Possibility Place is an intentional living community for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Currently in its planning stages, Possibility Place aims to provide a space where individuals can learn purpose, self-advocacy and independence. Participants will benefit from the ample and rich opportunities for independent living in an environment that is safe, supportive and encouraging. This community emphasizes each resident’s own innate strengths and personal skills and works to nurture these abilities so that residents can live to their highest potential and experience fulfilling and meaningful lives surrounded by friends.

Our Mission Statement

To create a life-long living community for differently-abled adults in a socially rich and supportive environment, while engaged in meaningful employment and interpersonal relationships that foster a sense of belonging, with ongoing support from passionate and caring staff.

Who is it for? Who will it serve?

Future residents of Possibility Place have intellectual and developmental disabilities without a history of psychiatric disorders, aggressive or isolating tendencies, or substance abuse issues. These young adults will live in either one or two-bedroom apartments (with or without roommates, depending on preference), surrounded by professional and highly experienced staff. The staff is there to support independent living skills; (such as shopping, meal planning, maintaining their apartments, budget management, and doctor’s appointments) while encouraging the development of a residents’ respective friendships, community involvement, work, and volunteer commitments.
Residents will have plenty of opportunities for fun and companionship with each other, within an culture of kindness and acceptance where differences are celebrated and valued, and where self-esteem flourishes.

The support staff at Possibility Place will have the specialized training needed to address the evolving needs of participants as they proceed through the stages of their adult lives. Staff will be available to the residents’ family members for any questions and concerns. The program will strive to meet each individual’s needs as he/she ages and matures, while providing the structure necessary to promote safety, health, happiness and well being.

Possibility Place will be located in a safe neighborhood, with access to public transportation and local resources such as supermarkets, drugstores, restaurants and gyms. Possibility Place will have a multi-purpose common area where residents can interact with their peers, plan activities and special meals together, meet for casual get-togethers and spontaneous socialization. Staff will assist residents to improve social skills, learn how to resolve personal conflicts, and grow as individuals and as members of the larger community.

What makes Possibility Place unique?

Up until our opening there has not been a community like this available in the Southeast. Historically, special needs parents have had to send their adult sons and daughters away to other places in the United States. This can lead to familial stress and difficult adjustments. Possibility Place will provide a place where young adults native to the southeast will be able to live closer to families but also have the opportunity to live independently, in a small community of peers…learning, growing and experiencing the world together.

We have modeled Possibility Place on similar programs that are already thriving and have done a great deal of research to learn, adapt, and move forward knowing their best practices. Programming at Possibility Place will be offered by carefully vetted staff, selected and supervised by a large non-profit with many years of experience serving the special needs population and helping them reach their fullest potential.

How did Possibility Place get started and why?

The Barker family and their daughter Kruesi, a 24-year old, wanted more from life than living at home with her parents and the isolation of rural North Carolina. She longed for the lights and sounds of Uptown in Charlotte. But there was one problem: few or no options existed for Kruesi, because she would be leaving her familiar setting at the LIFE Program in Cape Cod, MA, where she had lived for several years, and there was nowhere in the state of North Carolina where she could continue her journey toward a fulfilling and rewarding but independent life.

As a 24-year old with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD), her options outside of the setting where she was living were extremely limited in the Southeast. Kruesi was ready to move back close to family in North Carolina and away from the cold Massachusetts winters, her parents were looking forward to her getting settled and putting roots as an adult in a location relatively close to them, but there wasn’t a place for Kruesi, or for so many others like Kruesi, in North Carolina or anywhere in the Southeast.

The Barkers joined together with three other sets of parents who were facing the same situation with their adult sons and daughters, and “Project Kruesi” was born from these eight parents’ desire to make a difference and create lifelong living opportunities that had not yet been available in this state for their adult children. For two years these parents and several other volunteers have been working together with diligence, hope and enthusiasm to plan what is now called “Possibility Place.” They have put a great deal of effort into creating a framework for this program and are now ready to see this project come to life and develop into the kind of place that they have dreamed for their children – a place full of possibilities.