Support 1000 Villagers
There are three ways to help. Only one of them involves money, and not yet.
Most communities like this one are started by parents of children with disabilities. Many do not survive their founders. The difference between an idea and a built place is sustained support, most of which is not financial. Here is how you can be part of what we are building, today.
1. Join the conversation 🤝
You are invited to join, whether or not you ever plan to live here.
If you are a parent or family member of a person with a disability, a professional in the field, or simply someone who believes this is worth building, your perspective will shape what we do.
What you'll get:
- Periodic updates as the project develops.
- Early invitations to community gatherings and information sessions.
- A real way to weigh in on the questions we are working through, site, design, governance, services.
- No request for money, no obligation, no spam.
What it signals:
Foundations, state agencies, and architects want to know whether the need is real. Every name on our list is evidence that it is.
📬 To join the conversation, email hello@1000villagers.org with your name, ZIP code, and a line about how you found us.
2. Spread the word 🌱
If you know:
- A family with an adult child with a developmental disability who is looking for what we are building,
- A foundation, state office, or donor who funds work like this,
- An architect, designer, or planner who would be moved by the project,
- Or anyone who has built or worked at a community like this,
, please pass us along. Word of mouth is how every community on the list of our peers got started.
3. Donate, when we are ready 🌟
We are in active conversation with the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism about fiscal sponsorship, the path that lets us receive tax-deductible donations responsibly while we build, with the Foundation handling financial processing, acknowledgements, and reporting on our behalf.
When that agreement is in place, this page will say so plainly. Until then, we are not accepting donations, we would rather wait and do it right than rush and do it poorly. You will be among the first to hear when the door opens.
When the door does open, philanthropy will do two jobs: fund what public dollars cannot today, and build a permanent endowment, the reserve that lets the community keep its promise to families long after its founders are gone. Most communities like ours never build that reserve. We are designing for it from the start.
What your gift makes possible
Strip away the budgets and the buildings, and a gift to 1000 Villagers reaches three things public funding alone rarely does:
- Value. A life built around what each person can do and contribute, not only what they need, for adults the world too often overlooks.
- Voice. Supports shaped around what matters most to each individual, so that even those who do not speak help direct their own days, alongside the people who know them best.
- Belonging. A genuine place in community life, neighbors, routines, and a home that is truly theirs, rather than a placement far from family.
That is what your gift makes possible: not a facility, but a life worth living for people who deserve one, and the endowment that protects it for good.
Founders Wall & the annual Village Gathering
Two community traditions we are starting now, ahead of the buildings:
- Founders Wall. A permanent recognition, physical when the village is built, online beforehand, for the families, friends, professionals, and partners who were with us from the start. If you are in the conversation today, you are eligible.
- Village Gathering. An annual event for everyone in the extended community, member families, supporters, advisors, peer projects. The first one will be modest. The hundredth, we hope, will not.
Partners and advisors
We are grateful to the people and organizations who have helped us reach this point:
- Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism: fiscal sponsorship discussions in progress.
- Partnership for Community Development (Hamilton, NY), actively engaged; we are joining the regional Housing Coalition meeting at Delphi Falls.
- New York State agencies: early conversations on benefit coordination for resident families.
- Peer communities in Texas, South Carolina, California, and elsewhere, founders further along the road who have shared what they have learned.
If you would like to add your name or your organization to this list, we would be honored. Reach out.