself gardening one day, helping with a building project the next, or pitching in with food systems, maintenance, or hospitality.
You’ll also spend around 5 hours each week participating in community life from morning meetings to dinner prep and cleanup.
Our community is made up of people with different skills, passions, and areas of responsibility. Throughout your season, you’ll have the chance to work alongside our circle leads and learn from the people who keep Rainbow Bridge growing.
Mickey is the lead of the land circle and oversees animals, planting, landscaping, propogation, plant nursery, and tree-work projects.
Leah is the lead of the communications circle, overseeing social media, website, and marketing, as well as leading garden and food processing projects with volunteers.
Tosh is the lead of the building circle and oversees construction, building projects, infrastructure, maintenance, site development, and contractor coordination.
Melissa is the lead of the hospitality circle and oversees housekeeping, food preparation, kitchen systems, and inventory.
Adam is the lead of the maintenance circle and oversees machinery, tools, building maintenance, repairs, infrastructure, land maintenance, and select building projects.
Rainbow Bridge isn’t just a place to live and work; it’s a space to look inward, too.
We intentionally make room for emotional processing, pattern healing, and “shadow work.” Some members of our community are trained to facilitate these kinds of spaces, creating opportunities for reflection, vulnerability, honest conversation, and repair. One of our consistent group practices is council on Friday mornings. Another is intentional dream incubation and dream sharing on Saturday mornings.
Nothing is required, but if you’re open to it, the community can become a powerful container for growth and transformation.
The work is only part of the experience. There’s swimming at the waterfall, exploring the land, beach days, communal meals, craft nights, cute animals, music, games, adventures around the island, and all the spontaneous moments that happen when a group of people shares a season of life together.
Some days it’s a lunchtime waterfall dip. Some nights it’s lingering around the dinner table for hours. Sometimes someone finds a ridiculous amount of fruit and suddenly we’re all in the kitchen figuring out what to do with it.
Every day is different here, and you never quite know what a day at Rainbow Bridge will bring.
See what our previous worktraders have to share about their experience.
We start the day together with a morning check-in and service round meeting. We connect as a group, hear what’s happening in the community, and coordinate the day’s work.
Take your time eating breakfast before getting into the day’s work.
Get your hands in the dirt and contribute to the community. Work may include gardening, land stewardship, building, maintenance, food systems, animal care, or other community projects.
Enjoy a prepared communal lunch and take a real break. Eat, relax, cool off in the waterfall, take a nap, or enjoy some downtime.
Return to your project for the afternoon. By 5 PM, the workday is done.
Come together for our evening meal and the chance to reconnect after the day.
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Volunteer Opportunities, Eco-village News, Retreats, and New Programs.
We are excited to hear a bit about you. Please fill out the form, including any applicable experience and Someone will reach out to you soon to continue the application process!
We are happy to arrange rides to and from the airport for a small fee and some of our community members are also open to renting out their vehicles. With community we usually have enough resources to meet most needs.
Yes. The goal is to hold a structure strong enough to support learning and our existing systems while also accomodating needs and desires. We will find the win-win in most situations.
20 hours a week. There will be a variety of projects and tasks in either the land or build circle. Much of it is side by side with one of our Circle leads, but there will also be specific tasks volunteers can take ownership of.
There is an additional ~5 hours per week for community service tasks (e.g. shared cleaning, dinner prep, group check-ins)
The work will often involve things such as digging, cutting, and moving materials. Applicants should be able to lift 45lbs and be comfortable getting sweaty and dirty.
There will be 5 volunteer participants per season. There are 10 adult residents, two teenagers, and two children who live long term at rainbow Bridge. Depending on the season, there may also be one or two specialized tradesmen staying as well. That would equal 15-17 adults, two teenagers, and two children.
We eat Vegetarian(mostly vegan) meals. A lot of food comes from the land and we supplement with staples like beans, lentils rice, oats, pasta, etc. We have a well stocked pantry and every weeknight there is a community dinner prepared by different members of the community.