Generations of Hope Summer 2017 Newsletter
Beaverton Bridge Meadows nears completion! See -It can be Done!
Bastion Community of Resilience Veterans and others moved in in June!
Generations of Hope the Best Idea at International Conference (we say modestly)
Generations of Hope Inspired Communities turned out to be a Big Star at Generations United International Meeting last month. Bridge Meadows (Renee Moseley and Alicen Freeman) presented the Bridge Meadows story and the Bridge Meadows expansion story. We provided a complete review of all the projects (power point available on request) in operation and in development. Meeting Summary from 30,000 feet is: in policy perspective, Generations United attendees seem as confused as everybody else about the role of Washington in the future of intergenerational programs integrating children and the elderly. In terms of the agenda, the conference focused on the specific intergenerational sites and their quality work and impact. Additionally, local efforts creating opportunity to solve local issues predominated the beginning sessions.
President and CEO Donna Butt’s leadership and her ability to clearly articulate the role of intergenerational programming is truly helping the Generations of Hope growth.
Who is New on the Block?
Short Stories of Generations of Hope Inspired Communities
Boise, Idaho – Patti Williams
It is not quite a year since Ms Williams started the venture of bringing a Generations of Hope inspired community to the Boise Idaho region. You cannot help being a fan of Patti’s networking skills. Starting from limited community knowledge she has crisscrossed academic, business, government and non-profits selling the concept of a new intergenerational intentional community focus on child welfare populations. Along the way she is picking up support from almost everybody she talks to in her effort to build a team, build acceptance and secure funding. Patti says she has been assisted by the public knowledge of Idaho’s poor foster care performance as a results as reported by Idaho’s Legislature Office of Program Evaluation. She reports the Idaho Housing and Finance Association is her new best friend. The Idaho Bar Association is developing her 501c3 and the Dept. of Health and Welfare helping to pull together the right people to move the ball down the bright blue Boise field. The next six months should be even more exciting.
Treasure Island Florida -a dynamic trio
Welcome to the beginning of a Kindred Village. (K.I.N.D.R.E.D. Village.) Kind Inclusive Neurotypical Development Reaching Everyone, Including Disabilities. Okay, this name wins the prize of the year! But wait! There is a new corporation as part of their overall strategy named One Kin Roof. One firm will be the manager and developer of the properties the other the social services side. In just a few short months, Angie, Deb and Matt have laid out a networking plan and are building a strong, foundation board of people who are excited about KINDRED. Two things have helped in the beginning implementation process, they have a business background and approach the project from a start-up business perspective and second, they are never afraid to ask important questions and learn what Generations of Hope knows.
Building Ohana Deborah Fink
Okay, so this isn’t a new project. I really like their website and like to chat with Deb Finck the director. Finding a quality piece of land in the Spokane is their prime focus. Depending on the land this project will be one of the first on the ground with rental apartments and private housing. When completed, it will be a community for all varieties of people with disabilities and at least three generations of others. Building Ohana is working with Impact Capital a state of Washington a community development financial institutions with hopes predevelopment loans and financing will enable them to make their goal of “move in†2019/2020. (http://www.buildingohana.org/) Recommendation: sign up for Building Ohana’s newsletter.
Springfield Missouri Generations Village
It was almost “deju vu” all over again as Jann Furr and her husband Tom in a visit to Hope Meadows, noted that Southwest Missouri has one of the highest foster care case loads and problems with child abuse. (yes that is the way Hope Meadows got started.) The Furr’s came up from Springfield, Mo to Hope Meadows and spent the day talking to residents, being a guest at the Friday potluck and learning about HM and Generations of Hope. The Generations Village has formed a board and is carefully working its way through the implantation checklist. Jan has been very involved in foster care/adoption with her local church and she and her husband are very networked into Springfield. Don’t forget the city of Branson with its 45 theaters and 7.2 million visitors per year is part of this metro area. (sort of the Disneyland for people my age!) The committee is at work revising a proposal, working with an architect and crunching numbers.
Peterbourgh, Canada – Dovetail
It had to happen, those Canadians living in a country now over 150 years old are going to find good things in the States and replicate them. Two projects are on the horizon that can lead the way for more replication. In the Peterbourgh area (about 75 miles northeast of Toronto) an exciting team of folks are putting together a plan for what could be the first intergenerational intentional community in Canada. “Dovetails†plans currently center around the working farm, highly energy efficient community, seniors and vulnerable populations. While plans are tentative, they have a site in mind and if it comes to fruition (lots of fruit trees) they would begin using the current structures and adding as many housing for ‘workers’ as the province of Ontario will allow. It sounds terrific.
Note Next time we will bring you up to date one the following:
Columbia South Carolina
Mt Pleasant South Carolina
Victoria BC Canada
Columbus, Ohio
Prescott, Wisconsin
Goshen, Indiana
Waterbury, Connecticut
Many Lights Foundation in Seattle
Generations of Hope Architect Colleague Publishes New Book on Housing Design for Seniors
Jane Rhode, principal of JSR Associates in Maryland has just published a valuable book on Aging and Housing Design. Jane has participated in many Generations of Hope events including the Discovery Workshop that we put on at the Howard County Autism Society late last year. This book is available in multiple formats. It can be downloaded from Vimeo (http://www.jsrassociates.net/a-day-in-the-life-of-joe/) or purchased as a hard copy DVE. Jane is a leader in older persons housing and understands the Generations of Hope concepts. In addition to the States, The firm also does a fair amount of work in China.
Generations of Hope Begins Marketing Campaign
As the final steps are made to update the Generations of Hope website, we are turning our attention to marketing the intergenerational double social utility model to parents of youth challenged by autism. Over the last couple of years there has been a growth in the interest in GOH inspired communities to better serve youth and older youth with behavioral and developmental disabilities. We are now have ten groups that working on creating an intentional new community. Reference in correspondence is often to Osprey, Ohana and other Generations of Hope communities wanting to plan a better life for youth and active seniors. We have decided to try a campaign where we are pro-active with Autism based organizations. In the next few weeks we will send out a brochure to Autism groups around the country to see if we can help. As there are over 1 million families with developmentally disabled adults and the caregiver is over the age of 60, we believe there is a significant market for the Generations of Hope option.
From the President
I hope you enjoyed the five updates on new, developing sites. At present new start ups are pretty much split between types of communities Of course, all sites are carefully planning to include a majority of volunteer seniors and other populations. We are not neglecting other sites that are further along in implementation. Word came to us that Osprey Village in Bluffton S.C.now owns 30 acres of land and is in the midst of a $5 million capital campaign and Howard County Autism is the implementing a program planning and pre-development strategy with the consulting help of Mark Dunham of Generations of Hope. Lastly, Autism Living in Columbus, Ohio has draft drawings of a new community close to downtown Columbus in Grandview Heights. Thus, there is lots of activities in sites around the country.
The next edition we will catch up on those projects and give a “current†rundown of the 20 or so fund sources that we monitor as they make their way through government and the economy.