Exchanging experiences and learning from good practices in other countries are the main benefits partners mentioned when looking back on the first year of our Cohousilience project.

“It’s good to realize that different systems actually can give more or less the same results. With some imagination you can implement ideas from other countries to your situation and needs, and do something very interesting and nice for people,” one of the partners said.

Another partner confirmed: “I don’t think that any of the models in the project could fit exactly our needs, but we certainly found some elements that could be useful and that we will integrated in our project”.

Especially the partners who are just staring cohousing in their country found the exchange very powerful: “When joined this project mainly to understand the different cohousing systems that were implemented in other countries. We certainly take back many ideas to integrate in future solutions that we may develop in our town.”

These quotes were taken from the interviews we did with all the partners to assess the impact of the first phase of the project, the study visits.

Lut Verstappen – communications officer Odisee – Centre for Family Studies