The New Zealand charitable trust, Assisting Different Abilities Peoples Trust (ADAPT), was born in mid-2018 to support organisations that focus on providing care for people with intellectual disabilities and those who suffered traumatic brain damage. The emphasis of ADAPT is to ensure that these individuals have a welcoming and secure home to call their own. 

At inception ADAPT purchased two homes in Thames, New Zealand. These properties were already being used by ten individuals, who were at considerable risk of losing their home, as they became available for sale on the open market with lease agreements ending. Together with the assisted living service provider, ADAPT has been able to improve these homes using universal design principles. This ensures they are better designed for purpose, creating a more pleasant environment for the individuals living inside them. 

These fundamental steps laid the foundation for ADAPT’s growth - building purpose-built homes to suit people of all abilities. We realised in the process of renovations and search for other potential homes, that the options available were not ultimately meeting anyone’s needs. The retrofitting required to some of these homes often resulted in a non-commercially viable situation, which explains why so many people are living in homes that are not at all suitable, more costly and require more resources to ensure residents are happy. 

The ADAPT team has first-hand knowledge of what life is like for people with disabilities, given several of the team have siblings with disabilities. Combining this experience with the knowledge of the service provider, ADAPT was able to create a completely different supported neighbourhood concept. This concept strives to overcome existing challenges and helps ensure individuals can thrive in an environment that intuitively grants them personal space as well as access to others when they want it.