Cohousing-L Mailing List: FW: Teen Rooms

[Witten & Fitch (lll]

The teen room at Pioneer Valley Cohousing was I believe the only thing we
really got wrong and wasted money on.  The teens asked for it, and they even
helped us build it, and it was never used.  Now there were no windows in the
room, and it was in the back of the basement, so I was betting on its
failure from the get go.  So, should we have said "no" to begin with, or was
this a valuable lesson for the teens and the community?  I don't know.

For about five years it sat there, used maybe half a dozen times for
community wide movie nights (then even those moved up to the more attractive
library space).  Finally a group of folks asked if we couldn't retrofit the
space into an exercise room.  That was done, and it gets fairly good use now
(at least in the winter time).

Our older teens do distance themselves quite a bit from the community, but
they do participate in many things, particularly talent shows, helping with
meals, concert nights, parties, etc.  I have seen pool tables in commonhouse
recreation rooms, that might attract teen use, but I can't speak with
experience as to their regular use.

Our younger teens hang out in the same places the adults do:  the courtyard,
the commonhouse steps, the porches, the front living room.  I think they
like to be in the same sort of places adults do:  along the fringe, where
they can watch the world go by, and decide if and how they want to
participate in it.  Hang enough hammocks or  swinging chairs around the
community, and there you will find every age group, happily hanging
together.  Why segregate them;  don't they get enough of that in the school
system?

Good Luck,
Laura Fitch,
Pioneer Valley Cohousing

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cohousing-l [at] freedom2.mtn.org
> [mailto:cohousing-l [at] freedom2.mtn.org]On Behalf Of Fred H Olson
> Sent: Sunday, September 03, 2000 7:39 AM
> To: Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: Teen Rooms
>
>
> Beth at River Rock Commons, in Colorado   beth [at] riverrock.org
> is the author of the message below but due to a problem
> (posted from address other than subscribed address),
> it was posted by Fred the Cohousing-L list manager:  fholson [at] 
> cohousing.org
>
> To get off Cohousing-L, send email with UNSUBSCRIBE COHOUSING-L in the
> msg body to:  listproc [at] cohousing.org   Questions? email Fred - addr above
> --------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------
>
> Here at River Rock Commons, in Colorado, we have just completed moving in
> (YEAH) and the teenagers are starting to get interested in
> wanting their own
> space in the Common House.  Our basement is mostly unfinished and
> we will be
> building them a room from scratch.  There are four teenagers right now and
> four more who will soon be teenagers.
>
> How has your cohousing community handled teen rooms?  How much use has it
> gotten?  Have you asked the teens to pay for the use of
> electricity/furnishings, had them help build it, et cetera?  Have the
> teens had completely free rein, or have they been guided?  Most of all, do
> you feel that the teen room has helped to keep the teens part of the
> community, or has it fostered their inane talents at completely distancing
> themselves from anything to do with adults? :)
>
> Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
>
> peace,
> Beth
>