Community Edition
For resident councils
Bring The World Desk to your community.
Ready-made daily and weekly programming for your residents. Residents pay nothing. The community subscribes, priced by its size. For communities over 75 homes, the cost is under $1 per unit a month.
Every story passes an independent fact-check or our editor’s approval before it runs, and anything flagged red stays out unless it is fixed and re-checked, or the editor approves it. Our editor, William Kohn, sets the rules and is accountable for every edition. How we check every story →
Everything on the weekly calendar is included
- The World Desk Daily. 30–50 internationally sourced stories every morning by 6 AM Eastern, starting with 3 To Know.
- 3 To Know video. The day’s 3 To Know as a short captioned video for your screens, with its 3-minute audio file, free in every plan.
- Beyond the Headlines. Four stories on four large-type pages each week, printed on campus.
- Coffee and a Topic. A welcoming 45-minute conversation. No advance reading needed.
- Coffee and a Story (the Short Story of the Week). A classic short story every Sunday, in large print, for a 45-minute discussion.
- Coffee and a Country. A 45-minute visit to a different country, through short readings, pictures and good questions.
- Passport Week. Travel the world without packing a suitcase: taste the food, watch a film, stamp a passport, and join conversations about the featured country, including a short story and a topic from that country. Once a month your community picks a Passport Week from a growing library of countries. Join what you like; nothing is required. Each Passport Week pairs Wednesday’s Coffee and a Country (at noon) with a matching Coffee and a Story and Coffee and a Topic from the same country, so a Lifestyle Director can run up to three World Desk discussion sessions that week. Special Passport Weeks on request. Included at no additional cost.
- Table Talk cards. Weekly discussion cards for the dining tables.
- Monthly Special Report. A Special Report each month. See Special Reports →
Your residents can host
Residents can host the conversations, with everything supplied: the resident sheet, host guide and invitation wording. When residents host and sponsor the programs, they’re more likely to keep the activities they value.
Minimal staff time: about 15 minutes to prepare and host each scheduled calendar event.
Your residents can host. We supply everything they need.
How to propose it
- Download the one-page summary. Resident summary (PDF) Lifestyle director summary (PDF) →
- Share it with your executive director or life enrichment director.
- Suggest a free staff trial month, then a 30-day resident pilot. No program fee, and nothing converts to paid unless the community agrees in writing. About the pilot →
Find your state’s resident association
Type your ZIP code to find groups that help residents in your state.
Your ZIP code stays on your device. We don’t save it or send it anywhere. These groups are independent of The World Desk.