County’s land donation opens door for Oasis’ dream of new community
Nonprofit project aimed at a development for intellectually and developmentally disabled residents gets a boost. Plus, explorers say they think they’ve found Amelia Earhart’s Purdue-funded plane
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COUNTY’S LAND DONATION OPENS DOOR FOR OASIS’ DREAM OF NEW COMMUNITY
The idea for the Oasis Community started with three families in Greater Lafayette, looking for better options for independent living for their adult sons with intellectual or developmental disabilities.
The options they’d found across Greater Lafayette, outside having their children continue to live at home with aging parents, offered places to live in secure settings, but they had little in the way of socializing with friends they’d made or with neighbors who weren’t always sure of the best ways to help blend with those with intellectual or developmental disabilities on their block.
Rob Eyman, one of those parents, said conversations about residential communities intentionally designed for people like their sons were starting to pop up across the country. The statistics, at the same time, showed that more than half the adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities continued to live with their parents due to shortages on appropriate housing and social options.
Eyman said that when they first put out the word, asking if there’d be interest in Greater Lafayette for that sort of thing, 35 families came to a session to talk about the concept in 2019. A follow-up meeting brought out another 30 or families.
“We took that as interest,” Eyman, president of the board of Oasis Community, said. “We created a 501c3. We shared our vision. We kept working, kept dreaming. ... But we were running up against a closed door until we could find land. It was all hypothetical. …
“And then, this.”
“This,” in this particular case announced last week, was a donation of 35 acres just west of Burnett Creek Elementary. Tippecanoe County commissioners agreed to give Oasis land that was once part of the county farm after being approached about the concept 18 months ago.
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