Values Statement

At Cambridge Cohousing, we value and strive toward:

1. Welcoming and respecting our differences: including age, religious/spiritual practice, race, backgrounds, physical and cognitive ability, sexual orientation, and gender identity. 

2. Being good neighbors, developing a social environment that supports mutual concern, respect, well-being, and joy in each other. 

3. Self-governing in a way that ensures everyone is heard and builds trust through transparency, reliability, and accountability.

4. Putting the good of the community over personal preferences.

5. Caring for our community property, and being stewards of our local and global environmental resources. 

6. Engaging equitably through our care, time and work in our community while recognizing that individuals contribute in many ways.

7. Being reliable members who commit to and follow through on the work that needs to be done. 

8. Acknowledging and working with our conflicts and seeing them as opportunities for community and individual growth. 

9. Recognizing our responsibility to the humanitarian needs of our larger community and the wider world. (2017)

Vision Statement

The purpose of the Cambridge Cohousing (CCH) group is to create an urban residential community in which the architectural and social organization is designed to inspire and enhance the daily lives of its inhabitants. We are committed to Cambridge as a city — its vitality, variety, history, convenience, and diverse populations. Our goal is to create a mixed-income community where children, adults and elders of varying race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and ability, can thrive. We hope to create an environment that embodies principles of quality, simplicity, and beauty. We want our site to be large enough to include common gardens, outdoor children’s play and general recreation spaces, as well as some private gardens that are part of the individual homes. We plan to locate our community within walking distance to public transportation. In design, construction, and development of our site we are committed to environmentally sustainable practices. We will emphasize conservation, recycling, non-polluting energy sources, and other environmentally sound practices.

We share a commitment to the idea that cooperating in the endeavors of daily life brings the pleasures of sociability, greater economy of resources and effort in daily tasks, the warmth of an extended family and the probability of a rich variety of friendships. In our interactions, we seek a balance between privacy in our own homes and our wish to be with others, living independently as well as interdependently. We want to share and interact with each other through social activities, celebrations and practical tasks, such as cooking, dining, childcare, maintenance and through other shared work and problem solving. Honoring our varied experiences, we intend to follow a consensus-based process respectful of all points of view. We believe that through living together and especially in working through our differences, we become stronger, more peaceful contributing members within the larger, global community.

Vision Statement Addendum 2003

We've come a long way toward making our vision a reality. We live in the homes we built and now we wish to focus our attention on our community.  We would like to deepen our connections to our larger community, both our nearest neighbors and the international cohousing movement.  We wish to be always mindful to follow a consensus process in working through our differences, honoring all points of view and focusing on the good of the community.   We will seek out ways to better achieve our vision of a mixed income community.  We welcome new members and help them to feel at home as quickly as possible.  We will find ways to involve children in our community not only as members of their families but as individual members of the community as well.

Responsibility to participate on a committee and contribute work hours

There is an expectation that every household will come to monthly General Meetings and contribute to the community in the manner they are able. Generally, each household or each adult who is a member of the household, is a member of at least one committee, participates in meal teams, comes to some of the meals, and contributes work time to the community. See the list of current committees and task forces. (Julie Rochlin)