A group of a few hundred people in the Netherlands have been attempting to establish an ecovillage based on spirituality, community building and ecology – called Ecodorp (see www.ecodorp.nl). In June, 2002, three people from that group decided not to wait (they would still be waiting) for this to happen and decided to buy or rent a farm. They founded an association ‘Vereniging Vlierhof’. In September, 2002 this association bought a farm, which they called ‘De Vlierhof’ (The land on which the farm was built was called ”Flierhostey”).

The same month, the first 4 people moved in: 2 farmers, a therapist/artist, and an entrepreneur. Before long, it was clear that the farmers had a different attitude about the vision of the community and in September, 2003, they bought and moved to another farm. This marked a new beginning for the remaining two, Tineke and Anutosh.

The second year was one of reflection, vision forming, developing a new course of action, and building a network of interested people. They were especially inspired by the vision of Dieter Duhm who developed the Heilungsbiotop Tamera in Portugal. Tamera works on a vision for peace, a world without war.

In September 2004, the vision was published: peace with yourself, with the community and with nature. In the Autumn of 2004, Caroline came to live part-time on the Vlierhof. She was closely involved with the Ecodorp movement and came to establish a Care Farm. The care farm was successful and regularly catered for up to 12 clients. Residents from all over the world arrived and left again. We experimented with new forms of governance.

In 2009, it was decided that a new focus would help the development of Vlierhof. A new vision was developed inspired by the vision of the ecovillages Auroville (India) and Findhorn (Scotland): living, learning, and working. The vision of the care farm was also changed to the present timeout program with the aim to offer a healing and transformational environment for people having feelings of ‘burn-out’ or those with a desire to re-orient and re-invigorate their lives.