Community

Community is...

  • Taking a walk through your favorite park.
  • Saying hi to the cashier who rings up your groceries.
  • Singing with your church choir.
  • Waving at your neighbors from your front porch swing. 
  • Making plans to go to a movie after work on Friday.

Have a question?

...or want to share an idea? Contact us at cclc@iu.edu.

Community can mean different things to different people. Here at the Center on Community Living and Careers, when we refer to community, we’re talking about the places you choose to be in and people you like to live, work, and hang out with. It’s that “ahhh moment” we have when we’re happy, safe, and comfortable. Sure, that’s home, but it’s also the places, spaces, and people beyond our front doors.

Many of us need to test the waters to find or develop our own community. That can take some time, some experimentation, and some research.

We’re here to help.

Adria's Suggestions

On these pages, we’ve enlisted the ideas and the expertise of Adria Nassim. Adria is a young woman with multiple disabilities who lives in Indiana and who works and lives independently. She’s learned what support she needs and what works for her. One of those supports is her service dog Lucy. Since Adria writes about disability and community issues for her local newspaper and since she also works part-time for us, we asked her to come up with ideas for our community pages. 

Scroll down to find Adria's Notebook, her posts and thoughts on what it's like to live independently with supports in her community.

Adria with Lucy in downtown Bloomington.

Adria's Notebook

Introductions: Adria's Notebook was first featured on the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community's website in December 2017. For those of you who want to get to know Adria, this is her first post:

  • Hello! (December 12, 2017) My name is Adria Nassim. Welcome to my bi-monthly blog, Adria’s Notebook. The aim of this blog is to provide insight in disability through the lens of my personal experiences...

See More Posts

Adria's past posts include those on independent living, advocacy, working with supports, and much more.

Adria's Notebook

Dear Readers, I have greatly enjoyed sharing my experiences and highlighting issues surrounding transition and young adulthood with you. After a lot of thoughtful consideration, I have decided to close this notebook and pursue other interests. Thank you for walking along with me as I shared a bit of my journey these past few years.... Read more about 'Adria Closes Her Notebook' »

What's Next?

Teens and young adults with disabilities and their families often describe transition as complicated because there is so much to learn. "Transition" is the process of moving beyond school to living, working, and participating in your community as an adult.  

To help families and their students or young adults, the Indiana Secondary Transition Resource Center (INSTRC), a project of the Center on Community Living and Careers, publishes What's Next?, a newsletter that focuses on the resources, supports, and systems involved in transition. Each monthly issue focuses on a single topic, like accommodations on the job, applying for Social Security and Medicaid at age 18, ABLE accounts, adult services and supports, paying for college, and more.

To read past issues of What's Next? or to subscribe, see the "Discovering What's Next" webpage.

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