Today we’d like to introduce you to AIM-Adults Independent & Motivated.
Hi, we’d love for you to start by introducing AIM-Adults Independent & Motivated.
Families of individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities struggle to find the right living arrangement for our loved ones. Options include living at home with parents, in a group home, independently with support or totally on their own. As families of individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities, we looked at these options but wanted something different for our young adults.
We wanted an option where our young adults can live in a close-knit community of their peers. Where they can live in their own apartment. Where they can live close enough to a coffee shop, grocery store or movie theater to simply walk there with their friends. Where they can experience some independence, but with appropriate support. Where they have opportunities for recreation, physical fitness and learning. Where they can hold a good job because they have access to reliable transportation. Where we can allow them to experience daily life without us, but where we still have a meaningful role in their lives.
There was not an option like this in Central Texas, so we formed it! n 2013, a group of parents learned about a model in Kansas City that sounded like exactly what we were looking for. We visited their program and returned home to start figuring out how to build a similar community here in greater Austin.
The result is Adults Independent and Motivated (AIM) , a growing non-profit community of active adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities who live independently, with appropriate support, in an apartment complex in a walkable, vibrant suburb of Austin, Texas.
AIM extends our deepest gratitude to The Mission Project in Kansas. Their model has served as our inspiration, and their help and guidance have made our jobs considerably easier as we strive to build a similar community in Central Texas.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
In the beginning as we were working to launch AIM, one of our biggest challenges was finding the best location. We needed to find an existing apartment community whose location would allow the “AIMers” to walk to restaurants, stores, entertainment options and even their jobs. In the very beginning we did not yet have our transportation program so AIMers either had to have a job within a walkable distance of their apartment or their families needed to arrange for transportation privately.
AIM does not charge a fee for any of our services so ongoing fundraising is a challenge for us in continuing to make independence possible for these amazing young adults with disabilities. Our annual Tutus & Ties Fun Run with a Silent Auction each October is our biggest fundraiser of the year, and we welcome sponsorships and encourage everyone to sign up to participate in supporting us while having a great time! We are also thrilled to be able to fundraise as part of the Amplify Austin I Live Here, I Give Here campaign each spring.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
We work to have the necessary supports in place in order to cultivate a vibrant community in which our young adult children with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities can thrive as independently as possible. By living in a regular apartment complex surrounded by friends with IDD and within walking distance to shops, restaurants, and a library, residents are able to live a more typical adult life. AIM activities to promote independence include:
Monday Group – A weekly facilitator-led meeting for AIMers to learn and socialize with each other.
Socials – Five socials per month for AIMers and Prospective AIMers. Four are fun, active events led by volunteers and the other is typically social in nature.
AIM Sparks Basketball – AIM’s Special Olympics Basketball team
Volunteer Opportunities – AIMers give back by volunteering in the community.
Downtime – By design, AIM leaves plenty of empty spaces in AIMers lives. Space they can use to do nothing, unwind, or plan their own activities with their friends.
Transportation – So AIMers can get to work and AIM activities.
How do you define success?
Independent and Loving It!! Mind-blowing: Leading such ordinary lives is really quite extraordinary for adults with IDD
Our success may be best defined in the words of AIMers themselves:
“It’s the kind of life I never thought I’d get to live! I’m free to come and go as I please. I’m a lot happier now!”
“No parents!”
“I really like to be here. I’m independent and can do things for myself!”
“I like the independence I get!”
More words of success from AIM parent Darla Jones: We began our journey with AIM thinking about where and how Zach might be able to live apart from us. Would the budget work? Would he be able to get up on time and get himself ready to work? Take his own medications, exercise, stay fed, and keep his apartment reasonably clean? Would he be safe? July of 2021 began as the scariest experiment of our lives. But now I realize that, while terrifying and fundamental, those were just problems to be solved. And as proud as we are that he’s mastered these important life skills, we now know that what Zach was really missing in his life were deep friendships of his own. When we started this process, we were looking for an affordable housing solution for Zach, but what we’ve found through AIM can’t be easily quantified. His community and ours have now expanded, and I hope our new AIM family continues to grow.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.aimtx.org
- Instagram: @aim_adultsindependent
- Facebook: Adults Independent and Motivated – AIM
- Twitter: @AIMaustintx
