Adopt a House

Community Living's Adopt-a-House program is our effort to have the community get to know our residents better and our residents get to know the community better. There are no firm guidelines in our program, as each home has its own personality formed by the people living in the home. This makes it easier for you, the volunteer, to tailor your activities with us to what your interests are.

All of our homes have three residents in them. Some are very active and would enjoy outings to the mall, to the park, even to a ball game. Others are more quiet and sedate and would prefer to do a craft, bake cookies or make a jigsaw puzzle. All enjoy celebrating holidays and birthdays. Adopting a home can mean buying some birthday gifts for the residents, throwing a party, walking through the neighborhood, or taking our residents out to their favorite restaurant monthly. It can also mean helping us with routine maintenance….weeding, mulching, flower tending and painting a fence.

Exterior Maintenance chores:

• Deck staining
• Fence and storage shed painting
• Spring Maintenance
  Winter debris clean up
  Mulch spreading
  Planting of annuals
  Tending of annuals (Weeding, Watering)
• Seasonal House Decoration
  Easter Decorating
  Flags for Memorial, Flag and 4th of July Celebrations
  Yard Flags for Seasonal Appeal
  Winter Holiday Decorations
• Fall Maintenance
  Annual flower clean up
  Fall Mulch if needed
• Sprucing up the interior of a home
  Paint the first or 2nd floor of one of our homes
  - Staff help move fragile items the day before
  Your team preps and paint a series of rooms
  - Your team moves beds, sofas etc. back to their places before leaving
  CLI provides paints, drop cloths, brushes
  - Extra ladders, your own special brush are always appreciated

Infrastructure activities are well suited to groups. Groups can rotate members through by various months, assign people by weeks to keep up in the summers, and do not overwhelm the residents and the staff.

Internal House Adoption:
This is solely dependent on the residents and their abilities, the comfort level of the volunteers and the time commitment of the volunteers. Volunteers and residents (as well as staff) do well when a more personal relationship is established. Experience has taught us that typically no more than 3 volunteers at one time per house per resident per activity (a 1:1 ratio) is the high end. One volunteer to three residents works fine.

Activities are only limited by the imagination and patience of the volunteer. While some residents can do very involved crafts, others are very content with Play-doh. Some enjoy the buzz of the shopping mall, and others enjoy the quiet nature of putting together a jigsaw puzzle of 25 pieces. Occasionally going out to dinner with just one more adult makes the entire meal more enjoyable for the entire home. Helping a home celebrate birthdays is always a highlight of the year, and being a participant in such an event is a highlight of the volunteer’s year. Assisting in planning parties for other notable holidays is also something that an adopt-a-house volunteer can do: Valentine’s, St. Patrick’s, Easter, Columbus Day and any other holiday that we can think of that could be fun!

Organizations can participate in the Adopt-a-House program with the residents. It can be best done a variety of ways. A small team of three can rotate through and do a group activity involving all three residents in the single activity. The next visit a different team can come to the home and do a different activity. If the team is the same 3 or 4 people, the team can personalize the activities to the individual residents there. Again, what is most important is imagination and caring.

With 26 houses, CLI can find a house that meets your personality and spirit.

Please contact Sarah Matthews at 301-663-8811 X203 or at SarahM@communitylivinginc.org
to learn more about our fabulous residents wanting to learn about you.