A lasting home for adults with developmental disabilities — built and governed by their families.
A community that families create and govern together, with continuity of care that outlives any one parent.
Three families choosing each other. Choosing not to face this alone.
Imagine a community that looks something like this.
A short film, with sound. The places shown are illustrative; the village is not yet built.
🌱Our Story
Every parent of a child with profound disabilities lives with the same fear: what happens to my child when I am gone?
We are three founding families. Our adult children live with profound disabilities. We know the exhaustion, the love, and the constant background calculation of what happens next?
For more than a year we have studied the residential communities that exist. Many beautiful places. Almost all started by parents. We learned that most do not accommodate people with profound disabilities. Most do not consider how families can continue to be involved in the lives of our adult children.
We started 1000 Villagers because the answer we wanted was not yet out there. We want to live with our adult children for as long as we are able. We want continuity of care that does not depend on us alone. We want a community of families that watches out for one another. And we want to leave a model that other families can use, because the need is enormous, and one community will not be enough.
It takes a village to raise a child, and even more so to keep that child safe, known, and held into adulthood.
🌟Eight Guiding Principles
Every decision we make is tested against these. They are the radical idea that interdependence is strength, written down.
🏡The Model
A small village of homes around a common heart.
Each family has a home, and two to three adult children live together in adjacent homes, which lets staff be shared and makes daily socialization easier. The homes gather around a central commons on a rural site that is walkable, sensory-considered, and open to its surrounding hamlet.
Shared Living
Parents and adult children live in adjacent homes within one community. Together, but with each household's own dignity.
Pooled Caregiving
Families bring their resources together. Professional support fills in around the family rather than replacing it. The community as a whole is the safety net.
Cooperative Trust
Governance and ownership are structured so the community can outlast any single founder, designed to be replicated.
📐The Math
The numbers behind the model, and why we believe it works.
The community is funded through three streams: public funding (OPWDD, Medicaid waivers, Special Needs Trusts, rental subsidies) for the adult children's care; philanthropy covering capital, construction, accessible transport, respite, and staffing enhancements; and modest earned revenue from respite services that double as a staffing buffer.
To be clear about the wall between them: public funding pays only for the adult children's own services. The parents' homes, and the parents' own care, are entirely private and separate, never touched by public dollars.
See the full financial picture →👨👩👧For Families
If you are reading this because you have a child with a developmental disability, you are not alone, and you are why we are building this.
Membership is a slow, mutual decision. We will not rush it, and you should not. You do not have to be ready to be in the conversation. Families come to us at very different stages, some with adult children already, some with teenagers, some still grieving a recent diagnosis. We welcome you wherever you are.
- Read our guiding principles and the model. If those land true, the rest follows.
- Reach out. Send us a note. Tell us a little about your family. We will listen.
- Meet us. A video call or an in-person visit, when timing permits.
- Decide together. Slowly, mutually, without pressure.
New here? Start with our free guide: When You're Gone, a planning guide for parents of adults with profound disabilities.
Read more for prospective families →🤝Support Us
Three ways to be part of what we are building. Only one of them involves money, and not yet.
1. Join the conversation. Add your name to our list. Your perspective will shape what we do. No money, no obligation. Join the family & interest list → or email hello@1000villagers.org.
2. Spread the word. Tell families, professionals, foundations, architects. Every connection moves us closer.
3. Donate, when we are ready. We are in active conversation with the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism about fiscal sponsorship, the path that lets us receive tax-deductible donations responsibly while we build.
Coming soon, when fiscal sponsorship is in place:
Villager
- Periodic updates
- Founders Wall listing
- Village Gathering invitation
Neighbor
- Everything in Villager
- Early invitations to events
- Behind-the-scenes updates
Founder
- Everything in Neighbor
- Annual founder dinner
- Recognition as a founding supporter
Payments will come online when our fiscal sponsorship is finalized. Until then, please join the conversation, your name on our list matters more than dollars right now.
Three ways to help, in detail →🌳Be one of the early voices
Two community traditions we are starting now, ahead of the buildings.
Founders Wall
A permanent recognition, physical when the village is built, online beforehand, for the families, friends, professionals, and partners who were with us from the start. If you are in the conversation today, you are eligible.
Village Gathering
An annual event for everyone in the extended community, member families, supporters, advisors, peer projects. The first one will be modest. The hundredth, we hope, will not.
♻️A Blueprint for Other Families
Our name reflects the longer aim. If we can build one community that works, and document how, we intend to make it a template other parents can take to their own communities. The goal is not exclusivity. The goal is to make this kind of security available to more families than just our own.
If you are a parent considering this for your own region, please reach out. We will share what we have learned.
📬 Get in Touch
We answer every message personally. 1000 Villagers is started by three founding families; you can reach Bill Porta, founding member, anytime.