Inclusive is in the Eye of the Beholder

During 2019, I visited two intentional communities for people with developmental/intellectual disabilities (DD/ID) -- Sweetwater Spectrum in Sonoma, California and Brookwood in Brookshire, Texas. Several of my family members accompanied me on these visits. I also toured several Level 4 group homes in Buena Park, California during an open house coordinated by Regional Center of Orange County.

Visiting Sweetwater Spectrum with my brother and sister-in-law.

While it's hard to compare the group homes to the intentional communities because no residents were present during the group home open house, they honestly felt more isolated and institutional than the intentional communities. And the irony is that the policy shift to move people with disabilities from institutional settings into small group homes was done under the guise of being more inclusive. People with disabilities living in residential neighborhoods next to typical people is considered by proponents of inclusion to be more inclusive within the community. I have my doubts that residents of the group homes I visited are being invited to the neighborhood bar-b-ques. In fact, some of the staff at the groups homes wore medical scrubs. It doesn't get much more institutional feeling than that.

Each time I set foot in an intentional community, it felt like home and the staff felt like family. It was a setting I could imagine my daughter living in. These communities were very similar to the residential treatment center where she has thrived living with like peers and supported by staff who are highly-trained to work with clients with serious behaviors.

While many residents of small intentional communities work and/or volunteer or attend day classes in the broader community, some larger intentional communities are almost small towns where residents live, work, worship, socialize, receive medical care and more within the intentional community. We had the opportunity to meet residents who live in the intentional communities. At Brookwood, we saw many of the citizens working at their jobs in the greenhouses and ceramic studios producing goods for sale at the retail operation. And we enjoyed a fabulous lunch at the cafe that is open to the public.

Brian and Brenda Deeley at Brookwood.

After touring both intentional communities and group homes, I've never been more certain that an intentional community for people with developmental/intellectual disabilities and complex behaviors is the ideal setting for our daughter. Living with like peers in a supported community of care -- a micro-community within a community -- can meet her unique needs and still be inclusive.

In 2020, I'll begin collaborating with a nonprofit that creates supportive residential communities for adults with developmental/intellectual disabilities to concept an intentional community for adults with DD/ID and serious behaviors. Stay tuned!