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Creative Cooperatives Support Communities In a talk at the recent Body, Mind & Spirit Expo in Skokie, Illinois, Guy Spiro observed that “this is the most exciting time in recorded history, and that what generations who are alive today do will determine how life is lived on our planet for the next 2,000 years.” This idea is both an exhilarating rush and darn scary. Will we do the right thing? He added that those who do not see the shift that is underway cannot see the forest for the trees. This concept is so exciting that I often share it with anticipation and sobriety. Now is the perfect time to think fundamentally about how and where we live, what we eat, where it comes from and how it gets to us, how we raise our children, where we work and how we get there and back. Cooperatives offer the potential to address multiple layers of issues. Cooperatives, “co-ops,” are autonomous associations of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise. Because a cooperative’s purpose is to meet its members’ needs, that purpose is whatever its’ members declare it to be. Therefore, we can design anything we want. Anything! We are limited only by our imagination. The following concepts have the potential to ameliorate layers of thorny issues.
Neighborhood Diners Where neighbors meet, mingle and gather forms the warp and woof of a community. A neighborhood diner offering affordable, nutritious food and a safe place to be with others would anchor a community. An employee or patron-owned restaurant can offer nourishing food at a price that permits them to stay in business and offer a true value. In the diners of my dreams, I see a quiet corner or room where children do their homework and artwork after school, tutored by teenagers, seniors, older kids or anyone in between. Homework is done while children are alert enough to absorb the material. When their parents pick them up after work, they could share a simple meal, say beans and rice for an affordable price, and go home with homework, dinner and dishes out of the way. The food service industry is legendary for hard, physically demanding work, long hours and low pay. A worker owned co-op diner would attract high caliber employees with a commitment to its success. As a cooperative, the work could be shared among many people with no one person shouldering the major burden.
Consortium of Cooperative Restaurants The co-op diner is such a great idea, I envision extensive duplication. Cities and towns everywhere are littered with shuttered restaurants and acres of used equipment. Thousands of people have food service experience at all levels of the industry. If enough restaurants adopt the cooperative model, a consortium could support each other by sharing equipment, personnel, expertise and supplying products, such as pastries and bread, quiches, or sandwiches. A consortium could be big enough to achieve economies of scale for purchasing, an HR department, and bookkeeping. The big benefits, of course, are job creation, friendly, affordable places to eat, camaraderie, and vibrant businesses instead of “for sale” and “for rent” signs.
Intentional Households The concept of house sharing—I call it intentional households—is gaining traction. Living alone may not be the ideal housing arrangement for some of the ten million plus householders who are at least 65 years old, or to the 24 million children under the age of eighteen living in single parent families (3/27/07 U.S. Census Bureau Press Release: www.census.gov/Press-release/www/releases/archives/families_households/009842.html). With the right combination of people, in the right home, with clear communication and commitment, living with others holds the possibility of functioning at a high level as a family. Consider the Harris-Muller household in Evanston. The two women combined households in 1978, after their marriages ended in divorce at about the same time. Kay Muller had four children ranging in age from fifteen to seven years and hadn’t worked outside her home in fifteen years. Janet Harris, a friend with two children, moved back from Nebraska after her house sold within two weeks. She and her children settled at Kay’s house while each figured out their next move. Kay’s attorney advised her to consider sharing a household with someone in similar circumstances to make ends meet. Capital gains tax issues ruled out renting as a trial run. They bought a large, run-down home in Evanston which had operated as a boarding house in a neighborhood with gang problems. The three boys, Kay’s eleven-year old son and Janet’s six- and three-year old sons, shared the master bedroom. The youngest followed Ted around the house saying “I love you Ted.” I can imagine many eleven-year olds running that little kid out of town but Ted loved him back. Although neither mom promoted it, the children recognized each other as brother and sister, and became a family, long before each of the parents did. The house was in bad repair, the roof leaked, money was tight and sometimes the electricity was cut off. But they never missed a mortgage payment. They established traditions and rituals that hold even today. Holidays such as Halloween, Easter brunch and others are always celebrated with the same menu, and never served at any other time. They combined households, finances and everything else, but not Christmas trees. To this day, each has their own tree. Their household flourished and successfully launched all six children, each of whom came back to the Chicago area after graduating from college. Trying to anticipate the potholes back in 1978, Janet thought it would be money while Kay thought it would be children. It turned out to be the children. The children are grown now, so no more arguments. This story about combining two households at the same stage in life is inspiring and has a happy ending. Each intentional household will have its own unique story. If I were a single parent, I would want to live with kind, wise people who would back me up when I lay down the law about my children’s life choices. If I were an older person, I would want to live in an intergenerational household. We all know by now that sometimes birth families function well and sometimes they fail catastrophically. Intentional households, if they are done right, have the potential to be an effective substitute. New Community Vision is promoting intentional house sharing to emulate high functioning families, and provide household participants with an economic, social and emotional base that nurtures and empowers─the housing equivalent of a hot breakfast and a kiss on the forehead to start your day. Living with others in an intentional household offers the potential to affordably live in a gracious, supportive environment. For this to work well, several elements must be in place: household members must be compatible; a commitment to making it work; enough space for privacy and a degree of autonomy; each adult must be on an equal footing with no landlord/tenant mindset. Unfortunately, many of us are familiar with dysfunctional, unpleasant household environments. Rather than swearing off group living, use that knowledge to steer you to people you enjoy and an environment in which you will thrive. The field of organization development teaches corporate employees to relate to each other at a high level. If it works for corporations, surely it can work for households as well.
Conclusion The way to get communities percolating with ideas is to gather as a community once a month to collectively brainstorm for solutions to our universal issues of housing, child care, elder care, food, nutrition, transportation, jobs and much more. As people get to know each other and express their needs and capabilities, synergies will emerge. Someone may have just exactly the widget that you need. A retired teacher may welcome tutoring children. A writer may be have time to edit a grant request. A “gear head” may trade a trip to the junk yard and car repair for flyers to promote his business. Now is the time to bring on the new paradigm. Cooperatives hold the potential to facilitate the shift to holistic approaches that support individuals, families and communities. Gathering regularly with your community to brainstorm is the catalyst that unleashes this potential.
Terry Edlin helps you support yourself and your family, through the help of your neighbors. Gather with your neighbors to build your community vision. Visit http://newcommunityvision.coop to see the difference a cooperative community could make in your life.
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