WELL BEING IN ELDERHOOD

   Old age need not be a slow crawl toward decline and despair, but instead, a chance to joyously soar to new heights of human growth and awareness. To this end, Whispering Dawn Communities strive to

1. provide environments that foster community rather than loneliness
2. create meaningful activity rather than boredom, and
3. facilitate self-reliance rather than helplessness.

    The goals of the current facility-based, long-term care system are simply to mitigate the decline of aging. This system fails all of us. We need a metamorphosis . . . a marked change in the nature, function, appearance, or condition of a thing: especially a transformation that is not easily reversible.

    If we acknowledge that old age is simply another stage of human growth and development and therefore reject the institutional model of care, then well-being flows from a person-directed model of care . . . the well-being of elders, their families and friends, other members of the immediate community, and the greater community.

   The programs, trainings, design aspects, networking, and expertise that Whsipering Dawn brings to the creation and on-going operation of communities are designed to foster all the elements of well-being.

It is the path to a life worth living.

A study team, funded through a grant from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has developed seven primary domains of well-being:

1. Identity: being well-known; having personhood; individuality; wholeness; having a history. A personal sense of history, life, and feelings of self-worth are essential components of well being. Without this, we cease to exist.
2. Growth: development; enrichment; unfolding; expanding;evolving. Elders have every opportunity to learn and grow.
3. Autonomy: liberty; self-governance; self-determination; immunity from the arbitrary exercise of authority; choice; freedom; to be one's own person, to be respected for one's ability to decide for one's self, to be in control of one's life, absorbing the costs and benefits of one's own choices.
4. Security: freedom from doubt, anxiety, or fear. To be safe, certain, assured, have privacy, dignity, and respect.  The security of home and family, freedom from fear and anxiety must be satisfied before we can grow toward self-actualization.
5. Connectedness: alive; belonging; engaged; involved; not detached; connected to the past, present, and future; connected to personal possessions; connected to the place; connected to nature.
6. Meaning: significance; heart; hope; import; value; purpose; reflection; sacred. A Whispering Dawn Community infuses meaning into every corner, every act, and every relationship.
7. Joy: happiness; pleasure; delight; contentment; enjoyment. Joy is a short, simple word describing the highest possibility of human life.

PROVIDING FOR WELL-BEING

Whispering Dawn's unique package of programs are organic, flexible, and vibrant . . . growing, adapting, and developing . . . based on the feedback and experiences of the individual community. In addition to the consultancies, materials, and ongoing trainings, we offer tools to measure the success of Whispering Dawn communities. Its programs fall into these categories

1. Consultancy and materials for developers and groups joining together to create a community
2. Programs and training that support the ongoing operation of a Whispring Dawn Community. These  elements also relate to the design and development of each community

A. Community Exploration
  a.   Examining the "who, what, when, where, and how" elements of creating a Whispering Dawn Community
  b.   Consulting with the developer and/or prospective residents
  c.   Helping compress the cohousing process from years
B. Nuts and Bolts
    Advising and assisting with site selection, initial design aspects, zoning, utilities, organizational aspects, financing, and selecting consultants
C. Documentation
    Providing drafts and models of the various documents needed to form and govern the community
D. Design and Plans
    Making appropriate recommendations and referrals, through our relationships with designers and architects, while helping ensure the community developers retain control.

   Each of these programs is being developed with experts in the particular field who will serve as trainers for those opting to be resident mentors. They also will serve as backup informational sources and will bring mentors together for periodic meetings and training.

A. Empowerment
   Ongoing workshops will be offered in subjects that seem to generate the most interest with residents. One-on-one mentoring will be available as well.  

B. Well-Being
    In this dynamic health and wellness program, Whispering Dawn residents will be able to access a variety of interactive health and wellness materials via a closed circuit internet program.  Resident volunteers called wellness mentors from each community will receive special training, periodic updates, and have access to resources and specialists.  

   An  electronic newsletter with ideas, updates, and community forum will be generated to go along with the periodic community newsletter.

C. Lifelong Learning
    Rather than signaling the end of lifelong work, Elderhood can be translated into bright new beginnings and exciting new possibilities for personal growth. Residents will have the opportunity to design courses in subjects they would like to learn or teach.

   Interaction with area institutions of higher learning is planned. Based on their interests and abilities, residents will be able to access educators, artists, writers, spiritual teachers or others, to teach and work in the community.

   An artist-in-residence program may evolve from such an engagement. Whispering Dawn will act as a facilitator to help create these workshops and programs among existing Whispering Dawn Communities, the surrounding local communities, and throughout the entire Whispering Dawn network.

D. Sustainability and Environmental Stewardship
    Beginning with the earliest design processes and extending into the day-to-day lives of the residents, Whispering Dawn Communities will support sustainability and environmental stewardship. This could manifest in the form of recycling guidelines, vehicle use, building material regulations, water use, and so on, as decided by the community members.  Community members can engage  the surrounding communities by modeling successful sustainability and stewardship in action and by assisting and consulting with local residents and leaders who may wish to follow this example.

E. Spirituality
   Spirituality is different from religion, although religions are based on spiritual aspects: "spirituality" is the human quest for personal meaning and mutually fulfilling relationships among people, the non-human environment, and, for some, God.

   It is our experience that examining why we are here is a very important aspect of achieving well-being. Qualified, experienced individuals will bring valuable materials and will provide training for the Whispering Dawn Community members who wish to act as community spirituality mentors.

F. Civic Engagement
     Whispering Dawn Communities can be likened to a cell that has very permeable walls. Things that nourish it flow easily and smoothly into the community.  At the same time, things that nourish the surrounding cells (communities) flow readily out of the community.

This may be contrasted to those  "gated communities" that are pretty well "self-contained" . . . where there is little flow in or out.

Civic engagement is a key element in this two way flow . . . and it is a part of how members of the Whispering Dawn Community are encouraged and supported to both take a full role in their own governance ("nourishment") as well as how they contribute from their talent, experience, learning, time, and energy to the greater good. Civic engagement can take many forms, from individual volunteerism to organizational involvement  to electoral participation.

Whispering Dawn Communities embrace this process through individual and collective actions designed to identify and address issues of public concern. It can include efforts to address an issue directly, work with others in a community to solve a problem, or interact with the institutions of representative democracy.

Civic engagement could include a range of activities such as working in a soup kitchen, serving on a neighborhood association, modeling environmental stewardship, or writing a letter to an elected official or voting.

G. Self-governance
    Perhaps nothing can sour all the hard and wonderful work that goes into creating a viable community than conflict among neighbors or meetings that produce intense discord. Developing a governing structure that truly works for all is an art form.

Having trained facilitators as part of this process is critical to the success of a community. Basic documents that reflect the true underlying spirit and goals of the members of the community are also building blocks  for fostering mutual respect and avoiding undue conflict. Whisepring Dawn recommends a consensus decision-making system, where all are heard and respected and where the underlying values of the community . . . it's "intentional constitution" . . . form the basis for settling any conflict.

H. Caring for others

    When each resident of a Whsipering Dawn Community makes the commitment to be a good neighbor, each resident gets a community full of good neighbors!  Translating this into action involves living the Golden Rule, genuine mutual caring.

There are many things good neighbors can do to help each other . . . to provide care and caring. Whether it is picking up a quart of milk, feeding the dog or gold fish, driving a neighbor to an appointment, or offering a caring reminder, the commitment to care and caring can and will create a new way of living together . . . a new way with deep roots in the past. Whispering Dawn training and materials help the community and its residents to define roles, expectations, and policies relating to good neighboring.

The process by which outside caregivers can be used when needed within the  community also will be developed with community residents. Residents will explore and arrange for ways to care for those who may need more help than can be achieved within the community.

I. Sales and Resales
    The rules, regulations, governing documents, structure, and necessary intimacy (consensus and style of decision making) of a Whispering Dawn Community could create some concerns and potential problems for those seeking to purchase a home there. We will assist community-forming groups in navigating the potential difficulties associated with initial admissions to the community as well as with resales.