You may have heard or read something about what we call, Oasis. Oasis is our initiative to help youth who are facing this overwhelming challenge of aging out of foster care. Check out the graphic below to see what happens to those who age out. We need to do better.
Stats about aging out youth |
An Enlarged Vision
We are enlarging our vision from thinking about a house or apartment complex to something called an Intentional Neighboring Community (INC).
An INC is the coming together of people from all walks of life to live intentionally as caring neighbors, embracing those among us who are most vulnerable, and surrounding each other with a culture of friendliness, kindness, helpfulness, and consideration.
The INC Approach
- Assistance is community driven
- Based off the universal need for caring relationships
- Those facing serious social challenges become assets to the community
- Capacity for ordinary people of all ages to care about and for one another
What Does This Look Like
Purposefully designed spaces. |
- A community of 10-15 acres
- No more than 150 people
- 1/3 of the population is aging out foster youth
- The rest of the population is made up of mostly seniors, then families, and singles
- Multiple community spaces on the property
- Self-sustaining
Sr. housing is completely integrated |
INC residents are not viewed as problems to be managed, but as ordinary people with overwhelming life challenges that can best be addressed in the kind of family and community setting that we would want for ourselves. Everyone is a member of the community with strengths, skills and life experiences that add to the success of the neighborhood.
- Reduce homelessness
- Reduce incarceration
- Increase employment
- Empower seniors
- More children being fostered
- Adoption of waiting children from the state of IN
- Support for adoptive and foster parents
- Reproduced across the state of IN