We are at a crossroads in choosing the best path to a life worth living. Well-being is, in the end, what we all desire as the outcome of human life. The elements of well-being include: identity; autonomy; security; connectedness; meaning; joy, and space. An Eldershire Community is a place where the residents work together to support the realization of these elements. The time is now to build upon the experience of the millennia of human development and the understanding and successes that have been achieved over the past several decades.

Eldershire is a path to a new consciousness of age and aging. It sets aside incomplete ideas about dependency and decline and presents instead the dynamic image of an active and ongoing exchange among the generations. It can help solve the challenges of and harvest the staggering value contained within the global age boom and change how we live together.

An Eldershire Community is one that contributes to bettering the quality of life by strengthening and improving the means by which: (1) the community protects, sustains, and nurtures its elders, and (2) the elders contribute to the well-being and foresight of the community. An Eldershire Community is one that is acknowledged to be “elder-rich” and uses this human capital to the advantage of all.

Principles as developed by both the Eden Alternative and the Pioneer Network form a background for the structure of Eldershire Communities. These are attached hereto in their original form. The focus of Eldershire Communities is and will be on the values and contributions that elders can and do add to a close and caring community where each person is well-known and can and does make a difference.

Eldershire is a useful concept because we can use it to improve the well-being of all members of society. The most elder-rich period of human history is upon us. Eldershire restores aging to longevity and returns the aged to a worthy elderhood in the human life cycle. It offers a patient, gentle return to an evolutionary process that began long ago and that is deep in our bones. Because it is founded on millennia of human experience, Eldershire requires neither federal legislation nor a court order to come to life. The time to create is now.

Guidelines for an Eldershire Community include:

• Does the community actively recognize that elders are a vital resource and that the community is elder-rich?

• Does the project demonstrate a commitment to improving the well-being and quality of life for people of all ages by encouraging reciprocal altruism, favoring innovations that foster reciprocity, discouraging changes that rely on the movement of material resources from one group to another?

• Does the project create human warmth (optimism, trust, and generosity) for young and old alike, leveraging the ancient virtues that have held the generations together for millennia?

• Does the project utilize tools and (smart) technologies to support elders and elderhood?

• Does the project acknowledge the importance of nature and contact with the living world?

• Does the project weave a concern for elders together with the interests and desires of people of all ages?

The idea of bringing elders into the lives and work of various groups provides a powerful opportunity to spread the concept of Eldershire and leverage the power of social change across a wide range of community agencies and organizations. These ideas show how the commitment to, and contributions by, the elders of the community can lead to better ways of living together:

Other factors involved with Eldershire Communities include:

• Elders giving wisdom: In decision making. Elders provide a balancing perspective that considers the long-term consequences of proposed actions. Views are offered on the challenges and opportunities facing the community.
• Elders giving warmth: The wall that separates young and old comes down, with care and services to the elders being integrated with the routines and needs of the young.
• Elders receiving warmth: The myth of independence that has led to elders preferring to live alone, in spite of the fact that old age, like childbirth, was never meant to be confronted alone, is dispelled. Interaction by caring people is built into most of the activities of daily life.
• Elders receiving the benefits of technology: Off-the-shelf technology is used to help elders do more themselves, expand their potential to live independently and in dignity, and maintain vital connections to their community and people they love. Elders are assured that they have access to technology capable of aiding the pursuit of the best elderhood possible.
• Elderhood’s commitment to stewardship: Elders have long spoken for Earth, its living creatures, and the children who are yet to be born. Marginalizing the value of the lived experience and concerns of elders endangers us all by removing their concerns from our thoughts. Eldershire would have an Elder Environmental Conservation Corps to tackle projects that would strengthen the health and vitality of the world they touch and as a demonstration for the rest.
• Elders receiving well-being from nature: Nature should be an integral part of any setting intended to improve health or assist in healing. In Eldershire, the community organizes itself to see that the healing effect that comes with a connection to nature is made available to every elder.