Innisfree Village is a residential, lifesharing community with adults with intellectual disabilities. Residents and volunteers work together as a model therapeutic environment emphasizing empowerment, interdependence, and mutual respect of all community members.
Set at the foothills of the Shenandoah National Park, near the university town of Charlottesville, Virginia, Innisfree Village is a residential, lifesharing community with adults with intellectual disabilities. Coworkers and volunteers work together on this 550-acre farm in a model therapeutic environment emphasizing empowerment, interdependence and mutual respect of all community members.
Serving as houseparents, Residential Volunteers live together with coworkers in family-style homes throughout the village. After a one-month orientation period, volunteers learn house management skills that include cleaning, cooking, laundry, shopping, and finances as well as caring for the personal needs of each coworker. Volunteers are also engaged in therapeutic and meaningful work in the art studio, bakery, community kitchen, farm, herb and vegetable gardens, free school activities like pottery, the weavery, and the woodshop.
Benefits include a private room, all meals, a $500/month stipend, 15 paid vacation days, access to community vehicles, an onsite fitness facility, WiFi access, and two consecutive days off per week. Fifteen to twenty people, all with various backgrounds and nationalities, are needed each year. Volunteers must be at least 18 years of age, able to make a one-year commitment, and be patient, empathetic, flexible and positive. Applications are accepted throughout the year; a visit to Innisfree prior to applying as a volunteer is strongly recommended for U.S. interest.
Full-time residential volunteers are the special ingredient that sets Innisfree apart from many institutions. A two-to-one ratio of residents to volunteer caregivers is maintained in order to foster a sense of community "with," not "for" adults with intellectual disabilities.
Volunteering is an essential part of lifesharing. Innisfree's caregivers are volunteers who forgo traditional careers in the mental-health field, which can advocate detachment between caregivers and care receivers. They choose the alternative of lifesharing because they are seeking a way of life, not conventional employment.
As a residential volunteers, individuals manage Innisfree households and provide personal care to the coworkers who live there. Responsibilities include serving as a houseparent with other volunteers, ensuring the daily care, health, and human rights of Innisfree's coworkers; working in work stations three to four days a week; helping make community decisions at caregiver and community meetings; and participating in committees that may include topics on activities, new volunteer approvals, car care, and clothing donations to the village.