Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Boundaries

[Tree Bressen (tree]

Hi Stacia,

> We are very close to an
> elementary school where teens hang out at night.  The village also
> attracts lots of teens on Friday and Saturday night.  Our site is long
> and skinny, at the south (entrance) is the village, to the west a
> unoccupied property with a trail through to our property and the
> elementary school.  To the North is bush, to the east a public hiking
> trail that comes quite close to the back of some of our lots.
>
> We have begun to attract the attention of some of these local youths,
> youths who have a reputation in the community and have already at a
> tender age developed too close a relationship with the police.
>
> I'm looking for advice from other cohousing communities on boundaries.
> Do other communities have signs if so what do the sign says? Are the
> signs just posted at the entrance or also at other significant places
> where the site interfaces with the greater community.
>
> Have other communities experienced 'youth' on site who are not there for
> a purpose and if so how do you deal with them?
>
> I hope we don't sound like a paranoid bunch of Canucks - however we have
> 28 children here and we would like them (and their parents) to feel
> comfortable roaming about their community.

My main advice is to make friends with the youth.  Engage with them as full 
humyn beings, rather than stereotyping them as troublemakers.  That means 
building genuine relationships over time.  Not everyone in the community 
has to take this on, obviously different people have different 
priorities.  But if a few members are willing to get involved in this way, 
it will make all the difference--to those members who will learn a lot from 
the relationships, to the youth, to the other community members (parents & 
children), and beyond.

Posting community land boundaries may be appropriate, but i doubt it will 
affect teen behavior.

Good luck,

--Tree



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Tree Bressen
1680 Walnut St.
Eugene, OR 97403
(541) 484-1156
tree [at] ic.org
http://www.treegroup.info