1 week Ago
Kyte’s article does a good job of detailing the problem of long-term housing for adults with "special abilities" and describes a successful program in his home state of Wisconsin. At home here in the Roanoke Valley, there has been some activity over the past couple of years to create a similar community that would be intergenerational and neurodiverse. Roanoke received a grant to explore this potential and worked with a talented architect from Hill Studios to draft some concepts for this community.
My wife and I and some other interested families have organized to build this community which ideally would provide a vibrant pocket neighborhood for not only people with special abilities but also others who would enjoy living in a community where you know your neighbor, and everyone looks out for each other. If anyone is interested in learning more about this initiative, please reach out to me via email, at [email protected] .
Our community does have a wealth of resources for this population such as VIA Centers for Neurodevelopment (formerly Virginia Institute of Autism, https://viacenters.org/adult-services/ ), Virginia Housing Authority, ( https://www.virginiahousing.
com/en ), and Masterpiece Alliance which is a social group for people with all abilities, ( https://masterpiecealliance.org/ ). Our vision is that an inclusive neighborhood like the one Richard Kyte described, or similar to Three Oaks Community ( https://www.
threeoakscommunities.com/ ) would enhance our existing vibrant region. Hopefully, we can get other like-minded families to join us to make this vision a reality.
Chris Riha, Roanoke.
