Invite us to come and give a presentation.
What You Can Expect
By bringing a Sharing Housing presentation to your community, you help seniors and soon-to-be seniors consider this option. While shows like “Golden Girls” have popularized the idea of sharing housing, and various articles have featured this option, it is not an easy thing for many to consider. Various prejudices lurk from “I’m a grown-up, I can take care of myself” to “I can’t give up my privacy” to “I’m ashamed to admit I don’t have enough money.”
Publicity around the presentation will begins raising awareness that shared housing is possible. Those attending a presentation will take home a different perspective on the idea than anything they’d already encountered.
Just wanted to recommend a fine speaker for your programming needs. Annamarie Pluhar has written a book about sharing housing and she does a very good presentation about why and how to find a housemate. She’s well-organized, thorough, funny, and thoughtful. She covers the concrete details (the how-to-do-a-background-check kinds of things) in depth but what I especially liked was that she took time to flesh out the philosophical and psychological reasons to have a housemate. For anyone at any age. I recently began sharing my house with a housemate so perhaps I’m biased towards this topic but if you’re interested, she does a wonderful job. – Amy Markus, Director, Hancock Town Library
Do you work with the the aging population? Have you thought about how you can promote shared housing?
As a professional who works with seniors you have certainly encountered the fear and desperation of so many who are looking at income that is too low to meet their needs. You have likely talked to seniors who are becoming isolated in their homes. The financial, emotional and spiritual health of these clients is your concern.
To promote shared housing a presentation to your professional group would be an orientation to the idea and how sharing housing can be a realistic option for clients. It raises awareness and starts individuals thinking about it.
Though presentations are tailored for a particular audience, they can cover the following:
- The significant health benefits of sharing housing: physical and emotional
- The concrete and tangible ways that a home-mate makes life better
- The process of selecting a good home-mate that can be followed
- The essential guidelines for sharing a home that will assure an individual
- The method that brings the most feeling of safety
Testimonials
Annamarie facilitated a lively and informative program titled “The Option of Sharing Housing” to my Aging Well womens group at my church in April 2014. The session was so successful I recommended her for the Plugged In series at the Robbins Library in Arlington. MA. Again, Annamarie delivered a terrific interactive program that emphasized 20 or more solid reasons why elders sharing housing is smart, cost effective, life sustaining and fun. I had the pleasure of observing her in action for the second time in April 2015.
Annamarie is a consummate presenter! She gets her audiences completely engaged, discussing pros and cons with enthusiasm and leaving with clear intention to think further about a late life housing option they probably had not even considered. She supplements her programs with excellent handouts and resources and offers her book for sale at an affordable price. I’ve read the book cover to cover and am seriously considering this housing option for myself. – Kathleen Hayes, M.Ed. Life and Career Planning Consultant with People Over 50
Want to see us in action? Check out this C-SPAN video.
Logistics
Presentations can be 45 minutes to two hours. Please use the contact form below to contact us to about a Sharing Housing presentation or call (802) 387-0487.