ABOUT US
What is the Catfarm
Bring your creativity, be part of the community, and carry regenerative actions with us.
Catfarm is an off-grid intentional community in the South of France where people from all walks of life come together to live, learn, and create. This is where big ideas become real projects, and where we explore new ways of living that are more just, connected, and in harmony with the planet.
Our community is the heart of everything we do. Catfarm is home to a diverse group of curious minds and bold doers who want to go beyond dreaming and start building. Here, people design and run volunteer projects themselves, gaining knowledge, confidence, and the tools to shape their own futures.
We view Catfarm as a living laboratory for regeneration, exploring how community life can help restore and protect not just nature, but also the social, economic, and cultural systems that surround us. Through various non-formal educational methods integrated into our workshops, youth exchanges, trainings, and hands-on projects, we provide an opportunity to test ideas, share skills, and make a meaningful impact using limited resources.
Art and creativity play a significant role in our shared culture. They are how we experiment, communicate, and reimagine the future together. Creativity fuels innovation and problem-solving, helping us transform challenges into possibilities and bring regenerative ideas to life.
Equally important is belonging. Living in community teaches us the values of collaboration, care, accountability, and well-being. We believe that fostering connections, freedom of expression, and mutual support and solidarity are essential qualities for building just and regenerative systems.
Daily life here is simple and rooted in nature. It’s a place to slow down, reflect, connect with ourselves and each other, and flourish together. We work closely with local allies to support and strengthen our region, while staying connected to a global network of intentional communities and organizations that, each in their own way, are creating a more diverse and regenerative world.
The Association
Founded in 2018 near Poussan, France, Catfarm Education is a non-profit dedicated to transformative, non-formal learning.
Guided by Community, Creativity, and Regeneration, we empower young people and curious minds to explore, experiment, and co-create. Through workshops, projects, and community life, we inspire belonging, spark imagination, and model regenerative ways of living.
OUR VALUES
Community
We live, learn, and create together in a culture of sharing, care, respect, and understanding. Belonging is at the heart of everything we do.
Creativity
We approach life as a playground for imagination and experimentation. Through art, collaborative projects, and non-formal learning, we explore new ways to connect to ourselves, each other, and nature, solve challenges, and bring ideas to life.
Regeneration
We take action to restore balance in the world around us, both ecologically and culturally, as well as socially and economically. By living consciously and practicing regenerative solutions, we create resilient ways of living that adapt to the complexities of our times.
Community
We live, learn, and create together in a culture of sharing, care, respect, and understanding. Belonging is at the heart of everything we do.
Creativity
We approach life as a playground for imagination and experimentation. Through art, collaborative projects, and non-formal learning, we explore new ways to connect to ourselves, each other, and nature, solve challenges, and bring ideas to life.
Regeneration
We take action to restore balance in the world around us, both ecologically and culturally, as well as socially and economically. By living consciously and practicing regenerative solutions, we create resilient ways of living that adapt to the complexities of our times.
Our Educational Vision
The world is in ecological, socio-political, and economic transition. Communities like Catfarm are living experiments of regenerative practices, and we hold valuable lived knowledge and know-how that can inspire and support others.
To share this more widely, we’ve created Catfarm Education to share, deepen, and expand on what we’ve learned.
Our focus on informal, transformative learning is at the heart of our mission. We specialize in areas such as:
- Regenerative culture and systems change (ecological, social, economic, and cultural regeneration)
- Intentional community living (holacracy, horizontal governance, collective decision-making)
- Nonviolent Communication and conflict transformation (building trust, empathy, and belonging)
- Creative expression and art as tools for self-discovery and regeneration
- Permaculture and Regenerative Agroforestry
- Natural Building
- Youth empowerment, skill development, and leadership
- Off-grid living and resilience (resourcefulness, circular systems, practical sustainability)
- And much more!
Our Mission
Through these areas, our mission is to:
- Share knowledge through in-person and online courses, events, gatherings, workshops, trainings, youth exchanges, internships, and volunteering programs;
- Strengthen lasting bonds with people worldwide connected to Catfarm;
- Welcome newcomers with context, tools, and Catfarm values;
- Establish Catfarm’s culture as something people can access, learn, and carry forward;
- Become both a physical and digital school of regenerative living, and a role model for regenerative culture.
MEET THE TEAM
Gabriel Busato
Finance and Administration
Manager, designer, and facilitator of collaborative processes, specialized in horizontal governance inspired by holacracy and sociocracy. With a background in Business, Design, an MBA in Leadership, and a Master’s degree in HR, he has over a decade of experience supporting organizations focused on social impact and human transformation. Co-founder of initiatives in Brazil and Europe, he has been part of Catfarm since 2020, where he energizes the Vision Guardian role and supports finance, HR, and operations. He also collaborates with Les Pas Sages, supporting communities through resilient organizational models.
Blu
Art Guardian
Blu is a fine artist born in Cyprus exploring the unconscious mind, themes of identity and healing through creativity combining nature elements and figurative abstraction. They feel a deep need for expression through mediums such as oil painting ,performance, movement, analogue photography, installations which were explored during the BA (Honours) Fine Art. They continue to expand in natural mediums and experimental regenerative art while facilitating workshops. They are working across clay sculptures on eco construction, painting with natural pigments on fabric and clay. Diving into new mediums like textile up-cycling, solar printing and ink making. They are passionate about finding ways to merge nature with contemporary art.
Dara Casey
Gardener and Eco-builder
Before coming to Catfarm, Dara spent 8 years traveling around the world, learning from ecovillages, permaculture projects, ancestral and indigenous people. His main focus of learning and teaching is regenerative agriculture, natural building, herbalism, and the organisation of mass movements for radical transformation. After collecting many seeds, he is now planting them here in Catfarm. His main responsibilities are as garden guardian, eco building cat and he is also part of the vision and project management. He has a passion for teaching, so people interested can come join him in the garden and building site.
Barish Gaia
Inclusion & Care
Barish is a transformative philosopher and neuroqueer facilitator, as well as a trainer in Nonviolent Communication, permaculture, and other practices that reshape the narratives we live by. After spending a year in an occupied forest, they began a nine-year journey across four continents, living for extended periods throughout Latin America, Asia, and Africa. They are a passionate Dragqueer and they love to play all sorts of games and to sparkle around.
They do project management, co-energise the Balance Circle and currently serve as the Community’s Care-Cat, in addition to being a member of the organisation’s board.
Ari Lótus
Ari is an artist and digital nomad who has traveled to over 100 cities over the past five years, working as a graphic designer, illustrator, and musician. At Catfarm, she leads visual communication through a partnership with her creative studio, Cataliza Studio.
Dedicated to art since childhood, with a strong focus on digital media, Ari holds a BA in Graphic Design (Unicuritiba, 2017). She approaches creativity and communication as tools for personal and collective growth. Her work bridges ancestry and futurity, drawing on ancestral wisdom, psychology, philosophy, and mythology to foster emotional reconnection in an increasingly fragmented world.
Nicolas Filippini
Nicolas followed a line of radical discontinuity reshaping their worldview and exploring alternative ways of living for 10 years before settling in Catfarm. With a multidisciplinary Bachelor and a Master’s degree in International Negotiation, he worked in CSR and business development, while engaging in associative projects. Trained in coaching (ICF, RNCP) he aims to bridge a wider regenerative transition through Nicococreation. In Catfarm, their focus is on the management of infrastructures, coordination of local projects, gardening, and facilitation. Inviting playfulness, action, and care.
Ciska Van Stuijvenberg
Project Manager
Ciska traveled to many different ecovillages in Europe learning about more sustainable ways of living. Driven by a passion to see how we can live more connected to the earth, our self and community. Seeing how we can create regenerative cultures starting on a small scale local level, as well as connecting to the wider network of ecovillages. At Catfarm they work on project management together with also getting their hands in the ground at the garden, learning about soil regeneration and how to create more biodiversity. With all of this studying how we can create resilient communities and also to have fun living together now.
Ulysses Schuitemaker
Founder / IT Infrastructure
With a background in IT and electronics, Ulysses moved towards visual arts and founded the Catfarm and the Adventures of Valparaiso community. He worked with over 1000 international youth since 2012 and has been leading and hosting workshops. For many of the projects, he does concept development and initiates new ideas. Ulysses has experience as a group leader and has managed many projects while teaching practical skills as a method. His key competences are leading, moving groups, mentoring, concept development, design, computing and practical skills. Strongly puts confidence in circular economy and the reuse of commodities.