Hello All,
It's Mary-Elizabeth Harmon here, founder of Vertical Village Alliance. Thank you so much for your support. Below is a synopsis of what's been happening recently. Enjoy.

Vertical Village Alliance launched in March 2022 and gained OCF fiscal sponsorship in August.
The project seeks to improve the health & well-being of elders, workers and youth by fostering medically-supported care communities—for & by neighbors of all ages—in apartment buildings.

We plan to accomplish this through Storytelling, Partnering and Programming.

Storytelling:
Supporting caregivers and agers by sharing ideas, tools, resources and insights while cultivating diverse village leaders, members and supporters.

Partnering:
Building relationships with neighbors and leaders in housing, aging, home health and more to develop a basic vertical village model and ways to augment neighbor care with medical care.

Programming:
Creating frameworks for neighbors of all ages to connect, play and learn to maximize health for themselves and others. 

Storytelling:
Much of the work since launch has been clarifying and refining the Vertical Village Alliance website and publishing a monthly blog post. Since getting OCF approval, I’ve published these stories:

1. Addressing wound care’s growing potential to hold workers hostage.
2. Using collagen and chlorophyll for health & treating bedsores.
3. Paper: A simple tool for better care.
4. Telling Mom it’s time to move & other tricky care conversations.

The last story appeared in the first edition of our new monthly newsletter, The Village Dispatch, which launched this month and can be viewed here.

Currently, we have a very small subscription list but email open rates ranging from 40% on the low end to 93.3% for the latest story. Per Mailchimp data, the average email open rate is 21.33%.

Projects:
Vertical Village Alliance started three projects, all are still in the very early stages.

Resource Warehouse:
A growing list of links to support for caregivers and childless agers. 

Village Shelf:
A growing “library” of books, reports and more shaping our thinking around caring.

Tiny Village Project:
A new effort to rouse neighbors to connect, give and get support and have fun.
(More on this below.)

Partnerships:
We haven’t made as much progress in this area as hoped but I’ve connected with founders of care app companies and joined a weekly discussion group of seniors working to change dubious business practices at continuing care retirement communities and to promote viable alternatives. 

Money:
We haven’t actively been fundraising and have a balance of just under $245, none of which I’ve spent to date but will use to reimburse myself for website hosting and email marketing services.

MAIN CHALLENGE FACED THIS YEAR

Living in limbo:
We will leverage local relationships and partnerships to develop a vertical village model. The biggest challenge I’ve faced in doing this is not knowing where, geographically, to focus my efforts.

Currently, I’m a live-in caregiver for my mother in one state while my belongings are in storage in another. I've not yet settled where I’ll live once I transfer my mother’s care to other family members.

A LESSON I'VE RE-LEARNED THIS YEAR & SUBSEQUENT PIVOT

Lesson: Challenges offer opportunities to pause and course correct
Our plan was to develop a basic vertical village model with local partners before working on programming, or creating frameworks for neighbors to connect, play and learn together. But thanks to uncertainty over location, I reassessed and gained clarity:

I look forward to reporting on a number of accomplishments this time next year.

Thanks again.