DRI seeking to fund more on-campus homes in honor of its 30th birthday

July 29--Robyn Gardner, 43, wants a change of address.

She loves her current home in Abilene, where she lives with other people who go to work and to socialize at the nonprofit Disability Resources Inc. during the day.

"I get along great with pretty much everybody in my house," Gardner said. "I really get along great with my roommate, and (we) have become really, really close. And my house parents are really nice."

Related: DRI at 30: Helping residents live fuller lives

But Gardner must return to her off-campus home at night, while others stay at the facility's main campus, located just north of Abilene at 3602 N. Clack St.

That creates disadvantages for Gardner and others who live off campus. Those include having to be transported every day to missed opportunities to socialize with friends.

A chance to live on DRI's 170-acre property would mean "a great deal to me," she said.

"I would be able to ride my bike out here on the weekends," she said. "And I would be able to take walks. And we would be able to walk to the activity center. Right now, we can't walk -- we have to take a van."

Stories like Gardner's are why DRI, which offers vocational, social and living opportunities for those it serves, is raising funds in celebration of the organization's 30th birthday.

If successful, the "Fulfilling the Promise" campaign will open the way to move everyone who lives in off-campus housing into four new homes to be built on DRI's main campus.

Marelyn Shedd, who is heading the campaign effort, said the name reveals its hope and potential, namely allowing all residents to live in a community setting.

"Right now, we have four separate (off-campus) houses throughout Abilene," she said. "By building these new residential facilities on the campus, they will all be able to be part of the community all the time, 24 hours a day, rather than having to transport them back and forth from the houses."

The campaign, she said, further fulfills the promise of making sure the residents are all in a safe, familiar environment.

"It is a more family setting to have them all together so they can participate in activities morning and night," Shedd said.

Tim Yandell, DRI's vice president and director of development, said "there's a real sense of safety and security when everybody is living on campus."

"We've had some situations in the past when not all of the neighborhoods or the neighbors are always glad that one of our homes are in the neighborhood," he said. "So when we're out here, there's community and there's safety, and (those are) some of the main reasons that we really need for this to happen."

The goal is to raise $4 million, he said, on what is an admittedly tight deadline.

"Our deadline for raising that money, if you go six months from April 14, is Sept. 15," Yandell said.

The effort has garnered some local foundation support, he said, and DRI and its staff are hopeful that further local donations from organizations and individuals will help make Gardner's dream real.

"On April 13, we received a $1 million challenge grant from Dodge Jones Foundation," Yandell said. DRI also has received an $800,000 challenge grant from the Mabee Foundation.

Currently, 24 people live off campus in one of four homes located throughout Abilene, while 18 live on campus in the three homes at DRI.

DRI has another dozen people in the organization's day program. Those individuals take part in the same daily activities as their counterparts do, but do not live in DRI housing.

Three of the homes are private pay, what is considered assisted living. Four homes are considered Intermediate Care Facilities, funded through Medicaid.

Many who live off campus must share rooms, which is not an ideal situation for adult people that want some sense of independence, and privacy, Yandell said.

The new facilities will offer that level of comfort, he said, while also affording residents who live off campus to spend time with their "extended family."

JUST LIKE HOME

"We want to stay as far from institutionalized as possible (and) try to create a family environment," said Kelly Young, president/chief executive officer of DRI, speaking both of housing and the general attitude of the nonprofit.

"Most of our house managers are known as 'Mom,'" Young said. "We try to keep it as homelike as possible. So the house manager is always on duty when folks get up in the morning and go to bed at night."

The architectural designs of the new homes will need to be approved by the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services, but will mostly match the existing ones in final design, Yandell said.

Residents can decorate their rooms as they like.

Diane Johnson, who is a houseparent in one of the off-campus houses, said the day-to-day life of those she helps care for is fairly set -- breakfast, medications if needed, a cup of coffee, some chores.

After those morning duties are done, Johnson takes one of her residents to an off-campus job with Goodwill, then takes everyone else to DRI.

"What would make it better for us, we won't have to transport everybody," she said of the possibility of moving to the main campus. "Everybody will be able to just walk from the home to the activity center."

And if "everybody is out there, everybody can kind of mingle with each other," she said.

"They can go visit each other's homes, play games, or even go to the activity center sometimes," Johnson said.

That sounds wonderful, said Jeremy Antilley, 45, who has been with DRI for 14 years and presently lives off campus.

"I like my friends, and I like the work," he said, which for him includes the facility's paper shredding operation among a long list of other duties.

And like anyone else who's made close friends, he loves to just "hang out, basically" with them.

That's why he, too, would like to live on campus, Antilley said, something that would make what he whimsically calls his "home away from home" even more of one.

"Being close to other people, it would be good," he said.

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