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Cohousing Collaborative, LLC is a full service development company that partners with qualified groups to co-create joyous, sustainable communities in the Mid-Atlantic region.
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Reserve your spot TODAY! SATURDAY September 13, 2008 • 2:00 PM to 4:30 PM
NOT HOME ALONE: Creating Community for the 50+ set
WORKSHOP with Dene Peterson• Founder and Developer of the acclaimed ElderSpirit Community in Abingdon, VA
"The later years can have a meaning of their own - one that involves a wholeness and fruition."
This workshop will explore "conscious aging" and the value of following a spiritual path for folks in Life 2.0. Explore the traditional concepts of eldering - wisdom, leadership, dignity, and ritual - within the context of "aging in place in community."
"Spirituality is the quest for personal meaning and mutually fulfilling relationships among people, the non-human environment and for some, God."
-ElderSpirit
Where: Gaithersburg, MD area (Directions provided upon registration)
Fee: $35 per person • Limited seating - Reserve EARLY!
CONTACT REGISTRAR for details or go to www.meetup.com
ABOUT DENE PETERSON 
At age 65 Dene Peterson was in a quandry. A former nun, she was looking ahead to what life was going to be like as she grew older. “I didn’t like the options: Live alone, live in a leisure retirement community, end up in an institution,” said Peterson. “Uh uh. There’s gotta be another alternative.”
That other alternative was founding and developing one of the first cohousing communities for folks 55 and older and the first senior cohousing community based on spiritual principals. “I play golf … I love golf but there is more to growing older than whacking at a ball,” she said. “As we get older, we need to keep living, to keep growing in a purposeful way.” She cites an ancient Hindu saying, “When your hair turns grey and you see your children’s children, it is time to go away and grow your soul.”
According to Peterson, the later years can be a rich time of inward exploration and outward service to others. She asks, “What are you going to do with the next thirty years of your life?”
Using a creative patchwork of funding from public and private resources, Peterson raised $3.5 million dollars to construct a community of 29 households, a common community building called a Common House and a prayer room. Thus was born ElderSpirit Community located in Abingdon, VA–a community so successful that Peterson is embarking on her second ElderSpirit Community in the same small town.
Now Peterson travels and helps forming cohousing groups around the country. “To borrow from Dr. Bill Thomas, physician and author of ‘What Are Old People For?’, the three top problems as we age are: Helplessness, Loneliness and Uselessness. How can we be useful to each other?” For Peterson, a resident of ElderSpirit for two years, living in community where she can work, play, and pray together with her neighbors; where they are useful to one another, provides the answer.
Peterson asserts that a community built on the spiritual principles of purposeful living, giving and receiving compassionate care and support, caring for the earth and living simply generates the kind of community that helps people live longer, healthier and happier lives. “The later years can have a meaning of their own–one that involves wholeness and fruition. People have to know there are alternatives to ‘leisure retirement’. These are the years to find purpose, to find meaning, and grow our inner souls.”
Peterson is a 2006 Purpose Prize Fellow, an initiative that invests in older social innovators by recognizing outstanding achievements. She serves on two national boards: Aging in Community, Denver, CO and Second Journey Chapel Hill, NC. Peterson and the ElderSpirit community have been written about in the AARP Bulletin and by the Associated Press.