Are you are interested helping us with a feasibility study? See our project description.

Why we need SOUL

Currently, young adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities must move to Bend or Redmond to find affordable homes and to be near amenities that allow independent living. This severely limits their ability to stay connected to family and community in Sisters.

Sisters School District serves many students that have an identified disability. Many of these are young adults who participate in the Sisters Transition Program where they learn job skills, navigate job placement, enroll in college and vocational training, and learn other skills necessary to live on their own.

SOUL’s dream is to support these students in particular, & others with IDD in Sisters, towards full independence by working for community inclusion, support and affordable living- all without leaving their hometown community of Sisters.

S.O.U.L. Housing Proposal Slide Presentation

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Monthly Game Nights

Monthly Game Nights Returning Soon

We are currently in the process of resuming monthly game nights, in a partnership with SPRD. We hope to have this going by September. In the meantime, we still have other fun events open for attendance.

Contact [email protected] to get on the mailing list, and we’ll let you know when the next event & game night is coming up!

 

BLOG & Community news

Art at the Ranch on July 15th

June’s “Art at Pine Meadow Ranch” was a great success! If you missed it, you [...]

10
Jul
Art Event at Pine Meadow Ranch

On Thursday, June 23rd, from 1 PM until 3 PM, at Pine Meadow Ranch, SOUL [...]

14
Jun
Job Opportunity With SOUL

We are developing our housing plan, and we are hiring a feasibility study developer to [...]

09
Jan
Second Annual Spooky Walk

The Crazy Cat Lady was a big hit, but we all made a good showing at the [...]

01
Nov

Our S.O.U.L. Stories

Craig

Craig is a young adult and Sisters native, who lives and works in Sisters. He wants to move out of his parents’ house and live an independent life. He has mild Autism Spectrum Disorder and is currently looking for affordable, local housing.

Read more about Craig's story

Maxwell

Maxwell has lived in Sisters since the fourth grade. Moving to Sisters provided so many opportunities he didn’t have access to in his previous home in Virginia.

Through Sisters High School’s community jobs program, Max has worked throughout the Sisters community. Now an employee at Best Buy, Max would someday love to live in Los Angeles or Tokyo. In the mean time, S.O.U.L. housing in Sisters would give him experience living on his own close to the support of his family and community.

Read more about Maxwell's story

Soren

Soren is a Sisters High School student who has lived his whole life in Sisters. He loves being in the woods and visiting his extended family who live nearby.

His family hopes he can live and work as part of the Sisters community for the rest of his life. Their dream is that he can have a stable, independent home and job here when he reaches adulthood.

Soren has a rare form of epilepsy that affects his memory, language and development. The “long learning curve” he experiences makes staying in the same place with the same people an especially urgent issue.

S.O.U.L. Board of directors

Tina Mensing, Chair
Julia Huni, Secretary
Jennifer Heiden Smith, Treasurer
Craig Wessel
Becky Lukens
Becky Smith

 

S.O.U.L. is registered as a non-profit organization with the state of Oregon, and a registered 501(c)(3).

Anyone interested in SOUL is invited to join a meeting or event.
Email [email protected] for information.