VISION
Haven for Special People will facilitate community activities to foster understanding, acceptance and social interaction for residents, in order to improve their quality of life and maximize their independence!
Community Need
Haven for Special People surveyed many local Coulee Region families that have older teen and young adult children with special needs. We had 45 families respond to our survey, with great interest in this project. Of those respondents, 96% live with their parents, 80% require assistance completing some activities of daily living, and 71% receive services from organizations and county programs and 43% have jobs.
Acceptance, Humility, and Compassion
Residents without a disability can benefit living next to residents with special needs. Many people find that friendships with people with special needs can be even more fulfilling than those with typical friends, because they come with no preconceived underlying notions, only the pure wish to be friends and share time and experiences together.
We live in a fast-paced, competitive world that isn’t as kind and caring as it should be. Being around people with different types of disabilities helps us to be more compassionate regarding struggles they might be having. But in addition, we learn they can be just as compassionate with us as we experience our own frustrations and disappointments. This knowledge fosters a sense of humility that keeps us grounded. It's true that the more we learn about the differences in others, the more we discover that we are actually quite similar! In turn, this creates benefits for our individual mental health that we all need: a healthy dose of self-compassion and self-acceptance.
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Advocates for Life Skills & Opportunity, Dec 21, 2023, The Positive Impact of People with Disabilities on Communities, https://alsoweb.org/nonprofit-blog/the-positive-impact-of-people-with-disabilities-on-communities/
A Neighborhood of Possibilities
Haven on Main, a 70 unit building, is the vision of the non-profit Haven for Special People. Couleecap, a separate Wisconsin non-profit, will develop, own, and maintain the building with design input from Haven for Special People.
This timeline shows projected dates and is subject to change
Support Our Project
As a 501(c)3, Haven for Special People operates on the generosity of donors in order to offer a wide range of opportunities to facilitate connections and build a sense of community at Haven on Main. We have partnered with community development experts, Couleecap and Gerrard Corporation, to bring this vision to reality.