In cohousing we talk a lot about the hard work of building relationships and maintaining our communities. It turns out play may be even more important for creating the joyful, productive lives we hope for.

Play comes in many forms, from interactive games, to solitary clover gathering. The point is mostly to do something for which there is no point beyond your own interest and joy. The result is better health, better learning, more motivation, and, particularly important to community, relationships with more harmony and connection.

As we begin to leave behind the restrictions of Covid and the full range of possibilities for play open up, we hope you will prioritize playing in your community – spontaneous play, planned play, playful meetings, play in nature and play with things.

For more on why play matters, you might enjoy Stuart Brown’s TedX talk.

For more on play in cohousing as summer beings, see Re-Open Cohousing below.

Join a cohousing neighborhood in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley! We’re looking for more kids and adults of all ages to join us as neighbors!   We’re a multi-generational group building homes in Harrisonburg, Virginia, a small university city of ~54,000 people and nicknamed “The Friendly City”. It’s a great place to raise kids, with a dual… Read More

  In a recent post to the cohousing listserv, Cohousing-L, Dean Smith of Sunnyside Village posed the question: Has anyone considered equipping their Common House to serve the community through extended natural disasters? Sunnyside village is in the design phase and is considering how they might equip it for use during earthquakes or other natural… Read More

ReOpen Event CohoUS invites you to participate in a nationwide Re-Opening Cohousing2021 celebration on June 26, 2021. We invite you to gather your community as it feels safe to do so, connect, take photos, and then join with communitiesaround the country for a zoom show andtell at the end of the day.

This is a page for cohousing professionals, the folks that help communities become communities and help them thrive. See below for resources, information, and training programs that will help you serve cohousing communities. If you know of resources that belong here let us know by emailing karencohous@gmail.com. The cohousing movement needs more professionals including architects,… Read More

The Intricacies of a For-Profit/Non-Profit Collaboration We want to thank CohoUS for asking us to write this blog series and thank you for reading! Like all cohousing communities, Our Home – Cathedral Park started with family conversations in kitchen nooks and coffee houses, and we hope that in sharing our journey, there will be seeds… Read More

Homes not Housing: Creating Community for all What does “home” mean to you? Is it a feeling? A place to put your belongings or lay your head? Is it being around family, loved ones, and friends? Is it about having a choice or personal control over where you live and who you live with? Our… Read More

 The Value of a Relationship with a creative, inclusive Architect with Cohousing Experience Hello again from the forming inclusive and diverse cohousing community of Our Home – Cathedral Park! We’ve been asked by CohoUS to share some of the secret sauce we are employing to bring our community together. In our last post, we talked… Read More

A Nationwide Re-Opening Re-opening is happening both suddenly and gradually. It is both joyful and challenging. It involves discussions and decisions, new protocols and a return to old habits. In the midst of all that, we are proposing a day of celebration. We’re setting aside our all-day-on-zoom event on June 26 because we suspect that… Read More

The Benefits of Collaboration with a Developer with Cohousing Experience and Expertise In this article, we would like to talk about the benefits of working in close collaboration with a development group that has extensive experience with cohousing. For the development of Our Home – Cathedral Park, we chose Urban Development + Partners, a local… Read More

This is the first in a five-post series about the journey to the feeling of Ahhhh…. I’m home! Our Home – Cathedral Park is an actively forming, unique and exciting community in Portland, Oregon. Please read with us as we share our twisting journey Home! Our Home – Cathedral Park (OHCP) is a cohousing community… Read More

Watching “Strategies and Perspectives for Anti-oppression in Cohousing” with Crystal Byrd Farmer, Sky Blue, Elliot Cisneros, and Mathilde Berthe from the recent Connecting in Cohousing conference I got to thinking about the way we build communities and our struggle to make them diverse. While I’ve been aware of many factors in the struggle for some… Read More