Banana Mountain is a co-created learning community for young people aged 6 to 18 located in a valley 20 minutes outside Orgiva. Our work is based on the principles of direct democracy and consent, freedom and responsibility, justice and equality, solidarity, and a deep trust in young people’s ability to take responsibility for their own lives.  

The aims of our project are to create a rich and nurturing environment that supports young people to discover and develop their passions, create caring, empowered relationships with themselves, other people and the world, and build a solid foundation for the lifelong work of becoming good elders and good ancestors to all life.

Our project is now in its fifth year, and many of you will know of us. What you may not know is that this year we closed our doors to new people to focus on a conscious, collective process of reflection and re-generation. During this time, Banana Mountain has been a living laboratory – every community member both a researcher and a participant – working on finding answers to the big question that emerged from our first four years:

How can we create a community based on free choice and consent, where everyone feels real ownership, belonging, responsibility, inspiration, motivation and commitment?

After two months of intensive work, we are beginning to see very positive preliminary results. Our questions have not been definitively answered, and probably never will be, but we are now ready to invite a few more young people to join us in our quest to co-create this wonderful dynamic, thriving, educational eco-system.