Crucial Conversations: Case Study for Regional Outreach

Saturday 1:30 – 3:00 pm
Cohousing is a place where we already interact with our neighbors more than in typical neighborhoods. We eat together, we work together, we play together, we offer solace when there is death and support when there is ill health. Now we have an opportunity to go a step farther and have powerful community conversations about tough topics.

For instance, some of us have neighbors who have already lost their jobs and some who may be in danger of losing their home. Outside of cohousing, most people would rather talk about their sex life than about their money. We in cohousing are in a unique position to talk together about big issues such as growing older, the loss of an infant, or our financial status.

In this workshop, we will explore how to initiate and use these Crucial Conversations in our communities to deepen our bonds with each other, whether we are in forming, building, or completed communities. We will not be discussing the content of the various topic areas. Rather, we will consider what formats we could use to introduce these topics in our communities. Come ready to brainstorm: What topics would you like to discuss in your community?

Many cohousers have already had some of these Crucial Conversations in community. Please come share your experiences.

This workshop will also explore ways to attract new people to cohousing by emphasizing how Crucial Conversations strengthen our communities. People are yearning for connection in their lives. We need to educate and inform the public that a cohousing community is one safe place these conversations can
occur. We will share ideas on how cohousers can include the concept of Crucial Conversations in our marketing and outreach. Whether yours is a new community, under construction, or completed, you can emphasize the advantages of cohousing life in a downturn economy.

AUDIENCE: Forming, building, or completed communities.

PRESENTERS: Ann Zabaldo, Mid Atlantic Cohousing.

Ann Zabaldo specializes in marketing, outreach, and lighting and fueling the fires of burning souls. Ann is both a pioneer volunteer and a paid professional in the cohousing movement since 1991. Ann is past president of The Cohousing Association of the United States. She was the cofounder of Mid Atlantic Cohousing. In 2008, she completed a two year project co-producing a DVD on developing cohousing communities targeted to professional developers new to cohousing. Ann was on the development team for Takoma Village Cohousing in Washington, DC where she lives, and Eastern Village Cohousing in Silver Spring, MD.