Each Aspire resident will have 27 other co-residents that share a common bond. We think that in time these residents will become a cohesive group that depend on each other, enjoy each other’s company, and begin to understand their value and self-worth through friendships, shared common goals, strengthening of self-esteem, shared challenges and setbacks, and milestone accomplishments – the ups and downs of life shared with what they call – ‘friends like me”.

With each resident comes a dedicated parent or parents. Each of them we hope will also share in the common bond they all have with their children and begin to forge relationships and friendships. Working together the support is magnified because as a group they will learn to lean on each other and support each other with common challenges. We hope this group dynamic will remove the occasional isolation parents feel when raising and caring for an adult with ASD.

The sense of community is realized by all of us and as a community of caring people we can all be ambassadors for our residents. We can be encouraging and support residents in job training and securing employer relationships. We can seek to secure third party sources of training that will provide for the skills needed to become self-supportive. Employers today seek this employment base in increasing numbers. The magic is connecting the dots between the Aspire resident’s skills and capabilities with a training regimen that results in the resident possessing the skills that fulfills the needs of a willing employer.