WE&S is really excited about the dimensions of this Project and the potential impact on so many lives.  We as women, an overall low-income group, must have options that are both Affordable and Accessible.  We need Healthy housing.  We need a supportive environment.  The need becomes more pressing as we lose job security or physical ability and as we age.

In part this Project was inspired by Jae’s cousin Cindy Froeschle Duehring who succumbed in her 30ies to organ failure caused by overexposure to dursban and her resulting Environmental Illness (EI also sometimes called MCS or Multiple Chemical Sensitivities).  Among many amazing accomplishments and despite total confinement to her sealed home, Cindy was awarded the Alternate Nobel Prize by the Swedish Parliament for her work on behalf of the EI community and in publicizing and providing education about the causes of EI.

Clearly, a woman cannot fully expand in other areas of her life until she has dependable food and shelter and a nourishing environment.  Just the fear of losing access to shelter and food can be immobilizing.  Housing must be affordable and accessible to a range of abilities/ disabilities.

It is our mission to provide Workshops and other experiences so as many women as possible can hands-on or by example gain the confidence that no matter what happens in their lives they have the ability to build a simple shelter and provide basic food.

Just seeing the woman-built beautiful GuestHouses at Outland can inspire belief in her own capability in almost any woman.  Most women who helped build our adobe casitas had no previous experience.  Our structures and our lives reflect our Simple Living philosophy.

We believe that what women lack most is self-confidence and Confidence in Self.  Encouraging this Big Self is at the heart of every WE&S sponsored Workshop and Event.  We also consider it important that women realize they do have the option of living on land if they ever want or need to.  Knowing lands exist that would welcome new women and believing in the option of access to land living, or living anywhere it is permissible to erect a simple structure or cabin without interference, is part of inspiring that I-can-do-it confidence.

Our Workshops are consciously designed to equally focus on Learning Skills, Personal Development, Connection, Creativity & Wholeness/ Healing.  It is this multi-faceted and broad-spectrum blend that creates the perfect workshop experience and the most profound opportunity for changes in attitude, possibilities and dreams.

Core to our 21  Outlandish Women’s Adobe Building Weeks in 2008 and our 42 total Workshops is a focus on Women Build Our Own Houses.  Within that confidence-building total experience, women learn how to build a cabin through both instruction and hands-on experience-- basic Construction Principles, Tool Use & Safety Considerations.  Yes, even after one week and obviously preferably after a longer stay, a woman can return home able to start her own cabin or other building project.  And, the same principles carry over to any activity or Project that each woman is involved with— assess the need, gather basic info and then just do it.  Smile, that’s what we call Outlandish thinking.

Accessibility, both physical and financial, is fundamental to our approach to building.  We focus on practices fitting to a woman’s body.  Plus, we stress nontoxic, green and renewable, at harmony with the Earth.  We prioritize affordable materials, owner-built, methods that women without training can use, and easily maintained. We encourage mutuality and cooperation, building together rather than alone. 

Other workshops will focus on raising food and other self-sufficiency skills.