I think that AHIC is admirable because every dollar goes straight into buying a house in community that a disabled person can live in. There is a visible and permanent result from their work. Lives are made better. Our community of 70 people benefits from the presence of the disabled people who would otherwise not be able to be here, and the disabled resident benefits by being here in community. I myself learn a lot from Mike's attitude toward life.
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I wish there were more initiatives like AHIC, since the kind of work they do changes lives. I know this sounds like a ready made phrase, but in this case I feel that I can't find better words to describe what this organization does.
Providing a home for a person with a severe health problem helps not only that person live a dignified life until the end, but it also helps the community as a whole. We all learn how to live with, learn about, be less afraid and embrace the humanity, challenges and gifts illnes can bring. AHIC made it possible for me to meet and spend time with a wonderful neighbour, a brilliant man that lives with Multiple Sclerosis. In short, thank you to all the people that make AHIC possible. My family have learned a lot from being a part of its community.
A Home in Community has provided Mike a home, and a whole community he can participate in. We fundraise together to donate money to help raise the funds for AHIC. It is a wonderful organization, and provides a unique way of life for people with physical disabilities.
A Home in Community is a great nonprofit. I live across the path from Mike am regularly inspired by how much he gives to our community and what a great role model he is for the young kids in our world. I love seeing my donation dollars in action!
I really appreciate Mike's participation in the CoHo community, which would not be possible without the help of AHIC. He is an active and insightful contributor to many community discussions, sometimes hosting small meetings in his home.
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I live near CoHo Ecovillage. Our family visits the community most days, and we end up chatting with Mike a few times a week. He has often contributed produce from his garden to community meals I've helped prepare, and often comes along when he volunteers his helper to help with meal preparation. He is always ready and comfortable talking to our kids when they have questions about his condition, his wheelchair, or any other random thing about his life. It is a pleasure to have him in our lives, and I am grateful to A Home in Community for making his presence in the community possible.
AHIC does amazing things with volunteer labor. The mission is inspiring, and the organization is incredibly effective at accomplishing it. Our donors have supplied generous amounts of money to purchase a house at CoHo Ecovillage, which provides a home for a tenant with physical disabilities. After seven years in operation, we've almost paid off the loans on the house, and our tenant is a vital and well-loved member of the community!
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AHIC is an organization that gets things done. As a volunteer on the board of directors for the past few years, I know that AHIC provides valuable services with negligible overhead. We are helping to diversify and improve quality of life at CoHo Ecovillage, and we are supporting other communities in their efforts to be accessible to people with physical disabilities. A Home in Community is not a think tank with questionable results -- it's a "do tank" with clear and visible results on the ground. These results are all the more impressive, given that AHIC is entirely staffed by volunteers -- truly a heartwarming story!
The organizing is very well run. The volunteers do so much work for this organization. It is a great cause. It is inspiring.
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I really love being a part of a small non-profit that is really making a difference on a personal level. AHIC is a boon to CoHo Ecovillage, enabling Mike to be our neighbor and a vital part of our diverse community. More generally isolation is a common side effect of disability, and cohousing is a wonderful cure which I'm proud to be a part of.
AHIC is my favorite nonprofit. I love how friends, family, community members, and even strangers have worked together to make our collective dream for Mike a reality. Mike's energy, his attitude, and his commitment to community are a wonderful example for all those around him. I love seeing how my donations make a huge impact on so many people.
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My apartment at CoHo Ecovillage is the first apartment home that I've had in my 40years as an adult. I feel like part of the community at CoHo by enjoying the benefits such as friendships, assistance and learning from others while being able to give back to the community by contributing my time and abilities to further the goal of CoHo Ecovillage.
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A Home In Community (AHIC) was created to buy an apartment at Coho Ecovillage that would be rented to a person with a physical disability. I have no voluntary movement below my neck, due to Multiple Sclerosis (MS). It has been a challenge for me to be engaged in my community. I am the person that has been living in the AHIC funded apartment for the last 5 years. This has given me the opportunity to live in a co-housing community. The opportunities to be engaged in Coho are tremendous. I can simply roll out the front door of my apartment and engage with my neighbors. I can simply use my wheel chair to attend event in the community common house and neighbors homes or just go outside and talk to somebody. AHIC has made all of this possible.
As a strong believer in diversity, I find AHIC a shining example of a group effort to create a more caring and strong local community.
I love being able to see my money in action. Donating to AHIC produces a concrete result -- our neighborhood has a sense of inclusiveness because of the AHIC affordable units. It keeps us all mindful about accessibility issues, so people's behavior changes.
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AHIC provides a housing unit in a close-knit cohousing community for someone with physical disability and who lacks the means to buy into the community. It integrates someone into a village-like atmosphere, someone who might otherwise live a very isolated life. AHIC provides the financial means to enable the members of the community to then act as their best selves, taking care of one of their own in other ways. AHIC makes the cohousing complex it occupies, and the entire neighborhood around it, a better and more humane place to live. It keeps us, as neighbors, thinking about accessibility issues, when we might otherwise just not notice them.
A Home In Community (AHIC) continues to be my favorite local charity. Of course, I'm biased, since I have the privilege of serving as its President! But, truly, we do great work. Please consider supporting us.
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A Home In Community is a wonderful, small nonprofit, focused on helping low income, physically disabled individuals to enjoy the benefits of living in cohousing communities.
A Home In Community has very effective leadership and uses its funds quite efficiently. The concept of this organization is working extremely well -- its first recipient, Mike, is very involved in the community, and both he and the community benefit from his living here, which wouldn't be possible without AHIC. In addition, I believe the friendships and interactions he gets by living here encourages and allows him to be more active in the broader community, so the benefit of this nonprofit is indirectly spread to many others as well.
AHIC is important both for it's immediate impact on the life of its first tenant Mike Volpe and because of its promise for impacting many more similar people over time. Mike is an amazing paraplegic (from MS). He lives his life giving to others, yet without AHIC, there would be only his paid care givers to give back to him. AHIC allows him to live in a caring cohousing community. Living here he can visit friends via an easy unassisted exit out his door.
Cohousing is a growing movement world wide. AHIC's mission is to establish similar housing in other cohousing communities. Communities who will benefit from exposure to someone like Mike. Someone that will help many others see disabled folks as people with their own skills, strengths and weaknesses.
I can see the impact that A Home In Community has right here in my neighborhood. It's so important to incorporate people with disabilities into our communities and our lives.
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Mike is a valued member of our community and all our lives are richer by having him here. AHIC has made this possible and has enabled Mike to be here and be a part of this cohousing neighborhood. People with these kind of handicaps can become isolated in traditional housing situations and AHIC, and of course, Mike, have made his inclusion as a neighbor and a valued member of the community possible.
Well-run organization that has a direct impact. I've been very pleased to have the opportunity to volunteer and become involved.
A community needs a diversity of people...easy to say and often hard to do. AHIC provides an opportunity for a physically disabled person to be part of an active cohousing community. It is dedicated to maintaining this resource well into its future.
I am so proud of A Home in Community. They have raised $10,000 every year for the past 5 years and now there's only $40,000 left on the mortgage for this unit. I am inspired to donate again this year and I can hardly wait to year's end to hear that we've raised another $10,000 and now there's only $30,000 left on that mortgage. Way to go guys!
A Home in Community provides a unit in CoHo Ecovillage so that a disabled adult can live as our next-door neighbor. The first tenant, Mike, is fully involved in community life. A neighbor mounted a door opener on his wheelchair so Mike can go in/out of his front door and join in activities. Mike is a favorite among the kids and dogs. He even towed kids along the snowy path with his wheelchair. And neighbors are close by to help Mike if a caregiver isn't around. During a recent power outage, several folks stopped by Mike's unit to see if he needed anything. Life in community is grand!
AHIC is an incredibly efficient non-profit organization, whose purpose is to make it possible for people with disabilities to live affordably in cohousing, which not only enriches their lives but also the lives of those around them. I love having Mike as part of our community, not only for my sake but for that of my kids, who have grown up knowing him (my daughter, as a toddler, would see wheelchair symbols in parking lots and on buses and exclaim, "There's a Mike!"). It takes away the stigma around folks with disabilities in a more real way than words ever could.
My friend Mike is able to live in our community thanks to AHIC's "A Home for Mike" project. Even better, my young kids grow up with him as a positive role model, showing how someone confined to a wheelchair (Mike has ALS) can still be a vibrant contributor to a neighborhood.
A Home in Community's vision of diversity in cohousing is lived out in CoHo Cohousing in Corvallis, OR. Real people meeting real needs, making it possible for this community to include a neighbor who could never do it on his own. Yea, AHIC! My life is better because of your efforts.
As a resident of CoHo Ecovillage, I'm fortunate to have Mike (the current resident of the A.H.I.C. home) as my neighbor. It's great to be Mike's friend and neighbor (the only downside has been when I accidentally hit the controls to his power chair, causing it to run over my foot.....!) Here at CoHo we strive to be as diverse and inclusive as possible, and the AHIC home makes it possible for an adult with disabilities to have their own home in CoHo.