Fellowship Community

With a loan from the RSF, the Fellowship Community, a multi-generational community focused on long-term care of the elderly, has constructed a stunning addition to its central care facility Hilltop House. The expansion was sorely needed for dining, kitchen, laundry, utility, and living spaces. The 10,000 square-foot addition was designed in an environmentally friendly way, making great use of natural light and materials.

“This extension re-enlivens the whole of the original structure,” says medical director Paul Scharff, “and it completes the original master plan for the community.” As part of the “green architecture,” a geo-thermal heating system was installed to provide energy-efficient and low-cost heat and hot water, but a shortfall from a construction default left the Fellowship without funds to purchase the turbine for the system. A $250,000 fundraising drive is underway to purchase that turbine.

Fellowship Community is situated on more than 100 acres of rolling fields and forest in Chestnut Ridge about 45 minutes north of New York City. Its mission includes meeting two social demands of our time. First, it seeks to meet the “graying of mankind” by providing excellent care to people as they age, including those less able to pay. It is an impressive fact that the life care provided at the Fellowship is done at one-third to one-half the cost of traditional facilities. Second, the Fellowship seeks to demonstrate that with aging, youth and new life can unfold. Co-workers and their families live with the elderly members who come to the Community for care.

A large share of the revenues for the organization come from the many activities in which all community members participate. The Fellowship runs several highly-successful enterprises in which all members engage to provide revenues for the organization. These include a successful weavery, pottery shop, woodworking studio, metal working studio, medical practice, and biodynamic farm.

Equally impressive is that the staff of the Fellowship have successfully engaged with local, state, and federal officials to gain the rights to work in this very special approach to elder care. Just recently, two special laws were passed by the Legislature of the State of New York permitting alternate methods in long-term care.

For more information about the Fellowship Community, please visit their website at www.fellowshipcommunity.org.

Thursday, March 31st, 2005