History
The project was first developed by geriatrician William H. Thomas (physician) in 2003, with the goal of personalizing elder care by redesigning nursing homes “from scratch” to provide residents more privacy and control over their lives.
Thomas is an international authority on elder care and has authored four books on the subject. In the early 1990s, Thomas and his wife, Jude Thomas, founded the Eden Alternative, now a global nonprofit organization that aims to deinstitutionalize long term care facilities by changing the culture of the typical nursing home.
Recognizing that nursing homes were “aging faster than the people living inside them,” Thomas later created The Green House Project with the goal of replacing the institutional nursing home model with small intentional communities where elders and staff focus on living full and vibrant lives.
In 2005, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced a five year, $10 million grant for The Green House Project across the United States. NCB Capital Impact currently administers The Green House Project and will continue to do so beyond the current five-year grant.
The first Green House Project home was constructed in 2003 in Tupelo, Mississippi. NCB Capital Impact set a goal to complete 50 houses by 2010; that goal was reached in December 2008. As of 2011, there are 99 Green House Project homes on 43 campuses in 27 states.
Read more about this topic: Green House Project
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