The Village to Village Network

Village Model Defined

Villages have a single goal of enabling people to remain living in their own homes among their friends and neighbors, where they can enjoy a rich, independent, secure life of social connections and support services.

Villages are organized based on the needs of its members and communities. However, all Villages have 2 similarities:

1. Villages are self-governing (e.g. members have control over services and management of the organization)
2. Villages and their communities are mutually reinforcing (e.g. community services support Village members and Village members provide diversity and continuity to the community).

The Village model complements other community approaches to aging such as Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs) and Area Agencies on Aging Programs.

Currently, thirty eight Villages are operating across the country and one has opened in Australia.  

The Village to Village Network

The VtV Network is being created in response to an avalanche of requests for help sent to the Beacon Hill Village, the originator of the Village model. Requests have come from individuals interested in founding Villages in their neighborhoods and from community organizations interested in creating Villages to complement their current services.

In answering these requests, we discovered several things:

 • There was a clear “learning curve” to founding a Village – the same set of questions occurred when founding a Village, a different set of questions occurred as the Village began operations, etc.
• Villages are continuously evolving and can benefit from learning what others are doing.

The VtV Network is based on these two observations and committed to collaboration.