Our goal in organizing this group is to bring together many people and groups that have been trying to create senior cohousing/elder cohousing neighborhoods in the North Bay, to learn about how we can make it happen in our lifetimes!

The first meeting was called together by Certified Senior Cohousing Study Group 1 Facilitator and Certified Green Building Professional Raines Cohen and his urban-planner group-development specialist wife Dr. Betsy Morris, of Berkeley Cohousing, at the urging of several local folks who have been working together (and on their own) to try to create communities and are eager to "get on with it" -- beyond talk, into practical action, gaining the skills and connections and resources they need to work with professionals and make it happen.

At our initial exploratory get-acquainted meetings, we learn about the cohousing development process and do some small-group exercises to share our visions and inspiration, to find common ground. We firmly believe that the answers are out there, among all of us, we just sometimes need some help to find them.

We share our experiences "Aging In Community," with workshops on everything from health to co-care, from financial planning to meals together, from death to condominiums. We'll talk about how to have the difficult conversations around these topics, how to set boundaries so we can work together and live in a neighborhood in close proximity and share resources while maintaining our privacy and dignity.

We learn about Senior Cohousing (aka "Elder Cohousing") in Denmark and how it has evolved as it came to the U.S., and what it can and can't accomplish in terms of the type of homes it creates and how it can support Aging In Community -- beyond 'Aging In Place'. We'll meet local Architects and Developers and Cohousers and process gurus and professionals in related fields. We'll visit different cohousing communities. We'll discover options for pursuing the process.