Autism & Intentional Communities
August 13th, 2006One major are of my life that I just don’t have figured out yet is housing.
I want control over my life, I want my privacy, I want to be able to pursue my interests. At the same time, I really would do better if some things were less of an issue in my life – things like mowing the lawn (which affects my health), buying food, and eating meals. A quick look around my house would convince anyone that living alone is not a great idea for me. But I also don’t want a place where someone else is the one who has it together, while I’m their project/client/whatever. I want equality and mutual respect.
The obvious solution is to live with someone else. But it’s hard to figure out how this would work. At Autreat, I saw a really neat presentation on LeisureLand, an autistic-friendly intentional community. Basically, people sleep in small trailers but share a communal “house”, with different people providing different things to the community. So, people have privacy – their trailer is their own space, but have the shared space, shared meals, etc. It’s a wonderful concept, and the people living there seem very excited about it.
There are problems though – what I’d want is slightly different. I’m not about to move to the middle of Oregon, to a very rural setting. I love my work – it’s much of my identity, and I’m not ashamed of that. Sure, I’m willing to do this work anywhere it’s available, but being able to work the kind of job I work now is critical. There are other things, too. It would clearly take exactly the right combination of people to make this work – people who have a natural connection to each other, who share a common set of values, who are willing to both give and receive, and who can work out conflict.
I guess I’ll keep hoping I’ll find something like this one day. A place where I can have the time I need alone, but have an opportunity to build real connections with other people, a chance to share my life with others. A place where everyone’s abilities are accepted for what they are, and differences are seen without judgement.
I too have wanted self-sufficiency. I often wish I could garden and not worry about trying to hold up a mortgage. I do wonder exactly how the finances are done again. Is it the land improvmeent work they get paid for and the food is then purchased? It’s nice to be “off the bottom of the tax charts” etc. IOW, almost sovereignly run like a reservation. Given that moving is considered #3 most stressful event in life, I am having to consider some other options. I have had trailer life…there are aspects of it I’m not fond of. I’d almost rather have the “wood cabin or stone masonry arrangement even if it is a lot dustier. Something like a wood insulated irish castle would be ideal for me.
I’d like to build my home perhaps out of something. The other big issue is the agrarian skills since this is not exactly nomadic. The good thing about trailers is that they are mobile and cheap to heat/cool (if they work). In a disaster, just pick up and leave (assuming one has stored some gas tanks in a shed somewhere).
Your blog “NTs are Weird – The Autistic Perspective on Civil Rights” was just discovered by me when I did my periodic Google search of “facilitated communication.” I have just read several of your blog entries and I find them quite informative. At the moment I do not have much time to research your web pages or to write, but I think you are Joel Smith and that I have read some of your web posts over the past several years.
As a person who tries to be an advocate for persons with autism (now largely under the direction of my 34 year-old son Ben Golden who would be described by some as having LFA and using FC), I am currently struggling with this issue of “Autism & Intentional Communities.” I am also interested in many of the other issues you are discussing in your blog entries. I hope to check back and add more specific comments soon.
By the way, if I comment on an old blog entry, will you easily see it and what about others who read your blog?
Well whatsoever I wanted some time back to get back in to the housing co-operative where my mum lived.
Now there was statisically only a 4 to 1 chance that were possible nonethelsess I do feel my application was scuppered by a powerful person in the community who did not like me, with whom I had crossed metaphorical swords (righteosly) on previos occassions.
That community was good for my mum with her physical disability but evil to me. They disregarded my validity as a human being I was just an adjunct to my mum and when she died I was treated like shit, given a month to get out, well there was worse but I don’t want to go into that.
I think it was written that I should not go back, but if that community had worked it would have been a better place to live than the total isolation from my neighbours and any sence of community I live in now.
The subject of Living facilities for people with Autism fascinates me! As I am on my way to move home in the next months, I often wondered what the best way for living for me would be, having Aspergers. My dream is to create a community where all kind of Aspies can live together, each situated in their own apartment. With some support we can manage on our own I guess.
I think it is worth researching what the needs of autistic people are talking about (supported) ways of living. I think the way Aspies do want to live may differ from one another, but generally there are many things we have in common. If we make a statement about Livng and autism we might stand stronger than being an individual.
I like to read your blog BTW!
Regards from Europe
Greetings!
TR from Oregon’s LeisureLand community here. I’m glad you enjoyed our presentation at Autreat. i’d be happy to answer anyone’s questions about how we do our autistic communal living thing. My personal contact info is on my band website at http://www.raventones.com, don’t want to clog this blog. i’m working on putting up a LeisureLand page with the details soon. Living together in voluntary simplicity while honoring our autism is a special interest of mine, and i’d love to see more of Our People creating independent communities. We are not seeking any new members, rather just providing an idea (autistic intentional family/community) and showing one possible way to actualize it. Independence and interdependence within our own culture is the guiding ideal………..the pursuit of Leisure and a meaningful life.
It’s great to see people with autism speaking up through blogs. Yet there isn’t enough understanding in the world about autism and people with autism. I’ve been working with children with autism for 8 years now and became interested when my little brother showed signs of autism at 6 months of age. Although he is severely disabled, my mother and I have never given up and he is now a COMMUNICATIVE and warm 20 year old young man. Part of what we did was intuitive. Based on this and on courses I’ve taken in special education, I founded the institute of paper hats, a collaborative arts project based in Washington and Northern California. It works primarily for people with autism who live with parents and are isolated because of their condition. I can’t think of anything sadder than the lack of opportunity to experience this aspect of life even for people with autism.
The website’s address is http://www.instituteofpaperhats.org. Although the organization is new and the website is still barebones and unattractive, it is slowly building interest from families of people with autism and artists alike who are interested in participating.
This new non-profit exists in order to pair up a professional artist with an individual with cognitive disabilities, autism in particular to work on an explorative art project in order to facilitate one-on-one communication and to allow the person with c.d. to experience selection of materials, the creative process (and self-expression), and to allow respite for caregivers. Funded exclusively by the institute of paper hats, the collaborative art project may take place at the residence of the person with c.d. In addition, the length of time the collaboration is to take place is agreed upon in contract form. Upon completion of project, the person with cd may choose to continue with the same or another artist upon availability.
Each year the projects will be displayed and sold with proceeds being split evenly between person with cd, artist, and institute of paper hats.
Please feel free to check it out. Any feedback would be appreciated. If you approve, forward the link to people that might be interested.
Good luck with the continuation of your informative, inspiring and enlightening blog.
Monica
I want to say “thanks” for the great post. I found your blog right after posting my own article about this very issue on my own blog. I wrote to encourage someone to put together a community that offered cheap housing and cheap studio/offices/work space to creative folks. Personally I’d love to live in a community where I could grow lots of veggies but someone else picks the produce and cooks the meals. I like mowing lawns, but hate cleaning my house, etc. Isolation is a problem for lots of people – one certainly doesn’t need any sort of disability to feel a need for community, and those of us on the shy side have the hardest time finding it.
Thanks again for the post. You can find my post on nearly the same subject at http://ultimatepapermache.com/random-thoughts/utopian-artist-community