Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Supporting forming communities & national policies/structures

[Tom Hammer (thammer302]

Thank you to all who have so thoughtfully responded to
this thread.

I really liked the idea (Fred's?) of a "peace corps"
for cohousing.  We would seriously consider providing
room and board for someone (or 2?) who could help the
4 forming communities in the DE/PA/NJ area.

--The volunteers could be "interns", learning the
cohousing formation process and aiding in implementing
it.

--They might  be young people interested in learning
about cohousing, community organizing,
developing/building/architecture and looking for a
year or two off after college or someone looking for a
new career or needing a change of life, like a
"sabbatical" from their present life, possibly someone
who already lives in cohousing, but not necessarily.
Or they might be interested in developing cohousing as
a possible career, and they might also want to
experience a different part of the country in addition
to learning some/all of the above.

--A forming community probably has many members with a
spare bedroom or two.  

The volunteer's first tasks might be self-education in
the formation of a cohousing community.  They could
interview pioneers/planners of successful communities
and develop a network among them as well as cohousing
development companies.

Coho US could do initial screening/training of
candidates and provide some supervision and support. 
However, most beginning coho communities have links to
local professionals who could be recruited to mentor
such a person and provide local support.

Room and board would not be a major expense to a
forming community.  The interns would probably have to
provide their own transportation.  I'd suggest a small
monthly stipend.  That could be a stumbling block ,
but it's solvable--perhaps a foundation grant could be
obtained.

Thoughts or volunteers?

Tom Hammer
for Concord Village


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