Iowa: Families to Convert Old Winery to Help Disabled

Four Iowa families have purchased an old winery where they plan to hold enrichment programs for their children and young adults with intellectual disabilities.

The rural, 10-acre former home of Wallace Winery, which closed in 2009, has a house, a barn, another building and plenty of land for gardening and outdoor activities. The families are planning to eventually convert a farmhouse on the property into a residential facility for young adults when they're ready to leave their parents' residence.

They're laying the groundwork for what they're calling the Village Community, a place for people with intellectual disabilities to learn, work, and one day, live together, the Iowa City Press-Citizen reported.

Ann Brownsberger said the families got the idea for the Village Community last year after meeting at a seminar in Coralville about guardianship for adults with disabilities. The families gathered at a restaurant to discuss how their children would be cared and provided for years after their parents were gone.

"We were looking for a model where we could continue to be that primary caregiver and protector, but we wouldn't be doing it on our own because we're acutely aware that we're not going to live forever," Brownsberger said. "Our children will mostly likely outlive us, so it was really important to us that they be cared for beyond our lifetime."

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Iowa:  Families to Convert Old Winery to Help Disabled