As a daughter, my mother is my mother.
As a family caregiver, my mother is my customer / client: she gets services from me.
As a village maker, neighbors are my primary customers.
Or people who’ll “buy into” caring for folks nearby.
The idea for Vertical Village Alliance grew directly from my childhood as an expat in Kenya, where I got bitten by HARAMBEE!—the concept of us ALL banding together for a cause.
It was once I started my village work that I discovered there were hundreds of neighbor-led villages in the U.S. I was thrilled: my work just got easier because others had blazed the trail.
SIGN ME UP!!! I thought.
And get signed up is what I did:
I got an Opportunity membership with the Village to Village Network, which entailed a super informal interview and paying a membership fee of $175 (at that time). Opportunity memberships are for folks in the exploratory phase of village making.
By indirectly connecting me to a discussion group in which I learned about dubious practices at continuing care retirement communities, the membership was worth every penny.
But as much as the fee was a bargain for a person on fire about villages like me, I imagined that the cost (now $200) would be enough to kill a merely interested person’s curiosity.
Also, Village to Village Network caters to groups growing villages with 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, which is a high bar for the “average” neighbor interested in community service.
As was my intent all along, I decided to scratch my own itch and make what I thought was missing, namely pathways and materials to make village making accessible for curious and caring neighbors with varying amounts of “fire” and resources.
When pondering this, the idea of “tiny villages”—care communities 3-5 neighbors strong—and a user-friendly library of reader-friendly “how to” guides formed in my mind.
Given my own resources—with energy and mental space in limited supply—writing some blog posts was a way to start. I wanted my “customers” to know that improving care for one person is good and enough, and wrote about starting a personal village in five simple steps.
To give my “customers” a nice place to visit as well as more insights, I made an inviting website (this one!) featuring essays to make a case for villages, share my vision and to highlight the importance of play.
Next, I made a village making tool that anyone could download for the “cost” of their email address. Now, I’m making a plan to spread tiny villages and create that library I’m imagining.
But enough about me, I have some questions for you:
As an exploratory village maker, who do you imagine as your primary customers?
What do you think is missing that you could make for them?
What’s one step that you can take to get started?
Fear not if you have no answers, get The Village Dispatch to learn about tools to help.
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