Neshama Abraham and Zev Paiss co-founded The Elder Cohousing Network in August 2004. They are an experienced husband and wife team who have 25 years collectively in helping newly forming cohousing groups and developers create intentional sustainable neighborhoods. They both lost their own parents early and have learned to appreciate the presence of elders in community from their experience as cohousing residents. They co-founded the multi-generational Nomad Cohousing Community in Boulder, CO, where they have lived since November 1997.
Neshama has specialized in communications for over 25 years and started her career in New York where she has worked with many of the country's major print and broadcast media outlets. Zev is an expert in sustainable building and group process skills and is the founding Executive Director of the national non-profit Cohousing Association of the United States.
Zev and Neshama have found that their personal experience of daily life in a cohousing neighborhood gives them a valuable perspective which they pass on to forming elder cohousing groups across the U.S. They also work with a growing network of developers and builders who are applying their knowledge of multi-family developments to the cohousing niche market.
Zev and Neshama are national educators of the cohousing development process who are increasingly being invited to present at national conferences. They are creators of the Elder Cohousing Getting Started Workshop. This 3 day training has now been attended by over 125 building and development professionals, long-term care experts, land owners and future residents. Information about their next Getting Started workshop can be found here.
