Page 19 - Communities Respond to COVID-19

Forgebank, Lancaster Cohousing, Lancashire, UK

We have closed our common house, guest rooms and children's room. The communal laundry remains
open, and we have introduced new protocols, and changed the machines so we pay online not via
tokens. We have also bought another washing machine and installed it in a different location for use by
vulnerable and sheilding members (we have two members who are sheilding and at great risk if they get
ill). We have our own food store, stocking dried goods, fresh fruit and veg, frozen food, vegan and
veggie cheese, yoghurt etc. Again we have moved to an online payment system, and have introduced a
protocal (hand-washing, only one person in the store at a time, weigh goods at home) to keep us safe.
People who are still going to the shops are buying stuff for other members, and if someone is placing an
online order they normally ask if others want to join in. We have formed a Covid 19 Team (which I'm
on), which meets weekly and interprets how the Government guidelines apply to our rather unusual
living arrangements. We try to combine generosity and concern for wellbeing with safety being
paramount. Because it's an emergency, we don't use our normal consensus decision making process but
have introduced a system where we make a decision, and members have a week to challenge/improve
on it. Some people feel we are being too dictatorial, but the majority seem to appreciate the approach.
We have no communal meals, but some people are cooking for neighbours who find cooking difficult.
We are staying distanced from other households - though one or two households have combined. We
have a couple of people staying in regular contact with single person households to make sure they are
ok and have what they need. We have meetings on zoom, and we still have quite a lot of distanced
conversations with people on our street and land. We have celebrated several birthday, meeting around
our common house terrace and singing happy birthday, and we had an event where people put out
unwanted items and others could take them. We are coming up with different ways to do things
together. We had our first open space zoom meeting yesterday which 18 members attended (our of 60).

Alison Cahn

Shepherd Village, West Virginia, United States

Meetings that would otherwise have been held in person in our common house are now held via Zoom
or in smaller open-air front porch gatherings with social distancing. E-mail and a village Discourse forum
are used for asynchronous communication. An increased emphasis on community supported agriculture
in periodic combined bulk orders supplies food that may otherwise have been bought individually from
grocery stores. Shared meals served in the common house have been replaced with virtual meals in
which smaller groupings of residents eat meals prepared in their individual townhouses while sharing a
discussion via Zoom. Some village residents participate in a silent meditative walk through the village in
the evening.

Todd Lewis
UOCA Yoga Health Retreat, NSW, Australia

Open but empty. Require covid negative test to come here and no symptoms. Social distancing required.
Not allowed to do yoga classes in a group nor more than two to be together at one time. Though shortly
expecting lockdown to lift this. International volunteers at zero which were main source so I am stuck
here alone and need help. Depressed. Use of masks going outside community now ceased due to low
covid cases. Sterilizing common areas. Trying Zoom but few takers. Mail chimp newsletters on covid and