Itineraries Winter 2006
Contents:
Convening Circles of Elders by Lynne Iser
Claiming Our Elderhood: Growing Elder and Not Just Older by Ron Pevny
Creating and Sustaining Community by Emily Headley
Second Journey Updates
When the forms of an old culture are dying,
the new culture is created by a few people
who are not afraid to be insecure.
— Rudolf Bahro
“To foster the emerging movement…” // “The world is as you dream it”
Our society has experienced dramatic increases in the age of its citizens. By 2030, over 20% of the population will be 65 or older (up from 10.5% in 1975) — a demographic shift which results from spectacular advances in medicine and public health that have, over the past century, added 30-plus years to our life expectancy.
We can view this revolution in longevity — a revolution with consequences no less far reaching than the Industrial Revolution 250 years ago — as a demographic time bomb threatening to leave in tatters our social safety net. OR we can see this “dividend of extra years” as an unprecedented historic opportunity:
- an opportunity to open new avenues for individual growth and spiritual deepening — so that our longer lives become more meaningful lives;
- an opportunity to birth a renewed ethic of service and mentoring in later life; and
- an opportunity to marshal the distilled wisdom and experience of elders to address the converging crises of our time, both geo-political and ecological.
— the opportunity, in short, for fundamental and transformative change…at the personal, societal, and the planetary levels.
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Expanded vision of our work emerges from Kirkridge retreat:
Second Journey is among a number of emerging organizations within the United States helping birth this new vision of the rich possibilities of later life. Our series of regional VISIONING COUNCILS on the topic Creating Community in Later Life — held over the past two years at venues across the country — have sparked creative, innovative thinking. Additionally, they have led to the emergence of a national network of activists committed “to collectively dreaming the myths and creating the models that will galvanize social change” (From Age-ing to Sage-ing).
In mid-November, Second Journey took an initial step toward organizing the energy and inviting new leadership into our expanding circle when we held our first strategic planning retreat at Kirkridge Retreat Center in the Pocono Mountains of eastern Pennsylvania. From that retreat, a more expansive vision of our work emerged; it is reflected in the mission statement below:
The mission of Second Journey is to foster the emerging movement of individuals, organizations and communities committed to creating
- a new vision of aging,
- new models of community for the second half of life, and
- a just and sustainable world now and for future generations.
Task force teams are now meeting to carry forward many new ideas in preparation for a second planning retreat which will take place on May 4-7 at Colorado Chautauqua in Boulder among an expanded circle of colleagues. Planning also goes forward for a July 13-16 Visioning Council at the Whidbey Institute north of Seattle and for our first international Visioning Council in Berlin.
This is your invitation, then, to become our partner in this work, to join with others “who are not afraid to be insecure” in dreaming a new dream for the world.
The words of Wayne Muller, which we have used to close a number of our Councils, are appropriate encouragement now: “The family of the earth aches for your gifts. We all need what you have. We cannot survive unless you join our circle and bring who you are to our gathering. Do not be afraid. This is the phrase used more often than any other in the Bible: Be not afraid. A kind life, a life of spirit, is fundamentally a life of courage—the courage simply to bring what you have, to bring who you are.”
Convening Circles of Elders by Lynne Iser
Lynne Iser’s professional passion is to create elder communities designed to add value to our world and culture. She currently facilitates regional vision councils for Second Journey and provides workshops and presentations on Spiritual Eldering – how to review and complete one’s life, harvest life’s wisdom and provide a legacy for future generations. Her interests stem from the years that she was Executive Director of the Spiritual Eldering Institute, helping to co-found the organization and spread the word about conscious aging.
A premise of the conscious aging/spiritual eldering movement is that we can become wise elders by harvesting wisdom gleaned from many years of life experience. This wisdom does not come automatically, with the years of one’s life, but comes from careful reflection of the many experiences, relationships, difficulties, joys, sorrows, accomplishments — all the ingredients of a life well lived. “Anybody can grow old, but it takes work to become an elder!”
In the unsettling and turbulent days of our current lives — in this very moment — many of us understand that the world needs more wisdom. Or at the least, more time for reflection, conversation and careful thought. As we have aged doubtless we’ve learned that the world does indeed need “love, sweet love” — to open our hearts. But it also needs wisdom — to open our minds. We will need both opened hearts and opened minds— love and wisdom — to guide us surely in our continuing journeys.
So, what does wisdom have to do with convening a circle of elders? A Circle is a structure that encourages us to dig deep within our selves and speak our wisdom. It asks us to listen to others and to listen to our own selves. It asks us to speak slowly with respect and integrity for those within the Circle.
A Circle is a way in which to gather elders and to encourage conversation. It is a safe place for sharing our musings, questions and concerns. It can be a supportive circle for continuing to grow. It is a simple structure that is used to bring elders together so that we can share what is on our minds and in our hearts.
A Circle can be a means to channel our outrage at the world in which we live. It can be a means to create community, for building lives together — rather than creating more alienation and loneliness. It can even be a forum for creating solutions — utilizing the natural wisdom, talents, skills and experiences of seasoned elders.
Elder Circles have their origin in many native cultures. Native American traditions had their elders sit in Council to resolve the issues of the tribe. In the western world the “senate” has its origins from the Latin word senex which means “old man.” In the Roman senate elders guided public policy following Cicero’s maxim “Young men for action, old men for counsel.”
There are simple tools that can help us listen better when in a Circle of Elders. A Circle is “opened” by a convener. It might open with a brief ritual, perhaps a candle, or a song, or a poem — any of which can draw the energy into the Circle. Many times a question is posed for all to consider and speak to. Time is given for each individual to sit quietly and consider what inner truth or wisdom they might want to speak about the topic being considered. A person might begin speaking with the word “And” — indicating that what they are saying is added to the whole of the conversation rather than in rebuttal or dispute of another’s word. And when finished, the speaker might say “I have spoken.” A frequently used tool is a “talking stick” which is held by the person who is speaking; this insures that only one person speaks at a time and the attention of the Circle is focused on the speaker.
In many ways a Circle of Elders can provide a forum in which to build community. It not only encourages us to listen and to speak with each other, but it is a structure that inherently claims that elders have wisdom, words, experience and perspective to share with others. When we learn to respect and listen to each other — to elders — it is likely that we will remember to respect and listen to other beings as well — our children, those who appear to be “the other,” the cries of the Earth, the voices of those who are impoverished. Rich and poor, educated and illiterate, successful and struggling — WE are the community that composes our world. All our voices need to be heard to insure that our community thrives.
A Circle of Elders is a beginning step. It will provide an opportunity to form friendships, to continue to learn, to continue to grow. It will empower us to become Elders, to speak with voices of wisdom and of reflection. We will, individually and collectively, become stronger and perhaps wiser. That is good. It will feed our hearts and feed our spirits. And it might help us to heal the broken world in which we live.
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A resource for facilitating elder circles:
A Harvest of Years — A PeerSpirit Guide for Proactive Aging Circles
by Cynthia Trenshaw
“Who will care for me when I’m old? Is it too late to prepare for my aging? Am I the only one who yearns for conversations of substance? How can I gather a supportive community?” Many people beyond midlife hunger for a group to share reflections on these questions. This booklet describes how to create such a proactive aging circle using PeerSpirit structure. It answers questions about getting started and choosing participants. It suggests topics of conversation and provides guidelines for maintaining a thriving group dynamic. The booklet is written for people wanting to call their own circle and for people working with issues of aging, health, and spiritual care.
Claiming Our Elderhood: Growing Elder and Not Just Older by Ron Pevny
Ron Pevny, M.A., has for forty years been dedicated to assisting people in negotiating life transitions as they create lives of purpose and passion. He is Founding Director of the Center for Conscious Eldering, based in Durango, Colorado. He is also a Certified Sage-ing® Leader, was the creator and administrator of the twelve-organization Conscious Aging Alliance, and has served as the host/interviewer for the 2015, 2016 and 2017 Transforming Aging Summits presented by The Shift Network. He is author of Conscious Living, Conscious Aging: embrace and savor your next chapter, published in 2014 by Beyond Words/Atria Books. Ron has presented many conscious eldering programs at Ghost Ranch and other retreat centers around North America over the past fifteen years.
Listen carefully and you will hear a rumbling, as the first of the baby-boom generation cross the threshold into our sixties. This rumbling will soon become a demographic earthquake. In an America that worships youth, the proportion of the population over sixty will reach unprecedented heights, and the resulting impact upon every aspect of American life will be profound. Each day, we need look no further than the media and the Internet to find predictions of the demographic sea change that is nearly upon us.
Listen even more carefully and you will detect another rumbling at a different frequency. This is the sound of a rapidly increasing number of seniors and baby-boomers questioning the mainstream contemporary models for aging. These are people having a sense — sometimes a vague yearning tinged with frustration and fear, sometimes a persistent deep feeling of inner calling — that there are more possibilities for their senior years than are generally recognized and supported. They feel a call to Elderhood and sense that there is a difference between being old or senior, and being an elder. But, they often don’t know what this would look like or how to get there. And, living in a society in which there is no designated role for elders, there is no prescription. The good news is that a general shape of Elderhood in America is beginning to emerge.
Throughout much of recorded history, up until the Industrial Revolution, elders have had honored roles in society. They have been the nurturers of community; the spiritual leaders; the guardians of the traditions; the teachers, mentors, and initiators of the young. They have been the storytellers who have helped their people see the enduring wisdom and deeper meanings of life that lie beneath superficial models of reality and persist through life’s changes.
Elders have been the ones who, over long lives of experience and growth, have converted knowledge and experience into wisdom and whose revered role is to model this wisdom as they teach the younger generations.
So much has changed since then. The impending demographic shift is a result of societal advances that now make it possible for large numbers of people to live, often healthily, well into their seventies, eighties, and even longer. Such lifespans for huge numbers of people are unprecedented in human history. It is no longer just the rare few who live long lives.
At the same time, for the last century, at least, our culture has adopted the machine as a new metaphor for how human life is viewed. We are assembled and programmed during the years of youth. We efficiently produce material goods and new ideas and information during the years of adulthood, and our value is directly tied to what we contribute to the economy. We go to therapy if we are unable to continue to be efficient. In the senior years we slow or break down, no longer able to compete with those younger, and we are taken out of service or make that choice ourselves. In a world of ever-accelerating change, most of what older people have learned about work and technology — about contributing to the economy — is considered out of date and no longer useful. However, in dismissing the elderly for these reasons, modern society also dismisses its potential prime source of deep wisdom and values, wisdom that can be read about in books and blogs but which is most powerfully communicated by those elders who have become able to embody what they teach.
So, we live in an America that will soon be composed of record numbers of seniors facing the prospect of many years, even decades, of life. What are the contemporary models for aging that shape our visions for how we will live these years?
Many seniors and baby-boomers, especially those with financial security and good health, see our senior years as a time of well-deserved rest from responsibility and plentiful opportunities for recreation, travel, adventure, and learning. As early a retirement as possible is the ideal for many, and moving to leisure-oriented communities of people like ourselves may well be part of this vision.
For those not so economically fortunate and healthy, the prospects for our senior years can appear much less appealing. They envision years of living alone, in elder care facilities or with their children, with few opportunities and quite possibly the prospect of having to take low-paying service jobs to keep body and soul together.
Of course, this categorization is too simple. More and more seniors in both categories are volunteering in our communities. Many retirees are choosing to work part-time as consultants in their former professions or to pursue entirely different careers for reasons other than economic necessity. The models are not nearly as clear-cut as they were ten or twenty years ago. The cultural landscape is being redefined, and will be so even more profoundly as the baby-boomers, who have led so much cultural change since the 60s, become sixty. And this leads back to the distinction between being elder and being old.
We human beings seem to be genetically wired with a need for living passionate lives of purpose, meaning, and service to the greater good, a good which is larger than the economy. Throughout the last century, the mainstream visions of aging have largely seen the senior years as a time for withdrawing from contribution to the larger community, a time for winding down. At the same time, as life expectancy has dramatically increased, for many the years after retirement can be a significant portion of one’s life. Can we find fulfillment and passion by “winding down” for 20 or 30 years? By devoting our lives to golf or other recreation? And what about the urgent need for elder wisdom in a complex and threatened world where true wisdom seems to be in short supply?
The emerging definition of what Elderhood can be in today’s world is very much linked to the crucial question of how, as a senior, to meet this need for purpose, meaning, and service to the larger community. The challenge for those feeling these needs is to envision, create, and claim elder roles for ourselves in a society greatly in need of elder wisdom but offering few such roles or models to its seniors. This is not something that is easily done alone. And it requires preparation at all levels — physical, psychological, and spiritual.
This is where meaningful rites of passage, also in critically short supply, can play such an important role. Throughout most of known human history, significant changes in life status have been marked by rites of passage or initiation into the next stage of life. The intent has been to provide extensive psychological and spiritual preparation for the transition, followed by a significant ceremony to mark the life passage, with the goal being to help the initiate to consciously and fully move into his/her next role. Through such powerful processes, people were assisted in letting go of attitudes, behaviors, and self concepts that would not fit their new life roles, and they were guided in identifying and strengthening the wisdom, the psychological resources, and the spiritual connection necessary for claiming and effectively filling their new statuses.
Contrast this with today’s world, where meaningful, empowering rites of passage are rare, and people are expected to move from one stage to another largely on their own, with little psychological and spiritual preparation. Teens graduate and are assumed and expected to be adults. Adults retire and are assumed and expected to be — what? Old? Out of the way so the young can make the contributions? Drains on the budget?
This is a call for meaningful rites of passage for those feeling the call to Elderhood. It is a call to the leaders of the many spiritual traditions in our country, as well as those others who through various means have stepped into and owned the wisdom of their own eldering, to develop inspiring, intensive programs of preparation for Elderhood, culminating in ceremonies of passage. It is also a call to seniors and soon-to-be-seniors who feel called to Elderhood to request and seek out such support. A few programs already exist and are having a dramatic impact upon those who utilize them. As burgeoning numbers of people stand on or near the threshold to their senior years, the need and demand for elder rites of passage will greatly increase.
Whatever form they take, effective rites of passage into Elderhood will not prescribe a particular form or role for emerging elders. The ways in which these elders will share their wisdom and skills with the larger community will be as unique as each individual and as diverse as the American population. What we new elders will have in common, however, is a commitment to continual growth, discovery of purpose, passion, and service. We will realize that our wholeness, and the well-being of the larger society and our planet itself, cannot be separated. Current and soon-to-be seniors can play a critical role in shaping a positive future if we choose to not withdraw as we age, but rather to nurture ourselves and our communities by claiming our roles as elders.
Creating and Sustaining Community by Emily Headley
Emily Headley is a Principal of Ageless Excellence, a partnership dedicated to building community and creating hospitality for groups of elders and their allies.
“Living in community” is a phrase that is used frequently and applied to many settings. Its warm and fuzzy connotation makes it a popular phrase for various types of dwelling options; what it really takes, however, to live in community is rarely addressed. Though most people would agree that mere physical proximity is not enough, master-planned communities, condominium complexes, continuing care retirement communities, assisted living (AL) and even long term care properties often equate a group of people living together — either within a fence or under the same roof — with living in community.
During the last few of my 21 years working in the operations side of assisted living and dementia care, I’ve invested much energy tinkering with the system — implementing a wide variety of bells and whistles in an effort to create and sustain community. When all these efforts produced limited and short-term effects, I started to wonder if there was anything I could do to make significant strides toward this seemingly lofty goal.
What started out as a nagging little thought has turned into a self-funded sabbatical from the industry in which I had spent my entire professional life. The turning point came when I co-presented a Mind, Body and Spirit pilot program for groups of assisted living residents and staff. Prior to the actual hands-on workshop my colleague and I interviewed the resident participants individually and asked just one question: “What brings you fulfillment at this time in your life?” The content of each response from all 21 people in our sample centered on one theme — human connection.
While the methodology of our informal survey was far from scientific, and the number of respondents relatively small, the residents spoke with such clarity and power that almost overnight I began to see the current model of elders living together as woefully shallow. Its focus on leisure and consumption, with a healthy dose of efficiency thrown in, leaves few resources available to pursue the depth of human experience that creates full spectrum well-being.
With well-meaning yet misguided intention we operators of institutional senior living properties have been relying on increasingly luxurious amenities and services, e.g. beautiful furnishings, upscale dining programs, glossy brochures, etc. to do the heavy lifting of building community. We’ve been looking for love in all the wrong places!
While that conclusion now seems absurdly obvious, the industry is still very much entrenched in the importance of the external satisfaction/fulfillment drivers. Outside of the mainstream, however, interesting experimentation is going on. One such experiment is Eldershire, a refreshing challenge to traditional thinking about “retirement communities” which is being developed by Eden Alternative™ originators, Bill and Jude Thomas. My exposure to this project served as a catalyst for the reflections that follow. Specifically, I offer brief descriptions of three internally-oriented areas of concentration that represent a variety of teachings, beliefs, theories and principles surrounding the notion of creating and sustaining community.
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Hospitality
Though a whole industry uses this word to describe itself, and institutional senior living settings claim to have a high level of it, I find the spiritual definition of hospitality — “recognizing the divine in another”— the best place to start in discussing the notion of true community. In fact, the title of a recent resident/staff workshop which I also co-presented was “Reciprocal Hospitality”; in it we mined participants’ wisdom about how to treat one another and their recollection of the personal fulfillment that occurs when they opened their heart to “the other”.
The stories that emerged from that workshop were extraordinary. An executive director with whom I had worked for over 10 years shared a story about feeling welcome in the workplace that brought all of the participants (residents and staff) to a reflective silence. A number of residents also shared heart-felt stories about deeply satisfying times in their lives when they extended sincere hospitality to another person, which sparked lively conversation about how to bring similar experiences to their present way of life.
The author Parker Palmer asserts that true hospitality can only occur when you need the stranger as much as the stranger needs you. I believe that it is possible to approach this level of reciprocity between residents and staff, as well as among residents, in an institutional setting. Abandonment of the current physical design of these settings is not a requirement, a re-allocation of resources is. For example, building a budget around creating intentional community would propel resident satisfaction levels upward. Word-of-mouth advertising would experience a commensurate increase, which would free up media advertising dollars to be spent on “visiting time” between staff and residents. The Eldershire model appears to embrace the community-focused approach enthusiastically.
A large part of the training in the Benedictine tradition focuses on cultivating the ability to be gracefully and sincerely welcoming at all times. (Indeed all religions and spiritual practices speak in some way to the practice of “welcoming the other”.) Radical Hospitality by Homan and Pratt offers a wonderful introduction to the inner shifts that need to occur in order for a person to be genuinely hospitable and welcoming. From preparing a table for a meal together to the art of deep listening, there are many skills that contribute to the ease with which one extends genuine hospitality to another.
We actually need look no further than a given individual’s experience with being made to feel (or helping someone else to feel) “at home”. Drawing from the heart to augment the role of being a host to someone is a familiar experience for most everyone — especially women who are now in their elderhood. Yet, as mentioned above, the current senior living model offers precious few opportunities for that population to employ this well-honed, deeply satisfying skill. The lack of such opportunities overlooks the social capital that is lying dormant in properties that are filled with an average of 100 – 150 individuals (residents and staff) at any given time.
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Core Gifts/Core Strengths
The belief that each person is born with a unique gift to give to his or her community is rooted in many ancient civilizations and was always a key component of adolescent initiation ceremonies. One of the primary roles of elders within the ceremonies was to help each young person discover his or her core gift.
Now, as a result of many societal and cultural factors, few of our elders are even aware of their own core gift. The word “gift” or “gifted” no longer refers to the innate qualities of each individual; it is now used to describe academically proficient students or someone who has superior talents in a given area of life. Bruce Anderson, in his book The Teacher’s Gift, observes that “By using the word gift to define differences in capability, we have turned our attention away from an older and more useful definition of gifted — one which was….used to honor and unite community citizens rather than divide and categorize them”. Thanks to the work of Anderson, Martin Seligman and others the concept of core gifts or strengths is starting to be recognized as an effective vehicle for enhancing collaboration, facilitating accomplishment and inspiring mutual appreciation of each other’s unique contribution.
I am a trained practitioner of the Core Gift Identification process, and have directly experienced the unifying power of incorporating this knowledge into group processes. It particularly resonates with one of the Eldershire community elements: Know others and be well-known. By incorporating everyone’s core gifts into some aspect of the community, acknowledgement of each person’s unique and valuable assets occurs as a matter of course. In other words, the greatness of who you are is recognized by the group, and you are regularly called upon to contribute in a meaningful way.
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The Three Principles of Human Behavior
Within the field of psychology there is a model of practice that is based on three principles. It is important within this discussion to distinguish between a theory and a principle — especially in relation to the “soft science” of psychology. A principle is consistently replicable and applies in all circumstances, e.g. gravity, whereas a theory may produce varied results, even when conditions are similar.
The 3 Principles of Human Behavior, as first described by Sydney Banks and practiced by a growing number of professionals in psychology, social services, education, law enforcement, education, etc. offer a reliable pathway for achieving personal and group-related goals with ease and grace. Books by Richard Carlson and Jack Pransky draw heavily from the Principles, along with peer-reviewed journal articles by physicians Roger Mills and William Pettit, to name just a few.
The following points, pulled from Principle-based understanding (and summarized for brevity) are applicable to many of the Eldershire components of well-being:
Every person possesses an innate state of well-being, one that the body naturally returns to whenever possible.
The power for attaining a high state of well-being rests squarely with the individual and the quality of his or her thinking, not with any external practice, product, environment, person, etc.
Our thoughts about another person or occurrence in our life are the strongest influencers of how our reality actually plays out.
Realizing consciousness about the power of our thoughts can happen in an instant, to anyone, once he or she receives some basic education about the Principles.
A group’s or individual’s state of mind, e.g. positive or negative, is the primary predictor of the ability to accomplish whatever is desired, from measurable tasks to creating and maintaining an intentional community.
The above is a very brief overview of the broad underpinnings of a comprehensive, whole-person program for sustained well-being. During my 16-year tenure with Transamerica Senior Living we engaged in an executive leadership and communication series that was based on the Principles, and the impressive results for our business unit and in my own personal life which were achieved recommend the approach.
The beauty of including a Principles perspective in a vision of community is that well-being for all is considered the primary driver of success. A foundational orientation to the Principles does not preclude any spiritual beliefs or practices; indeed most people recognize familiar religious tenets from all traditions embedded within the material. Yet there is absolutely no reference to a specific religion, which makes the Principles material ideal for use in nonsectarian settings.
Connecting with another person is a deeply fulfilling experience. When a group of people purposefully “stretch” themselves, by connecting to each other beyond the borders of selectivity and commonality, a profoundly hospitable community is created. – a community in which belonging, contribution and accomplishment occur regularly and naturally. Now that’s something to look forward to during one’s second journey through life!
Connecting with another person is a deeply fulfilling experience. When a group of people purposefully “stretch” themselves, by connecting to each other beyond the borders of selectivity and commonality, a profoundly hospitable community is created. – a community in which belonging, contribution and accomplishment occur regularly and naturally. Now that’s something to look forward to during one’s second journey through life!
News and Notices
New Book
EcoVillage at Ithaca: Pioneering a Sustainable Culture
by Liz Walker
New Society Publishers, 2005.
This book tells the story of life at EcoVillage at Ithaca, a groundbreaking experiment in sustainable development and community living located in Upstate New York. The Village is comprised of an intentional community and a non-profit organization with the goal to explore and model innovative approaches to ecological and social sustainability.
“… an achingly beautiful and finely told account of a group of people — part of a larger movement — living as modern pioneers of a sustainable future.”
-Vicki Robin, coauthor of Your Money or Your Life
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A unique community for elders and families is looking for a few good elders
Treehouse, a multigenerational community in Easthampton, MA, was created for elders and families who care for children from foster care. They are looking for 12 adoptive families and 48 elders to live in this exciting, new neighborhood. Treehouse provides several affordable housing options, built-in professional support, and programs for residents of all ages — while focusing particularly on healing children who have experienced trauma and loss. A Community Center with activities for everyone is one of the many benefits of Treehouse living. Located next to a school and a park, in a beautiful, specially designed neighborhood, Treehouse offers unique benefits for seniors who want to make a difference — and enjoy lives full of new opportunities.
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Casa Clara in Albuquerque offers urban model for aging in community
A new model for aging in community, Casa Clara Community in Albuquerque (NM), combines a rental situation with the values and ideals of a cooperative structure. It will appeal to those who value their independence and control over their own lives, but who also want the benefits that come from a community committed to mutual caring.
The facility consists of five fourplexes on an acre and a half of land located within walking distance of the University of New Mexico North Campus area and to grocery stores, bus lines, and the medical center of the University. All 20 garden apartments will be totally renovated, most as two-bedroom. A common house will include a dining area, kitchen, living room, office, craft room, exam room, bath, and laundry area. The beautifully landscaped grounds will include a common garden space, a meditation garden, and places for both sun and shade. The modest rents will range from $625 to $825 with an additional fee for the Association.
Casa Clara Association is now forming, and final renovations will begin as soon as commitments are made. We are actively looking for others who are interested in becoming part of this vision.