We are a group of people, aged over 60, living in Orkney. Some of us live alone, some of us are in partnerships. In 2018, talking together about our future housing needs, several faced changed circumstances. We began to consider the idea of living co-operatively in our old age. Cohousing, with its ethos of living independently in a sharing community, offered a way forward that appealed to us all.
Hope Cohousing was formally established early in 2019. We want to live independently in old age and value our privacy but recognise that friendship and support from neighbours and friends – and involvement in the local community – are crucial for our wellbeing. There have been some changes in our membership since then but the same vision has remained as has the determination to make it a reality.
We bring a variety of skills and knowledge to the project, from artists/craftspeople to teaching and social care, to experience in business, to years of working in community groups and community-led housing. Some members of our group have been involved in running the village craft co-operative for over 40 years. Others established and continue to tend the community garden in St Margaret’s Hope. Several of us are also involved in helping to organise events in our local community hall.
Hope Cohousing is a Community Interest Company (CIC). This is a special type of social enterprise: a limited company which exists to benefit the community rather than private shareholders [see gov.uk]. Its assets can only be used for its social objectives. It is overseen by the UK Government Office of the Regulator of Community Interest Companies.
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Objects
Hope Cohousing’s objects are:
7.1 to benefit older persons resident in Orkney who are in conditions of housing need by reason of their economic circumstances or social isolation, or physical necessity, through the provision of facilities to support the development of at least one Cohousing scheme and therein improve the quality of such persons’ lives
7.2 to promote Cohousing as a specifically beneficial form of intentional residential community development for persons normally resident in Orkney, designed and operated to enable the community’s residents to live within a self-contained setting which combines private accommodation with other communally-run buildings or services thereby maximising opportunity for community members to support and interact with one another on a regular basis, providing support and companionship, as the community may decide.
7.3 to promote other such not for profit purposes for the benefit of the community of Orkney in order to sustain the ongoing development of local Cohousing communities as the Company shall see fit.
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Read more about the project, our progress, our partners, the founder members, and our policies.
Picture: the view across our site to the bay and Scapa Flow.