We are a diverse group of older lesbian feminists who seek to setup a mixed tenure cohousing project in London, developing an alternative to a retirement home, run on democratic principles. The project is for women who are over 50 and capable of independent living when joining. We want to age well as part of a community that sustains us and the environment.
We intend to live our lives to the full, be active members of our community and share our talents and skills. We aim to support each other as we age as long as our health allows.
We will do this by:
• creating lifetime design individual homes and shared spaces that best enable us to age at home and balance our private and shared lives
• being active participants in developing the cohousing project
• supporting one another to have the best rest of our lives
• sharing community resources to reduce our personal impact on the environment
• managing and maintaining our community to the best of our abilities
• valuing each member of the community, promoting respect and tolerance
• actively seeking to create a diverse community, making it accessible to, and safe for, women from different social backgrounds, ethnic groups and income levels
• creating transparent, fair and participatory decision making
Note: By feminist we mean recognition that women are disadvantaged and a commitment to changing this. We draw some of our values from UN human rights documents, especially UN principles for older persons, the Convention to Eliminate Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) and The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)