Common Space, not that common.
What/Who is Westside Cohousing?
Why cohousing in the west?
Melbourne’s west is a special place with access to the sea, the city, decent public transport and a large amount of un-subdivided land sporadically becoming available. Footscray and Sunshine have been identified as strategic zones by state government for good possibility for “20min neighbourhood” ideas and community building efforts with lots of local community groups already promoting active transport infrastructure and supportive social groups. The inner west is culturally and linguistically diverse and sports a positive LGBTIQ scene which encourages diversity within the community.
What is our objective?
Our objective is to have a group of people who wish to live in a community of their own creation who are prepared to pool resources to buy a site and build the community they want for their future and for the future of the inner west. We see the foundation of a pro-social cohousing community as a possible way to lead the change in the west before all eligible sites are lost to ridiculous solitary unit development. We believe there is a better way for the west to develop and we hope to demonstrate to the community at large, to the financial institutions and strategic decision-makers the benefits of investing not only in housing, but community and lifestyle equally.
Why are we doing this?
Simply, we want to live in an intentional / deliberative community, and we want to set an example for how good a lifestyle can be within these communities. To set a precedent for a better way to live in the west.
How do we Govern?
We use the foundation principles of Sociocracy (also similar to Dynamic Governance) to help us organise, make decisions and get things done. Sociocracy provides a toolkit which helps to intercept and prevent many of the common challenges that abound in small non hierarchical groups of people trying to work together. It helps with overbearing personalities, the tendency for people to jump to conclusions, improves everyone’s listening skills and perhaps most importantly ensures that everyone gets a voice and can be heard. This means that our decisions and actions are supported by the group and have more chances of success.
Who is this (Westside Cohousing) for?
We welcome anyone to join our community, we need people who are interested in the idea of an intentional community and ultimately we need as diverse a mixture of people as possible.
WsCh is an initiative which is focused on a cohousing development, but if we have more interest and we collect the lessons along the way, we won’t stop at one site, so come see what we are about for yourself, as if the first site isn’t quite right for you, then the second site might be.
What we are not…
We are not a commune, we are not a pure social housing initiative, we are not of any particular religion (or any other category) we are not afraid to put ourselves out there and take a chance on people.
We are just friendly people trying to make a better world for as many people to live in as possible.