| The Brown Association for Cooperative Housing (BACH) is a nonprofit student-run housing cooperative in Providence, Rhode Island. Since 1971 it has dedicated itself to providing affordable housing and a sense of community to the students, faculty, administration, and employees of Brown University. We are mostly Brown students, with a significant population of RISD students; however, we also have non-student members of BACH and anyone can join us.
Each house runs its own food cooperative, allowing its members and others to discover the joys of bulk orders and cooking enough for 25 at a time. BACH is run entirely by its members. It is governed by a board of directors that takes responsibility for day-to-day operations as well as longterm projects of the corporation. Any member of BACH can be a voting member of the board.
There are currently two houses, Finlandia and Watermyn, housing a total of 27 people.
While every house makes its own rules, every BACH member is expected to behave and interact according to certain cooperative principles. Central to cooperative living is the idea of consensus that we use at the board and in the houses. | Community location is placed at the center of the zip/postal code, city/state, or city/country (not based on street addresses) |
