Co-op town puts focus on people’s well-being

"The village to reinvent the world," says author, Alan Weisman. And here’s why. The entire community focuses on sustaining the well-being of the people who live there. The residents have their own homes but operate as a community cooperative through which all basic needs are addressed. Residents pay nothing for medical care, education, housing, even food. Survival and social needs are met collectively.

Community norms and social pressure set the standard. There’s no police force, no jail; no mayor is needed. It’s reported to be a peaceful atmosphere with music and cultural activities in abundance. All adults work in village enterprises involving organic (or hydroponic) agriculture or forestry projects. During the relatively few decades it has been in existence, this tiny community has, with its own initiative, become the center of the largest reforestation project in Colombia.

It is a quite remarkable collective of ordinary but forward-thinking people who have now developed a global reputation for their problem-solving abilities. For example, the townspeople invented a water pump that village children work as they ride their seesaw. Their air-cooled, solar-heated hospital was named, in a Japanese architectural journal, one of the 40 most important buildings in the world.

This amazing little community, begun by a handful of curious and thoughtful Colombian visionaries, exudes inventiveness and creativity, "an infrastructure of well-being."

So, how does this link to "healthy aging," you might say? And I reply, "in countless ways, some which you may see more clearly than I do." Well-being, "being well," is critically important for an aging population. And it requires some amount of inventiveness to accomplish it.

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Here are just a few illustrations. Consider the 75-year-old man who recognizes physical activity is important for him but walks with great instability; he addresses the need for daily exercise by operating a stationery set of pedals placed in front of his chair. Or the 85-year-old woman who needs medication she cannot afford, so she sells her homemade jams and jellies to assist with costs. And finally, there is the 92-year-old who promotes his own well-being, and that of countless children, through weekly story-telling sessions at the local library.

The Federal Interagency Forum on Aging Related Statistics has identified the key indicators for the well-being of aging adults. Many of them are exactly the same indicators used in measuring the accomplishments of a village like Gaviotas, such factors as " life expectancy" and "health status." In both situations, "well-being" results from a demonstrated ability to embrace problems and creatively solve them.

So what does all this mean? It’s perhaps best stated in the words of essayist Charles Bowden, when he puts forward the thoughtful reminder that "all solutions are within us."

Sharon Johnson is an assistant professor in family and community development at OSU Extension and a member of the Senior Advisory Council. You can reach her at s.johnson@oregonstate.edu.