Resident

OPENING FOR 2012

Innisfree is anticipating one additional resident opening in 2012. After reading about our Criteria for admission, please contact Executive Director Carolyn Ohle (villagedirector@innisfreevillage.org) to arrange a tour and start the application process.

Innisfree’s residents with intellectual disabilities, known as coworkers, live in family-style homes or semi-independent apartments with full-time, live-in volunteer caregivers who serve as houseparents. Coworkers and their caregivers spend four days a week in Innisfree’s therapeutic workstations, including a bakery, community kitchen, farm, free school, herb garden, vegetable garden, weavery, and woodshop. Coworkers also have access to regular fitness sessions and to weekly expressive therapy classes, such as music, art, and pottery. In addition, they can participate in regular evening activities, such as parties and dances.

Apply

Application steps for families of adults with intellectual disabilities:

  1. CONTACT INNISFREE’S EXECUTIVE DIRECTORby phone, email, or letter to talk about your adult child’s or sibling’s situation. Describe their gifts and challenges.
  2. SET UP A TOUR OF INNISFREE for your family, including the potential coworker, at least 2 weeks in advance, arriving on a Monday, Thursday, or Friday morning and staying for lunch if you like.
  3. ARRANGE A 2-WEEK VISIT for the potential coworker when space is available in an Innisfree house and if mutually believed appropriate.
  4. SET UP A 6-MONTH TRIAL PERIOD for the potential coworker following a favorable evaluation of the 2-week visit and when space is available.
  5. SHARE FINANCIAL PLANNING INFORMATION about the family’s ability to support the potential coworker.
  6. MEET WITH INNISFREE’S ADMISSIONS COMMITTEE following a positive visit and evaluation.
  7. BECOME A FULL-FLEDGED COWORKER and be welcomed as Innisfree’s newest community member.

Criteria

A potential Innisfree coworker must be:

  • An adult with an intellectual disability
  • Between the ages of 21 and 35
  • Involved in choosing to live at Innisfree
  • Mobile and able to orient and walk from place to place
  • Able to participate in workstations
  • Able to eat independently
  • Able to use the toilet independently
  • Not physically harmful to themselves or others
  • Content with rural living

Sample diagnoses of Innisfree coworkers include:

  • Down syndrome
  • Autism
  • Fragile X
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Intellectual disability – a condition previously categorized as mental retardation and often of unknown cause

Accommodations

Each coworker enjoys the following amenities:

  • Private bedroom in a family-style home or semi-independent apartment
  • Bathroom shared with 1 to 2 others
  • Kitchen, dining area, living room, and laundry room shared with all house residents
  • TV, VCR, and DVD player in living room
  • Meals in his/her own home except for weekday community lunches
  • Personal furniture and limited special possessions if desired

Innisfree recognizes that more and more of coworkers that will be entering our community will be technologically savvy and used to using cell phones, smart phones, and computers. We are not opposed to technology as a rule. However, it has been our experience that unsupervised use of technologies can make our coworkers and our whole community vulnerable in a variety of ways, and that excessive use of certain technologies like cell phones and personal TVs can hinder a coworker’s engagement with housemates and the community in general. For this reason, personal TVs are not encouraged and there is no internet access available in community houses. There is a computer room available in the office space where coworkers may work 1-1 with a volunteer for a designated time period.

Activities

Each coworker:

  • Contributes to household management by taking on designated chores.
  • Participates in workstations four days a week.
  • Partakes of Innisfree’s fitness program including regular exercise at an onsite gymnasium and involvement in Special Olympics.
  • Joins in expressive therapies such as music therapy, art therapy, pottery, and paper-making.
  • Engages in evening recreational activities if desired, such as parties, dances, and games.
  • Has access to physicians and specialists at the University of Virginia Medical Center in nearby Charlottesville
  • Goes on regular outings to Charlottesville for entertainment.
  • Takes oral medications with assistance if needed.
  • Visits home as often as the family likes.
  • Takes a two-week December holiday when workstations close and Innisfree slows down to offer vacation time to Innisfree’s volunteer caregivers.

Cost

Monthly coworker tuition is $3,160, totaling $37,920 per year. Tuition is adjusted annually in response to cost-of-living variables. Tuition covers room, board, and participation in workstations, expressive therapies, and evening recreational activities.

An additional $60,000 entry fee is required at the completion of a successful 6-month trial period. This fee goes directly into Innisfree’s Building Fund to help maintain the existing physical plant and to build new structures when needed. The fee allows new families to share in and support the efforts to sustain Innisfree that were made by its founding families.