The Center for Rural Renewal’s mission is to initiate exchanges of knowledge and creativity, connect people with each other and their ecosystems, and inspire people to serve community and leave a creative legacy.

Cedar Grove’s Center for Rural Renewal serves the people of rural Siskiyou County, California. We cultivate community festivals, music and theater productions, and literary events. We’re also excited to facilitate social renewal gatherings such as conversation cafés, nonviolent communication training, and deep democracy workshops.

“Community has become a magic word, a mystic goal. But it is our economic lives, even more than our moral choices, that play the crucial role in wrecking or rebuilding our communities. We need to once again depend on those around us for something real. If we do, then the bonds that make for human satisfaction, as opposed to endless growth, will begin to reemerge.” —Bill McKibben

Our Home: Dunsmuir, California

Cedar Grove is located in the heart of the Siskiyou Mountains of far northern California, in the post-industrial village of Dunsmuir. The Sacramento River runs through town, bringing with it an abundance of trout, playful river otters, and glorious waterfalls. Dunsmuir is surrounded by rugged wilderness, cut through by the winding tracks of the railroad. Mt. Shasta rises above Dunsmuir, while the rugged Castle Crags rise to the south.

Today Dunsmuir faces many social, environmental, and economic challenges. Dunsmuir has an unemployment rate of 10%, very few thriving businesses, and a dwindling youth population as its young people move away to find work in urban areas. Its current population of 1,552 is a 5.37% decrease from 2010, with a poverty rate of 18.36%. 96.3% of students at Dunsmuir Elementary School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Drug abuse is rampant. The town needs renewal in many areas to bring vitality and health—however, the culture of the entire community will not be renewed unless every segment of the population plays an integral part in its renewal from the beginning.