WHAT IS THE VILLAGE MOVEMENT ?

The village movement is an innovative type of grassroots organization that has emerged in the last decade in the organizational field of support services for community-dwelling older adults (Prof. A. Scharlach, UC Berkeley).

The village movement is one of the most viable options to let our society cope with the upcoming “Beacon Hill, the first village, came to birth in Boston (MA) and this is how they describe their inception:

In 1999, our founders, a group of friends, gathered to talk about the future. We wanted to stay engaged in our own neighborhood in this vibrant city. But we recognized that we might need support in the future.

We looked beyond conventional solutions. We wanted more freedom and control than we found in models that focus on single issues, such as housing, medical care, or social activities. We wanted to be active, taking care of ourselves and each other rather than being “taken care of.”

A PROVEN MODEL

Beacon Hill, proved that seniors wanted to get together around local villages, help each other and be part of an active community of seniors. A model so promising, that after a few years 200 villages have sprung all across the nation and many others are in the works.

A modern and efficient village 

Today, various villages across the nation, including Marin Villages and our own village, are using or testing advanced Silicon Valley technology to make villages super efficient and even more valuable to seniors in our local communities.