Wednesday, October 9: Workshop on Health Care and Wellness

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On the 9th at 6:30 pm we will be hosting the third module of the Successful Aging series- Health Care and Wellness. This class lead by Elders Village will cover the current trends and available options for seniors, examine the best practices for staying healthy in old age and understanding why living in community can maximize wellness. If you are interested in joining in the Successful Aging Workshop series please call us about attending (510-217-8527) one of the Successful Aging Orientations, the next orientation will be held on October 24th at 6:30 pm.

Successful Aging Orientation Workshop Well Attended

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The Community Room hosted eleven people at the Orientation Workshop last week, with some great discussions about the aging population, the realities of aging in the 21st century, and various options for future planning. The Orientation Workshop is a prerequisite for the full Successful Aging course. Presented by Elders Village, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing educational resources to older adults, the Successful Aging course helps people examine the many issues surrounding aging, face their futures with greater clarity and intention, and consider the benefits of aging in community. It is an adaptation of a course offered by the Danish government since the 1980’s as a way to raise consciousness about the coming age wave and encourage seniors to explore grassroots solutions.

The Successful Aging course is offered by Elders Village on an ongoing basis, and the first step is to attend the free Orientation Workshop (upcoming sessions: 10/24, 11/20, and 12/18). Whether you are looking into cooperative living or just taking the first step towards comprehensive retirement planning, this informative and participatory session has something for everyone! Call now to reserve your seat at the next Orientation Workshop: (510) 217-8527.

Thursday, October 3: Workshop on Communication and Group Process

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On the 3rd at 6:30 pm we will be hosting the second module of the Successful Aging series- Communication and Group Process. This class lead by Elders Village will cover communication styles and techniques, examine the benefits and challenges of group process and also understanding the role of consensus in decision-making. If you are interested in joining in the Successful Aging Workshop series please call us about attending (510-217-8527) one of the Successful Aging Orientations, the next orientation will be held on October 24th at 6:30 pm.

Success at the BDCD Hearing!

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Great news! In a public hearing on September 19th, the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), which must approve all waterfront projects in the Bay Area, has formally approved Phoenix Commons’ application to renovate the dock and extend the bay trail all the way to the bridge. This is not just a major milestone in the development progress of Phoenix Commons, but also a victory for the public, which will soon be able to enjoy the waterfront along that entire stretch of estuary between the Park Street and Fruitvale bridges.

Not only did the application pass with flying colors, but Phoenix Commons is also proud to be the first development project on the bay to comply with new regulations concerning the rise of water levels due to global warming. This should make Phoenix Commons a community that will be around for generations to come!

Tuesday, October 1: Workshop on Mobility and Housing

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On the 1st at 6:30 pm we will be hosting the first module of the Successful Aging series- Mobility and Housing. This class lead by Elders Village will cover the physical changes that occur as you age, compare and contrast various options of senior housing and understanding the benefits of proximity in community. If you are interested in joining in the Successful Aging Workshop series please call us about attending (510-217-8527)  one of the Successful Aging Orientations, the next orientation will be held on October 24th at 6:30 pm.

From Oakland to Grass Valley, Cohousers Unite!

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This past Monday, a contingent of future members and support staff from Phoenix Commons hit the road and traveled up to Grass Valley, an hour north of Sacramento, where they met with fellow cohousers at Wolf Creek Lodge. Conceived in 2006 and built in 2012, Wolf Creek Lodge is home to a community of active seniors (age range: 56 to 91) living cooperatively in 30 units and extensive common areas.

As the 4th senior cohousing community in the nation and the first in California, the folks at Wolf Creek Lodge are living proof of the vibrancy and sustainability of a cohousing lifestyle for seniors. As the first senior cohousing community in the San Francisco Bay Area, Phoenix Commons believes it’s important to forge connections with sister communities such as Wolf Creek Lodge, so that together we can all educate the world about the benefits of cooperative aging.

For more information about Wolf Creek Lodge, visit their website at www.wolfcreeklodge.org, and don’t forget to tell them we sent you!

Wednesday, September 25: Successful Aging Orientation Workshop

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We are pleased to announce that we will be sponsoring our first Successful Aging Orientation on the 25th at 6:30 pm. This class lead by Elders Village will establish the need for education and training on aging issues, provide an overview of the entire course curriculum and examine the rationale for emphasizing community throughout the course. Please come join us for this exciting and insightful course.

Time to Reauthorize the Older Americans Act

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This month’s AARP Bulletin has a short article on the Older Americans Act (OAA), which is due for reauthorization in Congress. Without it, millions of older Americans could lose access to such very important (and already underfunded) programs such as Meals on Wheels, senior centers, paratransit programs, and more. AARP’s senior lobbyist says that the OAA is relatively uncontroversial, so reauthorization  may just be contingent on a moderately-sized grassroots campaign to remind our lawmakers to take care of America’s seniors. Contact your elected representatives as soon as you can, and remind them that it’s time to reauthorize the Older Americans Act!

Senate Bill 1023: Older Americans Act Amendment of 2013

(Sponsored by Sen. Bernard Sanders, Co-sponsored by Sen. Barbara Boxer)

Contact Sen. Dianne Feinstein:

(202) 224-3841 (Washington, D.C.)

(415) 393-0707 (San Francisco)

 

 

Full text of the article available below:

Vote on Older Americans Act Critical (AARP Bulletin, Vol. 54, No. 7, September 2013)

Lost in this year’s political shuffle of health care, immigration and debt ceiling issues is a law, enacted in 1965, that funds services critical for keeping older adults healthy and independent. The Older Americans Act (OAA) is two years overdue for reauthorization – the periodic process of tweaking, overhauling or ending a law’s mission, or simply letting it stand as it is.

For decades, OAA programs have helped to provide older people with delivered meals, job training, senior centers, caregiving support, transportation and much more. AARP is urging Congress to pass a simple reauthorization that maintains and strengthens existing programs – which are currently underfunded – and does not jeopardize any of them.

Unlike many other issues, the OAA remains essentially uncontroversial, says Larry White, AARP senior legislative representative. “Everyone seems to agree that the act isn’t broken,” White says. “Everybody appears to agree that the act does not require major changes. There is almost universal applause for the provisions in the act.”

And yet Congress has not come together to reauthorize the OAA. There has been no movement on in in the House so far this year. In the Senate, a reauthorization bill introduced by Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has 18 Democratic cosponsors but no Republicans. Meanwhile, without a renewed vote of confidence through reauthorization, the act’s core programs, already hurt by spending cuts imposed by sequestration, are more vulnerable as Congress wrestles with budget issues. “It is not a certainty that Congress will not fund OAA programs,” White says, “but it is a possibility on which AARP prefers not to gamble.”

Thursday, September 19: BCDC Hearing

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On Thursday the 19th at 1:00 pm we will be at the BCDC hearing in Oakland, waiting for final approval of our plans for the waterfront. We will let you know how it turns out.

The Exploding Popularity of Cooperative Aging

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The Boston Globe recently published an article in its magazine titled, “Introducing the retirement commune,” describing the various ways in which the Baby Boomer generation is reinventing senior housing by embracing more cooperative forms of living. Now some of you might be thinking: Great, an article about aging hippies. Not so fast! While this trend might be influenced to some degree by that generation’s experience with flower power in the 60’s, it is likely influenced even more by society’s current trend towards what is called “the sharing economy”. As proven by the popularity of such services as Craigslist, Zipcar, AirBnb, BitTorrent, and many others, the sharing economy is no longer the province of hippies. It is fully mainstream now (as it once was before hyperconsumerism), propelled by both economic necessity and quantum advances in mass communication, and it is beginning to make a difference in senior housing as well.

The article itself explores many forms of this new trend, including co-housing, informal house sharing, family arrangements, and village movements. What all these alternatives share in common is a rejection of the retirement status quo, in which people grow lonely in their isolated, outsized, single-family homes in the suburbs. As a group, the Baby Boomer generation is learning from the experience of their older parents, relatives, and friends, and inventing new ways (or reinventing the old, old ways) of aging together with a network of supportive peers. As the first senior cooperative lifestyle community in the San Francisco Bay Area, Phoenix Commons is proud to offer Bay Area seniors an opportunity to be pioneers in this rapidly growing movement.