Crossway Intergenerational Model Community
Crossway Community Inc.'s Intergenerational Model Community is a component that is under development. The Intergenerational Model Community is born out of the evidence based practice that individuals and communities flourish when their learning and life experiences are integrated across culture, age, class, and race. Crossway is one of three organizations competitively selected to replicate its successful intergenerational community for living and learning across the generations.
Crossway has served as an incubator for this model for 20 years. Having demonstrated competence in all of the programmatic elements required to be an Intergenerational Model Community in its Wheaton/Kensington Maryland facility, Crossway will become a community of hope elsewhere, where at-risk single parent families and senior citizens live side by side to enrich, enlighten and encourage each other.
Crossway Community, Inc. will
create a comprehensive, intensive, flexible,and financially sound
community that will provide supportive environment in which all of its
members will grow and thrive.
To that end Crossway will:
Develop collaborative partnerships;
Design and implement a program for low income women and their children;
Build housing
Capitalize
on the economic and programmatic efficiencies of a clustered housing
configuration or alternative housing resources and models such as
surplus properties;
Build, revitalizing and mobilizing communities and neighborhoods;
Provide adequate space and housing for families, seniors, common use areas and outdoor playground and green space;
Integrate the families with other people in the community;
Provide education and family support;
Collaborate with a university partnership for research, data collection and outcome evaluation the project;
Contribute to macro-level public policy changes;
Maintain openness toward replication; and,
Sustain
the project through adequate resources which include rental income,
public support, fundraising, in-kind donations and possible new sources
of revenue.
In designing the philosophy and structure of the Intergenerational Model Community, Crossway has factored in elements of:
Sustainability: Crossway is working with Green Spur Development and Cunningham and Quill to ensure the community design is architecturally, socially, and financially sustainable.
Technical Capability: Numerous on-campus educational programs embody this vision and demonstrate that Crossway’s capacity exceeds the technical requirements for successfully implementing the proposed Intergenerational Model Community.
Ready Facility: Located in the Wheaton/Kensington area, an ethnically, socio-economically and culturally diverse neighborhood. Our facility is located at 3015 Upton Drive, easily accessible to parents from several different neighborhoods. Co-located with other educational programs, this former school building has had several strategic renovations and maintenance improvements and is poised to begin operation very quickly as an incubator for launching the replicated Intergenerational Model Community.
Evidence-based, Successful Model: All Crossway programs are based on data-driven, evidence based models that are specifically designed to have a heightened, targeted, true impact on the cycle of generational poverty that plagues our world.
Wraparound Support and Family Involvement: The Intergenerational Model Community will provide a well-developed research-based curriculum aligned with required public curricula that meets the academic needs of children and will provide the wraparound and coordinated services found in a community school. Food service, transportation, supplies and services are all available on-site for students.
Community Relevance: Intergenerational Model Community will serve economically disadvantaged women and their children from Pre-K to Grade 6 using Dr. Montessori’s educational approach and will be available to all children in Montgomery County.
Site selection is imminent using the site selection criteria developed by the Board. The real estate development budget will be refined with considerations of specific site. Several other real estate development tasks will be pursued. These include architectural services, engineering, appraisal, environmental assessment, and legal work. Program development for intergenerational center will proceed. The timeline will, of course be driven by site availability and approval processes for some the state subsidies for which the project will be eligible.
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