Vertical Villages
Living in close proximity to one
another doesn’t necessarily turn a group of people into a
community. Lives are busy and for many, socializing at the end of
the day with neighbors is the last thing they want to do. Yet
when neighbors need help of any kind, the first person they turn
to is almost always another neighbor.
The TTN Caring Collaborative
demonstration project includes a “Vertical Villages” model to
create caring communities within high rise buildings. The model
shows how staff, residents (young and old) and managers of these
buildings can be a powerful network of support and assistance if
appropriately organized and trained.
Using TTN member-residents as a point
of entree, TTN piloted a caring community network in several high
rise non-NORC (Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities)
buildings. TTN looked at barriers to mobilizing buildings, ways to
overcome resistance, issues of liability, databases for resident
emergency contacts and emergency resources for staff, different
service options, and ways to organize residents so they see
themselves as neighbors willing to help others.
TTN’s experiences and
lessons learned will be captured in a “how to” manual that will be
available at the end of 2009.
For more information
about Vertical Villages,
contact
Laura Traynor, Caring Collaborative Project Manager.
Phone:
646-823-6231 Email:
info@ttncaringcollaborative.org
