residential living

Providing residential services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) takes focus, organization, and lots of patience long before the first resident moves in. From housing permits to community resistance to increasingly bureaucratic reimbursement regulations, the road to offering residential services is long.

“All kids need a family around them,” said Jeffrey Darling, YAI’s California Project Manager. When a child in the foster care system has an intellectual or developmental disability (I/DD), a family placement may not be able to meet complex behavioral or mental health needs. But because California regulations no longer permit foster kids to live in licensed group homes, the state had to devise a solution.

When Jeff Burke started a new job at YAI as a Floater in March of 2019, he was optimistic for the year ahead. His job required him to fill in at whatever program needed extra staff. He’d find himself in Brooklyn one day and in the Bronx the next. But there was no way to predict that by March of the following year, he would contract the novel coronavirus that had begun to hit New York.

As the election season draws to an end, months of debates, lawn signs, and TV ads have given way to “I Voted” stickers. The 2020 election is taking place in the middle of a pandemic, which has claimed more than 200,000 lives in the U.S. alone. People of all walks of life have been affected, but vulnerable groups have borne the brunt of the casualties.

“I don’t speak with words, and my friends don’t speak in sign, but they will stand by me and make contact, we gesture to make ourselves clear,” said Luis Mandato, resident at YAI’s Flatbush residence in Brooklyn and a former graduate of the American School for the Deaf (ASD).

For YAI, which operates more than 140 residences across the metropolitan area, containing the virus demanded not only decisive action but amplified support to compensate for upheaval in the lives of people who appreciate a routine. One resident of YAI’s Cobble Hill residence, where eight older adults have lived for more than 20 years, moved from illness back to health with the benefits of both.

On a brisk February evening, 22 people trickled through the doors of YAI’s Tarrytown Day Habilitation Center, teeth chattering from nerves and the chilly air. Though they represented a broad range of ages, backgrounds, and abilities, they were united by the same goal: to make a meaningful connection with others at YAI’s inaugural Get 2-Gether celebration.

Even as the sky darkened and puddles collected on the lawn of their apartment complex in Westwood, New Jersey, Lisa Zabielski and Jenna DeNoble didn’t let the weather drown out their Halloween plans. “We love having friends over, so we’re throwing a Halloween pizza party tonight,” Zabielski said, smiling. “We’ll have a bucket of candy and put on some movies so no one has to go out in the rain.”

From the moment they were born 33 years ago, fraternal twins Andy and Michael Platt have been inseparable. For years, the brothers shared a room in their father’s house in Suffolk County, Long Island, and attended YAI’s WAVE day program.

On June 26, a man at YAI’s Alan Butger residence in Queens got a special visit from some old friends. As a child, Heimowitz spent 8 years in the Boy Scouts. Ever since he left, he has longed to reconnect with the organization that played such an important role in his early life.