Shoreline Village: A plan for aging in your home, Part Two

NEST Village
Photo courtesy Senior Services

This is the second of a four-part series about the Village that is being planned for Shoreline, Lake Forest Park and North Seattle

A Village for Shoreline:  Part Two

By Dori Gillam, Aging Your Way, Senior Services

In Part One, we described what a Village is, history of the Village movement, costs and how you can get in on the planning here in Shoreline. This week, we'll focus on why someone would want to be a member.

Who Joins a Village?

Joining a Village is attractive to many types of people. Often, it is an individual or couple who are in their own house, condo or apartment who would like a bit of help now and then. Some might have adult children, friends or neighbors who help with spring cleaning, raking leaves, shoveling snow, gardening or repairing a back step. But some folks either do not have kids or the kids live in another state and can’t help with household projects. They might not feel comfortable asking a friend or neighbor to work around their house; and hiring an hourly worker to handle these types of tasks can get expensive. 

A highly requested service in most Villages is transportation. Usually it’s for simple errands to the store, dry cleaning, getting to hair and doctor appointments. Most Villages have volunteers who can pick up members for these trips.

Villages also often provide social activities like presentations, lectures, parties, dances and music. Members find this expands their social circle, connecting them with neighbors they might not have met in another way.

A video about the Beacon Hill Village in Boston gives a great profile of the kind of folks who can benefit from membership.

Joining a Village can mean different things to different people. Here is what joining Wider Horizons Village (in Seattle) as a founding member means to Denise Klein, former CEO of Senior Services. “Joining the Village means I’ll be gaining:

1. a social network…offering me the opportunity to tailor my own activities and to find friends and acquaintances who like to do what I like to do;

2. a structure where I can find meaning and purpose by volunteering…on my own terms and in my own neighborhood;

3. knowledge about and connection to the best services…what I need when I need it;

4. a plan in place for a future time when I may need more assistance;

5. more peace of mind for my loved ones since they know my Village will help support me;

6. an approach to aging in place that benefits the community and that I may want to support financially.”

Talk with your friends; perhaps they’d like to find out more, also. In the next two articles, we’ll go into more depth about who volunteers in Villages, how they work and how they get started and develop. 

Curious? To find out when the next meeting is, please contact Joanne Donohue at Senior Services, 206-727-6206.

See other articles in this series

Part 1

Part 3

Part 4