Mid Atlantic Cohousing

Do you know that

• 90% of the care given to elders is given by family members?
• BUT … almost 25% of the population retiring now at age 65 are “elder orphans”? They are either widowed, divorced, or single-never-married. They have no children and no siblings.
• the current cost of nursing home care can easily exceed $100,000 per year?  
• YET ...  fewer than 30% of those retiring have even $50,000 in savings or income beyond Social Security?   What’s happening with the other 60%+?
• 70% of us will need 1-3 years of health care assistance?
• AND … we’re all living longer and longer lives?

How will we care for seniors and how will we pay for it?

Medicare does not pay for long term care.  The only nationally publicly supported long-term care available to people is Medicaid for which you have to qualify based on income.

For those of you whose plan it is to simply “go on Medicaid” … think again.  You’re in a very long line of people who think this is a solution.  It is NOT.

Given the statistics, the demographics, the expense of our health care and the way our health care is delivered, the middle class will be sliding en masse into Medicaid fracturing the already slim supports of the Medicaid program.

This is the Elephant in the Room:   no where in the US, in no program, is anyone dealing with how to keep the middle class from sliding into Medicaid and poverty.

Big Elephant.
​
Big Solution Needed.

We have one.

Mid Atlantic Cohousing is sponsoring a year long Aging in Community Collaboratory*designed to guide cohousers in devising a customized program for their respective community that will allow seniors to age in place right in their cohousing neighborhood.

Led by Janice Blanchard,  a nationally known expert on Aging in Community (she coined the phrase with Bill Thomas.  She literally wrote the book “Aging in Community”!) we are going to “crack the nut” of what it takes for cohousing to become a national model for aging in place in community.

Why cohousing?

• We’re already an intentional community.
• We already have the social capital in place.
• Our ability to organize for collective good is normal.
• We’re grassroots — we don’t need an agency to lead us.
• We routinely take our skills into the larger community.
• We already care about each other.
• Cohousing communities are connected through a national cohousing network: CohoUS
• We’re already focused on the issue as we see our members age first hand.  We’re experiencing the dilemma in real time.

What can YOU do?

​Download the flyer on the first ever AIC Collaboratory.  Contact Ann Zabaldo, 202.546.4654 or email:  zabaldo@earthlink.net
​
Attend the three sessions being presented by Janice and Ann at the upcoming Aging Better Together conference in Salt Lake City May, 20-21, 2016.   Haven’t quite made up your mind to attend this conference?   Make it easy.  Attend.  It will be transformational for you, your community whether forming or completed, for all of us everywhere who are seniors and those of us likely to become seniors cohousing or not.

* Collaboratory:  an inclusive learning environment where action learning and action research meet. Participants continue to acquire subject knowledge outside the collaboratory – both through experimental application and developing channels (such as online or blended learning). The collaboratory’s primary aim is to foster collective creativity to address complex issues. 

Janice Blanchard is an Aging in Community expert residing 
in Denver, COContact Janice BlanchardEmail:  janicecsa@comcast.net

The following beliefs are integral to creating aging-in-community projects:
    1    Aging is a normal part of life; it is not a problem.
    2    Most people prefer and benefit from living in intergenerational neighborhoods (senior housing can be part of the larger neighborhood).
    3    Good neighbors balance independence and interdependence.
    4    Being good neighbors enhances the feeling of belonging to a community.
    5    Everyone in a community has something to give and benefits from receiving from others. Good neighbors value reciprocity because giving and receiving strengthens social ties and provides meaning and purpose.
    6    Informal relationships over time build trust, connectedness, and social capital which, like financial capital, can be intentionally earned, stored, and expended to meet our needs.
    7    Most of the help people need can be provided by good neighbors, friends, and family.
    8    Not everyone works full time away from home; therefore, help is often available when needed, especially when planned in advance.
    9    The opportunity to get to know and help others can be enhanced with periodic community get-togethers where information and resources can be shared and planning can occur.
    10    There is leadership and a core group who are willing to take action to support neighbors aging in their homes and staying connected to their communities.
    11    Providing a broad range of care options as well as senior-friendly services (e.g., plumbing and electrical) can be enhanced by partnering with organizations within the larger community.
    12    Each community (and individual) will have to address the threshold of the level of care that they are willing and able to provide to neighbors with physical, mental or cognitive impairment.
​
(Blanchard, McCarthy, Thomas, and Stambolian, 2011. Unpublished manuscript.  Later published in Aging in Community, 2013)

Janice Blanchard, MSPH, is President of Aging Better, Together and editor of the recently published book, Aging in Community (2013). For the past 25 years Blanchard has worked in academic, government and non-profit organizations to promote a positive culture of aging and to shift the paradigm from aging in place, to aging in community. She has been a chief social architect with numerous aging initiatives, including strategic plans such as the Age Matters Initiative for City and County of Denver and Silverprint for the State of Colorado. Her professional practice is rooted in her personal experience – Blanchard has been a caregiver for the length of her career in Gerontology for her grandmother, mother, and for the past 8 years, her father and stepmother.    janicecsa@comcast.net
​

Another Editor's Note:  Starting with this upload to the MAC blog we will no longer reproduce the entire contents of the weekly newsletter.  We will publish the main article and when appropriate The Toolbox. 

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Probably fewer subjects in the world engender as many heart palpitations, flop sweats and as much downright dread as does the subject of money.  People would rather talk about intimate details about their sex lives than money.

It's hard enough trying to talk with your partner, your children or your spouse.  But what happens when you have to talk to your whole cohousing community?  Whether your are just forming a new cohousing group or living in a well-established community ... at some point you will find you need to talk about money.  Can you successfully navigate the many eddies, whitewater and rapids that frequently accompanies a conversation about money?

Eris Weaver has written a guide that will surely make these conversations so much easier.

From her website:

Many communities find themselves in conflict over financial and budget issues… and the current economic situation doesn’t help! Conflicts about money are really conflicts about values. This workbook is designed to help your community have useful conversations about your financial values - conversations that lead to greater understanding and connection as well as more effective financial decision- making.

The book is an INQUIRY into values.

Once firmly on the path of seeking to understand values much of the tension can fall away as the individual and group seek to understand which values they SHARE and on which values they DIFFER.  Focusing on values obviates the stereotyping around labels such as miser or spendthrift. Focusing on values reduces conflict.

Through a series of exercises, case studies and tools, Weaver converts what could be tense talks into pathways for gaining insight.  These practices ferret out information about money and values we hold as individuals and as a group.  

Who would have thought, In this slim, little book, Weaver could make talking about money ... FUN?  

Whether you are involved in a forming group trying to figure out how much money the group can manifest to buy that piece of property or a well-established group wrangling over hiring work done vs. the good ol' DIY ... you will find this book a very handy guide to knotty conversations.  

This book unknots the knots!

You can learn a lot about yourself, your neighbors and your community ... and have fun doing it!

Let's Talk About Money
$10.00 plus S&H

Eris Weaver is a facilitator, consultant, trainer, and public speaker known for her clarity, forthrightness, and humor.Contact Eris Phone: 707-338-8589
Email: eris@erisweaver.info

Aging Better Together: May 20-21, 2016 Salt Lake City, UtahDiscover how you can live a powerful purposeful life in cohousing!The conference holds the keys to creating a highly functioning senior friendly cohousing community. You will learn how to get started, meet the people who can help make it happen, and discover best practices from others who have already made the journey.
There is something for everyone - those exploring the idea, newly forming groups or existing communities with aging members.

"Solar cells aren’t just big dark panels any more. Professor Richard Lunt, of Michigan State University, has developed transparent solar cells, which could allow the windows in buildings to be turned into a solar harvesting surface.
These transparent solar cells can be integrated during the window manufacturing process, but older buildings can also be retrofitted by placing a laminate version of the cell on existing windows.
The cells work by guiding the light it receives to the edge of the glass, where it meets thin strips of solar cells, that then convert the energy into electricity.
The goal is to have skyscrapers covered in the cells, essentially turning them into solar farms, allowing enough energy to be captured to power the entire building."