Intellectual Disabilities

IDDI Want to Start a Movement: Everyone Belongs

In the tenth grade, I transferred to a new school district, and it was a challenging year for me. Social groups had formed then, and I needed help figuring out the social rules, the educational system, and how things worked. I found a few others…

I Want To Start A Movement: Now When? Now

A mission statement is supposed to be about what you do now. When we rewrote ours a few years ago, it opened with “KenCrest supports community development.” The thinking behind our statement was simple, but the execution was much more complicated. We were…

I Want To Start a Movement: Each of Us Gets To Set the Outcome

Lois Curtis is a black woman living in the South. Anyone watching the news can find a pretty accurate picture of what that portrays. In Lois’s case, at 10 years old, she was sent away to live in an institution. Her family…

I Want to Start a Movement: Let’s Grow Leaders

I was browsing LinkedIn the other day and came across this quote by John Quincy Adams: “If your actions inspire someone to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.” I’m sure that it’s going to be one of my favorite…

I Want to Start a Movement: The Best Things in Life Really Are Free (or Close to It)

At eight years old, I never would have believed that the best things in life didn’t cost money. Every holiday season, I waited anxiously on the Sears Wish Book. Back then, it was the…

I Want to Start a Movement: A Place Where Everyone Is Needed

I Want to Start a Movement: Everyone Can Go Home

I Want to Start a Movement: Everyone Goes Home

Thanksgiving brings back some big, wonderful memories for me. In my family, there was no such thing as a ‘small’ group dinner for Turkey Day; we normally hosted 20 people or more. Our Thanksgiving dinners were served in three rooms because it was…

I Want to Start a Movement: What Makes a Home?

The story I want to share with you today is sad but important to reflect on, especially within the context of our new series on “home.” One of KenCrest’s community group home residents who was in hospice care often received visits from one of our…

There is No Place Like Home

“There is no place like home.” This was the title of the op-ed I recently submitted to the Philadelphia…