Can’t Use a Grant for $2,500?

The silence is deafening! Can’t communities find ways to spend $2,500 for a community improvement that others can replicate? That’s what Coho/US is offering. To stimulate your imaginations a bit, here are some recent improvements at U.S. cohousing communities that might have been considered for a grant. Discuss this grant opportunity at your next meeting! Remember, the application deadline is October 31, 2008, but we’d like to get some discussion going well before the deadline, to improve the quality of submissions. Please let David Wann hear your emerging ideas for grant submissions. David’s phone number is (303) 216-1281, and his email is davewann [at] comcast [dot] net.

The improvements that could have been considered for a grant include:

• Interactive software that makes a community’s shared website more useful for event coordination, discussion of upcoming decisions, and other community activities. (One community has a comprehensive tracking system for work sharing on a digital bulletin board).
• Physical improvements in the landscape that reduce water use, increase the frequency of landscape use, or improve the aesthetics of a neighborhood. (One community added benches and a solar-powered fountain to its organic garden).
• Workshops with professional facilitators on more effective conflict resolution within the community. (Some communities have gotten great value from mission-driven retreats, workshops and conference attendance).
• Physical improvements that could be replicated in other communities to reduce noise, glare, or pollution, or to enhance communication. (One community added an "operable wall" – a massive sliding door to separate the dining room from the kitchen).

Again, information about the grant is here.

Let’s talk.