Zoom Info Session Thursday July 23, 2026 5:00-6:00pm Register for Link
The Village Bell - June 2026 Edition
In the June 2026 edition of The Village Bell, Gratitude Village celebrates a month of meaningful progress as future residents begin shaping the design of their community and an extraordinary professional team comes together to help bring the vision to life. From our first Site Design Workshop to the people generously sharing their expertise, encouragement, and support, this issue reflects on how a village begins taking shape long before the first home is built.
Gratitude Village
7/10/20265 min read
The Village Bell (Gratitude Village Newsletter)
June 2026 Edition
The Village Begins to Take Shape
June marked an important turning point for Gratitude Village. Future neighbors began designing their community, our professional development team continued to grow, and the vision we've been nurturing together became a little more tangible. Here's a look back at a remarkable month.
From the Founder's Porch
When a Dream Becomes a Place
Dear Friends,
If someone had told me three years ago that I would one day be leading the development of Colorado's first Zero Energy, mixed-income, multigenerational cohousing community, I would have laughed.
The truth is, Gratitude Village didn't even exist in my imagination back then.
For more than a decade, I had been searching for an existing cohousing community where I could spend the next chapter of my life. When I realized the few communities being built were well beyond what I could afford as a recently retired educator, I slowly began asking a question that would change everything:
What if we built one ourselves? That question eventually became Gratitude Village.
Last month, during our first Site Design Workshop, I experienced one of those rare moments that makes you stop and appreciate just how far you've come. Future neighbors gathered around maps of our Brighton property, sharing ideas, sketching possibilities, and beginning to shape the community they hope to call home. As I watched those conversations unfold, I realized something profound.
This is no longer just an idea.
It's no longer just my vision.
It's becoming our village.
That spirit of shared creation runs through this edition of The Village Bell. You'll read about our first community design workshop and the talented professionals helping transform a shared vision into a buildable community.
Long before the first foundation is poured, something remarkable is already being built.
We're building a community.
Read the full Founder's Porch article: When a Dream Becomes a Place
Residents Began Designing Their Village
Most neighborhoods are designed long before the people who will live there ever meet.
Cohousing turns that process upside down.
Last month, Gratitude Village reached one of its most significant milestones as our Founding Members gathered with the talented team from Studio Co+Hab for our first Site Design Workshop. Over two inspiring days, future neighbors explored what daily life in the village could look like—not just where homes and pathways might go, but how the community could encourage connection, support accessibility, honor the natural landscape, and create spaces where people of all ages feel they belong.
Through a series of interactive design exercises, conversations, and collaborative planning sessions, ideas began to take shape. By the end of the weekend, the group had reached consent on a preliminary direction for the community—a vision shaped not by a single architect or developer, but by the people who hope to call Gratitude Village home.
That concept now provides the framework for Studio Co+Hab as they begin developing our preliminary site plan, with additional workshops on the Common House, private homes, and community spaces still to come.
For many of us, the biggest accomplishment wasn't the emerging layout. It was watching future neighbors become collaborators, decision-makers, and friends.
Long before the first foundation is poured, the village is already beginning to take shape.
Read the full story: Shaping the Village Together
An Extraordinary Team Comes Together
Building an intentional community requires much more than designing beautiful homes. It takes expertise in architecture, engineering, finance, affordable housing, legal matters, sustainability, and land development—all working together toward a shared vision.
Over the past several months, Gratitude Village has assembled an extraordinary professional team, and that team continued to grow in June. We're delighted to welcome Otten & Johnson as legal counsel, Chestnut Ridge Consulting Services to lead financial modeling and underwriting, and Trellis Housing Partners to help develop our affordable housing strategy.
These newest partners join Studio CoHab, Brightlighter Civil, and our experienced development advisors in helping transform a shared vision into a buildable, financially sustainable, and deeply connected neighborhood.
Communities like Gratitude Village are never built by one person or one organization. They become possible because people from many different disciplines choose to work toward a shared vision. Together, they're proving that it truly takes a village to build a village.
The Gratitude List
Each month, we pause to recognize the people whose generosity, expertise, and encouragement are helping Gratitude Village move from vision to reality.
Heidi Majerik & Ken Mitchell
There simply aren't enough words to express our gratitude for Heidi and Ken. As seasoned development professionals, they have invested an extraordinary amount of time mentoring, coaching, advising, and encouraging our team through every stage of this journey. From navigating land acquisition and due diligence to connecting us with industry experts and helping us think through complex development decisions, they have shared their knowledge with remarkable generosity. Their belief in this project—and their willingness to walk alongside us every step of the way—has been invaluable.
Michelle Dumay
Michelle brings an extraordinary combination of professional expertise, lived experience, generosity, and heart to Gratitude Village. Through her work in renewable energy and sustainable development, she continues to strengthen our vision of creating Colorado's first Zero Energy cohousing community. Just as importantly, as the mother of a daughter with significant mobility needs, Michelle offers invaluable insight into what true accessibility looks like in everyday life. Her perspective continually reminds us that thoughtful, inclusive design isn't simply about meeting standards—it's about creating a community where people of all ages and abilities can thrive.
Michelle has also been one of Gratitude Village's most generous financial supporters. Her unwavering encouragement, thoughtful guidance, and belief in our mission continue to inspire all of us.
To Heidi, Ken, and Michelle—thank you for sharing your time, your expertise, your generosity, and your hearts. Gratitude Village is stronger because of each of you.
Until the Bell Rings Again
Every month brings us a little closer to the day when Gratitude Village will become a neighborhood. But this month reminded me that some of the most important milestones have nothing to do with construction schedules or site plans.
They happen when future neighbors gather around a table to imagine a shared future. They happen when talented professionals generously lend their expertise to a project they believe in. They happen every time someone chooses to invest their time, their gifts, and their trust in something larger than themselves.
Long before the first foundation is poured, a community is already taking shape.
Thank you for being part of this journey. Whether you're a Founding Member, an Exploring Member, a donor, a volunteer, a professional partner, or someone simply cheering us on from afar, you are helping create something that didn't exist just a few years ago—a neighborhood intentionally designed for connection, accessibility, sustainability, and belonging.
Until the bell rings again, thank you for believing that a different way of living is possible.
With gratitude,
Suzie Shride
Founder & Executive Director
Gratitude Village Colorado
Continue Reading
COMMUNITY
Join us in embracing nature, diversity and connection.
Sustainability
DIVERSITY
info@gratitudevillageco.com
720-689-4821
© 2026. All rights reserved.
AFFORDABILITY
Gratitude Village Inc. is a 501(c)3 charitable corporation (public charity) that values diversity, equity and inclusion as essential to our mission. EIN #33-2499522
Subscribe to our Substack
Refund Policy
Gratitude Village is a Proud Member of these organizations