Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Helping Hands group

[Muriel Kranowski (murielk]

Sharon, is one person (or a team who rotate) designated to do this and
everyone goes to that person or team for this kind of assistance, or might
anyone act as someone's information sharer when there's a situation that
calls for it and the community is used to this sort of ad hoc information
source? Ie, how does it work organizationally?
  Muriel @ Shadowlake Village

On Mon, Jul 25, 2022 at 2:44 PM Sharon Villines via Cohousing-L <
cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:

> > On Jul 23, 2022, at 12:42 PM, Alicia George <ajgeorge [at] earthlink.net>
> wrote:
> >
> > We have folks who coordinate what we call TLC @ TVC (where “TLC" stands
> for Tender Loving Care and “TVC” is how we refer to Takoma Village
> Cohousing). We have 43 households.
> >
> > Those in charge of TLC @ TVC coordinate the provision of meals for
> families with new babies and people who are recovering from an injury,
> serious illness, or hospitalization. This is part of our effort to provide
> support to one another, but also allows for the support to be orderly so
> four casserole aren’t delivered on the same day. Lately we have been using
> the Meal Train <https://www.mealtrain.com/> app for this.
> >
> > Other needs (for a ride to an appointment, for childcare, for picking up
> a prescription, etc.) are handled by the requestor posting a message on our
> internal email list, to which many people usually respond. This cuts out
> the middle man and allows for a quick response by those who are available
> at the time needed.
>
> In addition to the things Alicia lists we have also had a person who does
> the communications for people in crisis. It’s very hard to live with people
> who are suffering terminal cancer or a loved one has died or all the money
> earners in the household have lost their jobs. To have 60 people asking
> “Are you doing okay,” or “Is there anything I can do” is impossible. But to
> be one of the 60 not knowing what is happening is also painful. The pain
> just radiates in silence affecting everyone. Their fears can be much worse
> than reality.
>
> What has worked well is that one person is asked or given permission to be
> the information sharer. They may send out regular reports or just respond
> to questions. That keeps everyone at least up to date on factual
> information rather than walking around with unspoken anxiety.
>
> This issue often raises the “right to privacy.” Once you live in
> community, the community lives with you. Whatever is affecting you is
> affecting everyone else. To close them off can be disabling.
>
> Even if details are not shared, a statement about what the issue is and
> how you want things handled is very helpful. "I have some bad test results
> and will have surgery next week. I won’t know anything until then, please
> don’t ask me. So-and-so will let everyone know a soon as I know.” “Please
> don’t mention this to my children. They know but don’t want to talk about
> it.”
>
> Sharon
> ----
> Sharon Villines
> Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
> http://www.takomavillage.org
>
>
>
>
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