Sample Proposal for Living in Community

These people are no different than the rest of the population – perhaps a little bolder and more idealistic, but basically they have the same concerns, issues, needs and frustrations: how to grow their families in a healthy way, how to survive loss and change as couples split, older children leave home, jobs are lost, major illness strikes, and so on.  The big milestones, joys and traumas of life happen to community members just as they do to everyone else; the difference is in how they are dealt with.

6)    Over the next couple of days, extend and clarify the data from this group session (which is really a focus group) by conversations with those who attended as well as any who could not be there;

7)   Write notes about each community on the laptop before moving to the next one;

8)   When the year is up, write the first drafts of the two books and publish on the Internet or through a publisher.

Evaluation

Many potential evaluators of the written products are available, including but not limited to:

1)      Kathryn McCamant and Charles (Chuck) Durett, authors of the original cohousing book and architects helping clients create cohousing through their business, the Cohousing Company;

2)      Chris ScottHanson, founding member of Winslow Cohousing, the first in the US, and president of Cohousing Resources, a cohousing development company;

3)      Wonderland cohousing, a development company based in Colorado and having built many communities there;

4)      Rob Sandelin, president of the XYZ XYZ Communities Association (NICA) and a resident of the cohousing community in Snohomish, WA.

These individuals, and several others, will be invited to participate in an editorial panel that will both help shape the final study design, and will review the book drafts and help polish them. None of these individuals has currently agreed to this assignment; if funded, the process of obtaining commitments from them will begin.

The real evaluation of the project’s success is whether the books sell.

Future Funding Plan

This is a one-time project with no need of further funding. However, if the book or books are a success and stand in need of an update in say, 5 years’ time, a similar grant-seeking process might be used to do another “sabbatical year” of first hand research.  An overseas study might also be worthwhile, as this proposal focuses only on the US. If the publications are a financial success, a reduced need of future funding.  See Budget section below.

Budget

The budget for this project includes:                                           16-month

This budget can be offset by passing 100% of any book royalties to the grant-giving agency up to the dollar amount of the grant.

Proposer’s Credentials

The primary proposer is XYZ.  She is a founding member of Winslow Cohousing on Bainbridge Island, Wash.   She joined the group in 1989 and worked with a growing number of households to secure land, select an architect, obtain financing and oversee the construction.  During the development period the community was involved in an intense relationship-building process together and laying the foundations for shared community life.  A sophisticated system for discussion and consensus was developed, using colored cards, and all decisions are made by consensus.  Julie lived at Winslow Cohousing for 7 years and was an active member of the community, including meeting facilitation, cooking for large numbers, cutting hair, and teaching sewing to smaller members from 4 to 9 years of age on a regular basis.

She is the mother of a 20-year old daughter who was raised in the cohousing community and maintains many ties there.

Professionally Ms. XYZ is a transportation planning consultant, working with community groups to provide strong technical analyses and excellent communication processes so that selected solutions have “buy-in” from the affected residents.  She is co-author of a college textbook on aviation management and wrote 13 first draft chapters of this book in 6 weeks by being secluded in a cabin in the woods

Figure 1

XYZ Communities on the Web

From the Foundation for XYZ Communities

As extensive a collection as we are aware of... though for perspective, these Web savvy groups are only a portion of the 600+ communities described in the Communities Directory.

We have included here the communities listed at the web sites of Ecovillage Information Service and the Cohousing Network.   Please see the Legend and our disclaimer on the information present here. If your community would like to be listed here please email iclist@ic.org.

The IC Web Site spider has indexed most of the XYZ communities our list. Enter a keyword below and search across all the XYZ communities on the Web.

Alphabetic Sort (PARTIAL LIST)

[Sun Jul 29 12:19:16 EDT 2001 ]

Note: geographic sorts and a sort of cohousing only are also available.