Imagine a fun, tall community center where people live and get care. Now let’s work together to make that the norm.
Hi, it’s Mary-Elizabeth 👋🏾
That place you just imagined—that fun, tall residential community center—is what I’m calling a vertical village, or a caring community for and by neighbors in multifamily housing.
And by neighbors I’m imagining people of all ages, races, income levels and abilities. Culturally, we’re not at that place but…
To confine our thinking to current conditions is to stifle sweeping progress.
Our creative power lies in our imagination, and I believe “if we can imagine it, we can make it.” Eventually. The trick it not to let the way things seem on the surface fool us otherwise. And the trick to making something wonderful is to include as many viewpoints as we can.
Countless people are feeling unseen, powerless or lacking in purpose. All of that can be erased with the power of vertical villages.
And the process of starting to grow one (or a village of any kind) is as simple as learning the name of one neighbor to your left and right—physically and/or politically.
Here are some of the many potential perks of growing a vertical village:
- Uniting people.
- Connecting villagers to resources.
- Promoting healthy living.
- Reducing loneliness and social isolation across ages.
- Nurturing youth and helping older adults to live in community.
- Sparking creativity and joy!
- Providing home-based volunteer and business opportunities.
- Providing opportunities to learn and teach skills.
- Creating a culture of care and support networks for caregivers.
- Reminding us that we’re all the same and interdependent.
If those are realities you want to help create…
I see Vertical Village Alliance as a body that forms partnerships to develop village frameworks and helps to augment neighbor care with home or community-based medical care.
Caring neighbors are must-have Alliance members along with these others:
Home + Community Providers:
Convenient care can increase disease screening + treatment rates and less use of ERs for primary care.
Multifamily Property Leaders:
Vertical villages will work best when grown in housing with the support of owners and property managers.
Diverse Decision Makers:
Vertical villages will also work best when supported by local leaders as well as public services and programs.
Compassionate Advisers:
New kinds of tips, tools and trainings to help vertical villages thrive will call for skilled and varied points of view.
Let me be clear:
I don’t have a fixed plan for growing Vertical Village Alliance other than we do it together.