WATCH: Cohousing - The Future of Community and Human Connection
Trish is the owner of StorySpring Consulting and Director of Community Engagement at the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Social Work. A social worker to the core, she advances social change by connecting leaders to resources, opportunities and each other. She is a passionate advocate for housing solutions that address both affordability and the global loneliness epidemic.
Trish is the owner of StorySpring Consulting and Director of Community Engagement at the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Social Work. A social worker to the core, she advances social change by connecting leaders to resources, opportunities and each other. She is a passionate advocate for housing solutions that address both affordability and the global loneliness epidemic. At the University of Denver, she leads community engagement initiatives and creates gatherings that advance social justice. As a consultant with StorySpring, she provides strategy, facilitation and coaching to nonprofits, social changemakers, and intentional communities. Fueled by her own suburban loneliness and a desire for community, Trish became a founder of Denver’s newest cohousing community. She believes that we are most alive when we are connected, and that intergenerational communal living offers an alternative to our increasingly isolated world. Drawing upon years of experience living communally throughout the world, she urges us to find one another and build our own micro-villages.
Loneliness Is on the Rise. Are Closer Neighbors a Solution?
Loneliness is on the rise, and it may be as harmful to health as cigarette smoking, medical experts say. Now some Americans are embracing a collaborative living arrangement called cohousing as a solution
Loneliness is on the rise, and it may be as harmful to health as cigarette smoking, medical experts say. Now some Americans are embracing a collaborative living arrangement called cohousing as a solution.
Even before the Covid pandemic shut down schools, closed businesses and introduced the idea of social distancing, medical experts were seeing an alarming increase in Americans struggling with isolation. The U.S. surgeon general has called this trend an epidemic of loneliness, as harmful to health as smoking cigarettes.
To counteract isolation, some Americans are turning to a living arrangement known as cohousing. The idea originated in Denmark in the 1960s, describing communities of privately owned, single-family houses built around shared outdoor spaces, bringing neighbors closer together.
Welcome to the Agri-hood
Burn Village and Farm was featured in Edible Nashville’s May/June 2022 Garden Issue. Along with grounding the community – quite literally – around a working farm, an agrihood is all about cohousing. While the homes are privately owned with their own full baths and kitchens, stakeholders in an agrihood share a communal space with a full kitchen and dining area of its own, allowing neighbors to get together for regular meals and providing their kids with a safe place to play.
Burn Village and Farm was featured in Edible Nashville’s May/June 2022 Garden Issue. Along with grounding the community – quite literally – around a working farm, an agrihood is all about cohousing. While the homes are privately owned with their own full baths and kitchens, stakeholders in an agrihood share a communal space with a full kitchen and dining area of its own, allowing neighbors to get together for regular meals and providing their kids with a safe place to play.