Community Resources

Across the country, individuals with developmental disabilities who reside at home or in community-based services face long waits for needed services, such as health care, dental care, OT/PT, and even wheel chair adjustments. Many of these people with mental retardation or developmental disabilities simply go without.

It doesn't have to be that way.

VOR supports the expansion of specialty out-patient clinics situated at existing licensed residential facilities - Community Resource Centers. The facilities already provide highly professional, specialized care to their residents. Rather than reinvent the wheel, VOR has promoted using the existing services and infrastructure to bring these services to nonresident neighbors of the facility.

It is more than pipe dream. It is a proven model. The following are some examples of community resource centers that have helped people with mental retardation or developmental disabilities.

Examples of Community Resource Centers

Northern Virginia Training Center's Regional Community Support Center, Fairfax, VA
Regional Evaluation and Assessment for Community Habilitation (REACH) Clinic, Hogan Regional Center, Hathorne, MA
University of Louisville School of Dentistry / Hazelwood Center’s Developmental Dentistry Program, Louisville, KY
Hazelwood Campus / Medical Clinic and Homes, Louisville, KY
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Department of Medicine’s Developmental Medicine Program, New Brunswick, NJ
Fircrest Residential Habilitation Center, Shoreline, WA
Tachachale Dental Clinic, Gainesville, FL
Higginsville Habilitation Center, Higginsville, MO

The Microboard Alternative

It is difficult to believe that a father with a 28-year record of active advocacy for the choice of facility- Bridget based care and adamant objection to community placement for his daughter with profound/severe intellectual disabilities would voluntarily remove his daughter from a facility where he was president of the parents’ association and place her in a community home.

Yet, Bill Haas, the former chair of VOR’s State Coordinator Committee and principal author of the VOR manual detailing how to effectively challenge forced community placement has in fact done just that.