Hey fam,
This week I learned about a company helping college students live extremely cheaply with elderly homeowners in exchange for helping them out. I think it’s a fantastic community-focused idea, and was lucky enough to exchange words with the founder to hear even more. Hope you enjoy!
After the positive feedback from last week’s style of a longer story upfront followed by the quicker recaps of more stories at the end, I’m going to continue writing the newsletter this way! If you ever have feedback, leave it in a comment or hit “reply” and let me know.
It started with a fall
The story goes that a woman named Alison Donnally had multiple older family members living alone. All was going well… until it wasn’t. One fell down and wasn’t able to get back up. Another became disoriented and wasn’t sure where they were. A third had declining health due to lack of socializing. And each of them ran into problems, leading Alison to wonder if there was a way for someone to be around and help them.
And while there are existing models for care such as paid aids or assisted living facilities, Alison was looking for something a little bit different.
Building a deeper relationship
In the midst of record-high living costs impacting pretty much everything someone pays for, as well as the big loneliness epidemic where more and more people are living isolated and disconnected from a community feeling that is so important, she began looking for a system that built a deeper relationship. Her ideal scenario was a win-win that was mutually beneficial both for the older adult that could use some help, as well as for someone who needed a place to stay.
The closest thing she could find was the au pair system, where young international people stay with a host family and get a place to stay, food, and some payment in exchange for proving child care and helping out with the family needs.
She loved the system and knew there was opportunity to bring this concept to older adults, so Alison launched a matchmaking app called Joey (named after baby kangaroos that rest in their mother’s pouch).
The Joey matchmaking app
I asked Alison about the Joey startup, and she told me “we match older adults who have an extra bedroom and need an extra set of hands, with university students who would love to rent that room and work for the household on things like grocery shopping, walking the dog, maybe taking out the trash.”
About 62% of American households have at least one spare bedroom, and by filling those with college students that can work around their school schedules, she’s helping address the nearly half that are housing insecure. In Alison’s vision, more win-wins are made possible, and we remember to live the way we used to: cross-generationally and together.
Joey is still in early stages, but it’s beginning to see more successes. Students like Nanik are helping folks like Paige, who has early-onset dementia, with some simpler tasks like transportation and meals. While the help doesn’t go as far as a professional and accredited caretaker or assisted living facility, many people who just need smaller tasks to be handled like cleaning windows and bringing groceries in the door are the target hosts.
To get a sense for how the project works: Nanik is paying $1750 for rent in the San Francisco area, while recouping about $1200 through the work and help he provides. In a place where rents are some of the highest in the country if not the world, paying net $550 for a room in a lovely house, helping someone in need, and making a friend along the way doesn’t sound so bad to me!
So would you try it?
What else is going right in the world:
🗽 NYC is considering a dark skies bill to turn off or shield outdoor lights after 11pm to protect wildlife like migrating birds, bring back the night sky, and lower energy prices. I created a partnership video explaining the bill, and talking about how a better way to reduce energy costs is to add more clean energy to the grid!
🙌 New “positive tipping points” for the climate were revealed in a study showing how we can reverse the damage done by climate inaction and various crises.
🥗 More free school meals in England!
🦫 Beavers continue to win, helping more and more wilderness projects in Colorado become successful, and in turn helping their populations thrive.
🇦🇺 Over half of Australia’s protected lands are now Indigenous-led reserves called Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs… slightly different than the beer). They are transforming the nation for the better with their efforts and care.
That’s it for this week! As always, leave any other stories that I missed in a comment so we can learn and take action together.
Next week’s newsletter will be a little different, as I’ll focus it on a New York Climate Week roundup. Stay tuned and talk to you more soon!
- Jacob
This newsletter was written by Jacob Simon. Over 1.5 million people are in our community across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. You can say hi on LinkedIn, or by hitting reply. Brand illustration by Andrea Miralles. Thanks for helping spread some positivity, and see you next week for more.
Real community is built when we bridge generations, turning mutual needs into shared support and lasting human connection
Having worked in homelessness and with rising isolation among older people , I love this idea . There is a social enterprise in Ireland doing something similar . I think it’s free board for 10
Hours weekly . 2 needs one creative solution my favourite ❤️