Our Sixth World Homeshare Congress in Brussels, Belgium, held on 21 – 22 March attracted a record 200 delegates from 17 countries – and even royalty! We were thrilled when Her Majesty Queen Mathilde of the Belgians attended the opening presentations and stayed to chat to our hosts, 1toit2ages, programme coordinators, speakers and homesharers (see a photo on our Facebook page).

The two-day conference gave delegates a wonderful mix of formal presentations, panel discussions, stories from homesharers – always very moving testimonies – and networking opportunities.  The papers and photos from the congress will be posted up shortly. www.hiworldcongressbrussels2019.com

Warmest thanks and congratulations to Claire de Kerautem, Regis and the 1toit2ages team for organising such a brilliant occasion!

We are delighted to report that the Municipality of Madrid has recently agreed to double the funding for the Convive programme! And Convive also won a project to expand Convive to cover four new municipalities around Madrid, financed by the Region of Madrid (Comunidad de Madrid). This will be the first time that homesharing has been offered outside the city. Convive’s aim is to reach 150 matches by June 2019.

As regards the strategy, Delphine Liegeois from Convive says: “We noticed that we are mainly reaching people who are very old and use the programme essentially for not being alone at night. So we are planning to start exploring new ways to reach younger retired people too, in order to promote active aging with older people of various profiles. We have been preparing a campaign to be launched shortly – see www.convive.org.es.“

Convive also started to collaborate with CNAV (the agency of the French Social Security managing pensions), and associations from France (Réseau COSI and International Erasmus Students Network France), and Belgium (1toit2ages) to promote homesharing between Spanish, French and Belgian retired people and Erasmus students. Working in this framework may help them to reach active retired people, willing to practice languages and meet young people from other countries. It will also contribute to spread homesharing around Europe.

The project should be developed in 2019-2021. It will include research, a guidebook on homesharing, a web platform Toi + moi for people willing to experience intercultural and intergenerational homesharing, a campaign promoting intergenerational homesharing, and diverse activities in the three countries engaging retired people and students. Convive hopes to secure funding for the project from the Erasmus programme plus the French agency.

Catch up with their latest news at the Brussels congress!

The Homeshare Australia and New Zealand Alliance (HANZA) has published their latest newsletter.  See HANZA newsletter August 2018 to download and read.

We are always delighted to discover new homeshare programmes are starting, or thriving.  But to learn about a new programme in Prague from our colleagues in Australia is an unexpected pleasure.

Our wonderful Belgian colleagues, UnToit2Ages, are well ahead with plans for the next World Homeshare Congress and are already taking registrations! The congress will be held in Brussels from 21 – 22 March 2019.

The Congress theme will be Celebrating homeshare and it will bring together delegates from around the world: Australia, Japan, South Korea, Austria, Belgium, France, UK, USA, Spain, Germany … to share their experiences of running a homeshare programme.

Read more and register on the congress website

http://www.hiworldcongressbrussels2019.com/

You can also read more here.

The Trustees of Homeshare International have announced major changes to the Board. Rhian Bradley has stepped down as Chair having served in the role for more than four years. Rhian was uniquely qualified in the role, having been both a management consultant and homesharer/adviser to our founder, Nan Maitland. An outstanding Chair, Rhian steered us successfully through two World Homeshare Congresses (in Australia and Spain), supported us through a major status change and provided hands-on support to the Board.

“It has been a great privilege to chair Homeshare International,” says Rhian. “I have worked with some truly committed, inspirational people who are not only driving homeshare in their own countries but who are also generous in sharing their expertise with the wider homeshare community.”

Having lived in the UK and France for many years, Rhian has returned to Australia where most of her family live. She will be sorely missed but we wish her well in her ‘retirement’.

We warmly welcome Cheryl Snider as our new Chair. Cheryl is a leading light in homeshare in Canada. She too has been a homesharer, ran a homeshare programme for many years and now supports the homeshare community in Canada. Cheryl says: “I am looking forward to taking Homeshare International to its next stage of development. We face many challenges as a charity but there is much to celebrate. I am particularly looking forward to meeting many of you at the Congress next March (2019, in Brussels)”.

Hilary Todd has stepped down as a Trustee having been one of the charity’s founding members. A friend of Nan Maitland, Hilary joined the Board to manage our communications and she still runs our website in a voluntary capacity.

We are pleased to welcome three new members to the Board. Deborah Fox has played a big role in developing and supporting homeshare in the UK as she leads the Shared Lives Plus UK Homeshare Association. Régis de Kerautem is the President and co-founder, with his wife Claire, of homeshare in Belgium. Their programme 1Toit2Ages has spread from modest origins in Brussels to cover most of the country’s larger towns and cities. Marlene Welzl joined the Board in September 2017. She is the founder of a homeshare programme, WGE!-Gemeinsam Wohnen in her native Vienna.

Read more about our Board members.