His life has potential and promise.
Where he lives should, too.
Background
A national study in 2010 by The ARC, the nation’s leading advocacy and service organization for persons with an intellectual or developmental disability (I/DD), found that most adults with I/DD still lived in their parents’ home. There is simply not enough safe, affordable and community-oriented housing.
That same year, a group of interested parents from the Triangle Area came together to better understand the options available for people with I/DD here in the Raleigh / Durham area. Over a period of 24 months, this group of individuals spent considerable time and their personal resources to evaluate a variety of housing models. They looked locally and elsewhere to identify choices that aligned with their vision and dreams of appropriate housing in the community for their adult children with I/DD.
Their findings were not all that different from those of The ARC. None of the programs met what these parents and their adult children were seeking. Add to that the disconcerting fact that the cost for these programs ranged from $38,000 – $80,000 annually; with most programs heavily reliant upon significant funding from public sources. Several of the directors at these residential programs made it clear that if the public funding was to disappear so would their programs.
The team agreed there was more work to be done and in 2012 the decision was made to create a new 501(c)(3) charity…HopeSpring Village was formed.
