Sky Blue

Cultivating Cooperation and Caring in Community

The culture of individualism we’ve been steeped in does not prepare us for living in community. We want a culture of cooperation and caring, but our hopes and dreams run counter to our training. This session will look at how cooperative groups can address the culture they want to leave behind and foster the culture they want.

Gina Simm

Keeping Coho Kids Connected

What supports the connection that we value for our cohousing children? What discourages it? After an exploration of these questions, I will share some systems I’ve developed for optimizing the connections between kid to kid, kid to families and kid to neighbors.  

William Aal

Power, trauma and conflict transformation in Community

Explore the nature of conflict, how power dynamics and trauma impact conflict. Discover how to use healthy conflict to improve relationships in community.

Mary Kraus

Participatory Design: How Designing Together Can Bring You Together

A well-run participatory design process is one of the first opportunities for cohousing groups to build their social community before they move in. In this session, I describe a methodology for participatory design that is both highly effective and deeply enjoyable, helping you build strong bonds with your future neighbors.

Ted Rau

Starting on the right foot: Dynamic Governance in small and forming groups
The beginning is the most important part of the work.” The decision-making system you use in your forming group will set your culture for years or decades to come. Set it up with clarity, intentionality and flexibility in the beginning, and you will thank yourselves later! Dynamic Governance (aka sociocracy) is ready to grow as you grow. 

Alan O’Hashi

Get to know your community – introverts and extraverts

When you decide you want to live with a bunch of people, collaborate with them on making decisions about your community, socialize with each other, why is it important to get to know your neighbors on more than a superficial level? The data are these – 65percent of the time, a cohouser is an introvert. In this interesting and insightful workshop, you’ll get a taste about the importance of knowing about the continuum between these two personality types.

Elizabeth Magill

Talk to Each Other: Resolving Conflict by Connecting

Resolving most conflict requires a reconnection of the conflicted parties. But how do we get them to talk to each other? What should we say? What are we listening for? What if they refuse? We’ll discuss the how to help your neighbors engage with conflict.

Rebecca Hogue

Creating online retreats – helping communities stay connected

In this session, we will share how we keep our community connected through online retreats. We needed to find a way to stay connected virtually while working through challenges posed during design development. Our retreats are a mix of business and community building helping us stay connected to one another. 

Laird Schaub

Consensus Challenges
Consensus is the most popular choice in community decision-making, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. In this session I’ll walk through where the hard spots are and what you can do about it.  

Panel

It’s Great to Grow Up in Community!

Attendees will hear three prospectives of growing up in community. Jasper is a 17 year old who has lived in cohousing since he was 1; he believes community can meet you where you need it when growing up. Adam is a parent of two teen daughters and plays the non-nonsense ‘uncle’ to many of the community kids. Claudia is raising two younger kids (ages 5 & 8) who were lucky to have an in community Oma (German ‘grandma’).

Karen Gimnig

Can I hear you now? Communication Skills for Connection

Studies tells us that less than 20% of what is said actually gets heard by the listener. We’ll learn a simple (though not always easy) strategy for hearing each other more effectively and deepening our sense of connection.

Sarah Arthurs

Mindful Cohousing: Bringing all of yourself to cohousing!

Cohousers are often folk with spiritual practises . This workshop will be a combination of sharing as well as an introduction to spiritual practice which can support and deepen your cohousing experience .