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Kirsten Miller's avatar

Thanks for another insightful and thought-provoking read, Anna! Another interesting elder care model I’ve read about is the village movement. It’s basically neighbors organizing to look after and support each other, and it sounds pretty wonderful. Here’s some info on it: https://www.vtvnetwork.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=691012&module_id=248578

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David Sasaki's avatar

I hope someone is doing an evaluation. I’m so curious what happened to the commercial lavanderías in the neighborhood. Were they invited to participate? Compensated? It’s hard to imagine something like this gaining scale unless it’s a full-on socialization of the laundry, yoga, and childcare industries. I’d be all for it, but doesn’t seem like a political winner in most places. I wonder if the closest we have to this in the US is the way that libraries are expanding to provide more and more services?

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Anna De La Cruz's avatar

I hope there’s an eval too. But that op Ed overemphasized the laundry and yoga. It sounds more like a way to rethink how social services are provided in the city’s poorest neighborhood, organizing a central set of resources around women who have significant unpaid caregiving obligations so that they have opportunities for healthcare and education. https://bogota.gov.co/en/international/latin-americas-first-care-block-starts-ciudad-bolivar

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David Sasaki's avatar

Wow, that care block idea sounds too good to be true. Drop off your dirty laundry, have someone look after your kids, and get some yoga in? I love it.

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Anna De La Cruz's avatar

Thanks for your support, Kirsten! And for sharing about the village movement- going to look into that for sure.

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