Is the Otto Specht/Threefold Community the 'Integrated' Model We Have Been Looking For?
The Start of Endeavor 21+ ???
The Blog post started in 2018 on Squarespace, and I updated it for the 2022 switch to Substack.
Over the past few years, the Developmentally Disabled community has heard chatter from Albany and Washington stressing 'Community Inclusion' and 'Integration'. The intent is to enable the Developmentally Disabled to live in an integrated environment rather than an isolated or 'intentional' community. There are two key benefits to an 'integrated model':
It is better for a majority of the Developmentally Disabled population (recognizing, though, not all will be able to integrate);
It is a less expensive model for New York State taxpayers.
But what is integration, and how do we implement it without it being forced on but rather welcomed by society in a symbiotic, mutually beneficial relationship? The reality is, nobody really knows. NYS OPWDD presents a broad and very generic outline on their Most Integrated Setting Coordinating Counsel (MISCC) page.
With thanks to our friend and Self-Direction Broker Ken Siri, we recently visited the Otto Specht School and the larger Threefold Community in Chestnut Ridge, NY (Rockland County), situated on a 200-acre campus just a few miles west of the Palisades Mall. One potential key to solving the 'integration question' for our Developmentally Disabled community is The Fellowship Community, a 501c3 separate from Otto Specht and Threefold.
The Fellowship Community consists of: "150 elderly persons, children and coworkers [that] live in a rural setting of farm, woods and orchards. Working and learning together in service to others and in caring for the earth is the central motif of the community life. The Fellowship Community operates the Duryea farm, a mixed vegetable production which also includes an apple orchard, dairy herd and on-farm dairy."
Eureka!! We have finally found a truly integrated community where elderly, neuro-typical, and developmentally disabled embrace the opportunity to live and thrive together in an established working community less that 40 miles from New York City. Now, how do we expand and replicate this model and its mission?
Update August 2022 - This post was arguably a start in the process of forming Endeavor 21+ Foundation.