What We Value
Our community is based on relationships. We value having a close-knit community based on respectful face-to-face relationships. We have fun working and playing together. We care for and support each other with love, patience, and compassion like an extended family. Every person is a vital part of our community life.
We aim to create a community of goodwill, trust, and openness. We value assuming the best in others, listening with caring and respect, expressing our feelings and thoughts honestly and respectfully, completing actions we say we’ll do, resolving our conflicts and using them to grow and better understand ourselves and one another, forgiving as we are able.
In our decision-making process, we consult our collective wisdom and listen to everyone. With creativity, flexibility, understanding, compromise, and consensus, we work toward solutions that best meet the needs of the community.
We foster diversity in our neighborhood and welcome individuals and families that include all ages, races, ethnicities, nationalities, genders, sexual orientations, abilities, religions, socio-economic statuses, and other dimensions of human identity. We recognize that building a diverse community is an ongoing, active process. As we work together for the common good, this process includes the give and take necessary when people’s life experiences and belief systems lead them into conflict with others. Our decisions are better when made after considering diverse perspectives. We engage in practices that ensure the voices and perspectives of community members who are not part of our majority groups (whites, heterosexuals, coupled folks, middle- and upper-middle class and folks over 50), are included in our decision making.
NC Coho succeeds best with the participation of all its residents to accomplish the shared tasks of community. We agree that we will get the work done and participate in preparation of common meals, in maintenance of the property, and serve as members of committees and as directors of the HOA.
We value having the active engagement of all residents in the social life and business life of our community. We share meals together, economically maintain our buildings and grounds, and effectively manage our HOA. We value accomplishing the shared tasks of our community together, contributing as we are able during every phase of our lives.
We value balance among individual, interpersonal, and collective NC Coho needs. We respect the privacy and boundaries of each person while respecting the village as whole.
We value an environmentally sustainable community life. We conserve resources, reduce consumption, and are stewards of the land. We have a goal of living more lightly on the earth. We use natural resources wisely with minimal waste.
We are a work-in-progress.
Participation Agreements
The success of the Nevada City Cohousing Community rests in the active, continuous involvement of all residents. Our Cohousing Community has the following expectations of all adult residents:
1. Participation in the Nevada City Cohousing Community Association. Every household is expected to participate in the community decision-making process. The HOA meets once a month, and everyone’s voice is heard in the decision-making process - renters, teens, and kids, as well as owners.
2. Participation in meals. Every adult is responsible for his or her share of the preparation and clean up of common meals on a regular, rotating basis (currently one a month), regardless of how frequently those meals are eaten.
3. Participation in the maintenance and improvement of the property. All adults share an equal responsibility for maintaining and improving the property, and there are tasks for all ages and skill sets.
4. Participation on committees. Every adult will serve on at least one committee of his or her choosing.