Our Stomping Ground

My daughter is an Arlington resident with special needs. In our community the term 'falling off the cliff' pertains to leaving secondary school. There is really nothing other than good intentions and adult day care on the other side. That is until 2018 when Our Stomping Grounds came into being.

See below for some information about us, we currently have one paid staff person but we run hours of community programming using volunteers. We are grateful to everything Arlington has provided but we desperately need more volunteers and paid staff to meet this growing need.

Several of our residents were featured in the Sundance award winning film - The Reason I Jump, available on NETFLIX - imagine - movie stars living in poverty on Columbia Pike!

https://ourstompingground.org/

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9098928/

Paula Manion was inspired to begin OSG (previously CityCenter NOVA) in November 2018, to help meet the needs of young adults with DD for community. Youth transitioning to adulthood face many barriers, including difficulties finding jobs and a scarcity of affordable housing. Most live at home with aging parents and experience social isolation. Following the model of Main Street, in Rockville, MD, OSG partnered with the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH) to establish small communities within affordable apartment complexes to serve the settlement agreement population. There was a lot of interest—250 people showed up for the initial meeting. OSG follows the “housing first” model, which regards independent housing and a basic right and primary service and then builds supports around it. OSG contributes an “overlay” of supports in order to provide meaningful day activities and help integrate residents into the wider community. Technology provided by SafeinHome has been instrumental in augmenting the safety and independence of residents.

Currently, there are two OSG communities in Arlington – at Gilliam Place and Queen’s Court. Gilliam Place was constructed on land donated by the Arlington Presbyterian Church. Residents have access to affordable rents and received supports from families, live-in caregivers and/or through the DD Medicaid waiver. Some examples of the sponsored activities available to residents and DD nonresidents of Arlington include daily walks, trips to the library, dinners, book discussion groups, game nights, and weekly clean-ups at Theodore Roosevelt Island. OSG also provides supports for the non-DD building residents, including tutoring for school-age children during the pandemic. OSG is also in discussions with Therapeutic Recreation to perhaps offer recreation co located at our various sites.

OSG needs long-term financial support expand its operations to other communities and to become a permanent, sustainable model. It currently relies extensively on volunteers, but needs a full-time “community builder” position in each community to coordinate and run community activities. OSG membership fees are nominal and it receives private donations; it is also applying for grants to supply additional funding.