Good News! Manzanita Village has been chosen as one of 33 semi-finalists in the Arizona We Want ((http://www.thearizonawewant.org/) program. We are the only co-housing group that has been chosen. In this state-wide competition, we are one of three semi-finalists in Yavapai County and, it appears, the smallest group chosen. Our proposal is to create a working demonstration project that captures rainwater runoff for gardening and landscaping usage, which reduces domestic water usage and erosion, and builds citizen engagement. The next step in the process is to complete a feasibility assessment including identifying and getting letters of support from potential collaborating partners and determining “the way [the] community does things that will never be the same again.”
Important to the whole Arizona We Want effort are actions that build community. According to a survey cited on their webpage only 12% of citizens in Arizona believe that people in their community care about one another. Only 25% believe it’s easy to meet people and make friends in their community, and only 37% believe they are treated with respect at all times. The low sense of connectedness to one another that Arizonans express is confirmed by the findings of the 2010 Arizona Civic Health Index. Arizona ranks 48th in the nation for exchanging favors with neighbors regularly and 45th for eating dinner with family/household members almost daily. We feel that cohousing provides an exciting and innovative model for building communities and modeling ways our neighbors can grow an Arizona where people care about their communities and each other.
Here are two more links about the grant:
“Into the Mind of Lattie Coor”:
Building Community in Arizona: