High Spirit Community
Located on a working farm near Great Barrington, Massachusetts, High Spirit provides individuals with developmental disabilities the opportunity for a full and meaningful life. We nurture wholesome development and foster independence through a therapeutic community experience based on love and mutual respect. We have created a community in which enthusiasm, ideas, and energy are nourished and supported. By providing residents, day participants and caregivers with challenging, productive, fun, and meaningful activities, High Spirit creates a genuine work environment which recognizes the true potential of each member of the community. |
High Spirit Community Farm provides social as well as vocational activities. We fill the year with festivals, music, theatre, and meals in which members of the extended community can join. These joyful celebrations of the rhythms of life pave the way to practices that bring direction and rejuvenation to all community members. We invite the wider community to partake in our activities centered on work, recreation, and health, thus promoting engagement and mutual understanding between our High Spirit residents and the larger world in which they function.
High Spirit is a lifesharing community, providing home, work and social opportunity for people with and without disabilities. Our residents live with families in homes with between one and three other disabled individuals, sharing communal living responsibilities. This arrangement is just one manifestation of the Lifesharing that guides the philosophy of High Spirit. Residents work on the farm side by side with co-workers, learning vocational as well as social skills. High Spirit Community Farm strives to be self-substaining in much of its food production, allowing our residents the satisfaction of feasting on and selling the food that they harvest. We support a variety of productive and creative activities such as baking, weaving and flower growing that provide meaningful work and income to the community.
