Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohousing and local neighborhood

[Laura Fitch (lfitch]

Pioneer Valley Cohousing in western Massachusetts has a dozen active
"associate members" who live in the adjacent neighborhood (not in a
cohousing unit).  They come to meals and help with work.  Both the members
and the associate members have many outside connections, and bring political
and other organizations into the community.  The Common House is frequently
used (once a month?) for outside groups with sponsors within our community:

examples:
- local politicians come to meals during campaign to talk about issues
- Men's Resource Center (University based organization combating violence)
uses our common house for yearly event
- Buddhist meditation retreat uses common house for yearly event
- Guatemalan adoption group (parents that adopted Guatemalan children) have
yearly party.
Cambodian water project - yearly non-profit fund raiser

etc, etc.

Laura Fitch, AIA, LEED
Kraus-Fitch Architects, Inc
110 Pulpit Hill Rd.
Amherst, MA  01002
413-549-5799
lfitch [at] krausfitch.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Naoko Inami [mailto:inami_na [at] hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2008 12:16 PM
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
Subject: [C-L]_ Cohousing and local neighborhood




Hi! My name is Naoko Inami, a graduate student of Osaka University in
Japan.I have been interested in Cohousing and have been researching it for 4
years.I am sending this message to ask a question about cohousing,especially
the relationship between cohousing and neighborhoods(I mean "local area,"
not the neighbors within a cohousing community).Are there any cohousings
that actively work with their neighborhood to improve the larger community?
I heard that some communities, like Songaia Cohousing (Bothell, WA),
Doyle Street Cohousing (Emeryville, CA),Los Angeles EcoVillage,
Hearthstone Cohousing (Denver, CO), and Swan's Market Cohousing members
(Oakland, CA),
are working together with their neighborhood.

So, I apprecitate if I can know some other communities that provide space
for political organizing
or other non-governmental organizations/nonprofits where members are
involved.
Thank you very much for your help.Regards,
Naoko Inami
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