Many years have passed since I first started looking at collaborative communities in Europe and in the United States. The questions I had then, balancing career, marriage, motherhood, and friends, have been partly replaced by time, and new unresolved questions have emerged. Many have to do with the transitions of aging, and a curiosity about how collaboration could work to improve day to day life as I age. How can our housing and communities help us balance this new phase of life?

Dorit Fromm interviewing resident and facilitator Nico van den Dool in the common space of a Dutch development he helped to form.

A few years ago I had the opportunity to live in Europe for a year, and I made a shorter return visit this summer. I knew Americans were aging at a fast rate; but few realize that Europeans are graying even faster. Within 40 years, almost a third of their population is expected to be seniors versus a fifth of the cohort of boomers in the U.S. Northern Europeans have paid high taxes all their lives. Unlike many of us, they have the expectation of receiving nationally subsidized care and appropriate housing as they age. Unfortunately, such a cradle-to-grave social contract cannot hold when nearly 1 out of 3 will be over the age of 65.

With a limited window of time, Northern Europeans have already started creating alternatives, spurred by nonprofit organizations, municipalities, foundations, and self-organized groups. Interestingly to me, instead of concentrating exclusively on elderly facilities, the focus is on strengthening neighborhoods with a multi-generational approach. The results so far are a variety of senior-friendly developments that embrace generations as well as surround residents.

Neighborhood Centers

In Germany, I not only saw the continuing unification of east and west through building and economic programs, but also heard much discussion on social unification. Coupled with a high number of seniors (20% of the population is over 65 and rising), there is a strong interest in helping seniors age in place and in strengthening communities.

	Mixing ages creates a livelier environment. Toddler and elder share a path in the Liebenau Ravensburg development.

Taking the idea of the private extended family of the past and re-interpreting it through a public network, multi-generational neighborhood centers bring generations in a community together. The "mehrgenerationenhäuser" combine some of the services of a senior center, health clinic, pre-school and youth group at a neighborhood level. Located in church basements, on the ground floor of nonprofits or senior centers, or within high-rise housing towers, they usually are placed into under-utilized spaces. Activities include whatever the local community wants and needs, from exercise and health classes to infant care.

In 2006, the German government launched a well-funded initiative to create 500 neighborhood centers. That ambitious number has already been reached this year (2008). Volunteers working with professionals run the center. Their overall aim is mutual support, whether through classes, services, programs, or simply drop-in visits.

Balancing Generations

The neighborhood centers evolved from experiments and models that had already met with success in Germany in delivering affordable services. One of these, a model I had never come across elsewhere, can be found in southern Germany, in Swabia. I find it interesting because developments for the elderly tend to either focus on independent seniors or frail seniors, but don’t usually mix the two; nor do they typically add in a younger generation of residents, along with affordable housing and services. This intergenerational model is the product of the St. Anna Foundation, nonprofit developers and managers of housing for the elderly. Gerhard Schiele, their research and community director, believed that, as in the past, people would informally help each other if a supportive environment was in place. In 1990, he had the idea of creating housing for the elderly that gave them the chance to continue to live independently, but among other generations. A community framework would help them remain fit and socially connected, prolonging wellness. Schiele’s housing model started with the idea that two-thirds of residents would be over 60 years of age; one-third would be below. A sizeable amount of common space was included, with a part-time social worker to help residents organize common activities, such as a catered lunch. Funding comes from St. Anna’s, from the municipality where the developments are built, and from donations. This money is placed in a social fund which pays for social workers, one half-time social worker for approximately 40 residents.

When the first development opened in 1994, critics felt professionals should be looking after older, somewhat frailer residents, not their neighbors. But to their surprise, the scheme worked well. Since then, 25 developments have been built. They range from 13 to 80 units, all handicapped accessible. Though affordable and open to all, residents who live in the municipality where a development is located are given preference. Providing mutual support and participating in common activities is done voluntarily; no one is required to do so. With a total of 800 units, and well over a decade's track record, they have proven their success.

Karin, a social worker from Liebenau, oversees the shared community space and its bulletin board, where common activities in the residential development and in the neighborhood are posted.

In one development in the central part of Ravensburg the morning begins in the community's common space with a play group for toddlers and pre-schoolers, which is organized and run by residents and volunteers. Karin Bruker, a social worker from St. Anna's, helps schedule and coordinate this and many other activities, including exercise and arts classes, as well as information on health. A catered lunch, the large meal of the day, is served in the main common space to senior residents and others from the neighborhood who pay for this with a small fee. Aside from scheduling events and bringing residents together informally — such as the monthly resident meeting with cookies and drink — Karin's services are providing advice, tips on health, and integrating the community of residents into the larger neighborhood. The surrounding community can participate in events and rent out spaces for a small fee.

Residents, a mix of owners and renters, can voluntarily work in the garden, do maintenance, and informally help neighbors by shopping, cooking, and occasionally babysitting. When greater care is needed by older residents, St. Anna's provides in-home aides and nursing care for a fee, and guarantees admittance to their nearby nursing home if long-term round-the-clock care is required.

Conflict?

This model views creating community not as a romantic notion, but as a responsibility. Those aging around us have too often acquiesced in their segregation from younger generations. Options for developing aging services through mutual help require residents with an open attitude. Monitoring is also important. Finding ways to engage young and old together requires effort, as some elderly may feel they have little to contribute of interest to the young; others have concerns about noise and worries about security. Many younger people, who may not live close to their own aging relatives, have no idea of how to relate to this growing segment of the population.

Moving from environments of age segregation to integration invites interaction and the inevitable differences of opinion in behavior, attitude and outlook. "It's a lifestyle for people who like to live in the center of things, with activities going on," explains Anne Oschwald, of St. Anna's.

An attitude of working out conflicts and not avoiding them is required. In a model like St. Anna’s, the social workers not only help residents to help each other, they are also trained in mediation. Along with activities and opportunities for getting together is the safety net of having a non-involved third party available to smooth out differences, if necessary. Any resident or neighbor can come and ask for a social worker’s mediation services. If a particular person isn't getting along with others to the point of continuing to cause conflict, and mediation is not successful, "we work with them to find another living alternative because they're not happy living here," explains Karin. According to St. Anna's, this has happened twice over the past 14 years.

Contributing

Studies in Europe that look at the components of successful aging have had an impact on European aging policy. The Leiden-85 study, carried out in the town of Leiden in the Netherlands, looked at 85-year-olds in the community to identify the components of "optimal functioning and well-being." For overall well-being, social contact was found to be most important. In the U.S., a study at the University of San Diego by Jennifer Reicstadt, M.S., and her colleagues found that "a sense of engagement … and being useful to others and to society, was considered a prominent aspect of successful aging."

	In the U.S., the urban intergenerational Campus for Jewish Life mixes multi-family housing with senior housing and care for a variety of incomes. Also included: early childhood education, programs for teens, a fitness center, offices, and a restaurant. Opening 2009. (Image: Steinberg Architects)

Contributing to the lives of other people increases social contact and makes each of us, no matter what age, feel less passive, more animated and involved. As the ways we normally have for sharing stories, advice, or help changes — either from decreased work or the loss of losing those close to us — how can we retain a sense of engagement and usefulness rather than only a recipient’s role? From the standpoint of our own well-being as we age —not to mention affordability — community may not be just an option but a necessity. If so, how do we envision it?

Here are some bold suggestions for combining generations and embracing the neighborhood, based on examples I've researched: site elderly housing next to a kindergarten and have both share a common courtyard; combine old age homes with community centers; have a nursing home share a cafe open to the neighborhood; and have elderly volunteers help the handicapped to jointly run a neighborhood center. And here are some new forms we might look closely at: senior-friendly cohousing-type communities that offer some neighborhood amenities, "intentional villages" for seniors such as Beacon Hill (in Boston) providing services for the whole neighborhood, for example.

New models for aging can create opportunities to re-envision care as not just for elders, but in a broader context of activating generations and neighborhoods. I’ve seen it work in other countries and know we can make it work here.