Residential Living: The Villa

In 1982, members of the agency's auxiliary (Las Madrinas/The Godmothers), built Villa de Las Madrinas to provide a supported living environment for adults living with mental and/or physical challenges. This U-shaped villa on 77th Street south of McDowell Road contains eight bedrooms, a common living and dining area, a fully equipped modern kitchen and laundry facilities. The outdoor basketball court is to the south of the main facility. The large grass courtyard overlooks beautiful Vista del Camino Park to the west.

The Villa program provides independent living skills training to 15 residents who may elect to live at the Villa indefinitely or to live there as a training for more progressive moves to living experiences such as a semi-independent apartment or a completely independent situation. The resident/staff ration is 5/1 with overnight professional staff members throughout the weekdays and full-time weekend professional support during the weekends.

The residents learn the techniques needed to gain a living style that is as self-reliant as possible. Nutrition and food preparation, shopping for household and personal necessities, money management and home care are important components of the program. Learning how to access community services such as transportation, hospital and social security benefits has a vital role in moving toward independent living. Recreation and leisure skills training adds to the residents' well-being.

Self government through the Resident Council provides many opportunities for the residents in the decision-making process. They discuss living quality issues and make recommendations to the professional staff members. They also assign tasks for maintaining the public areas of the Villa, and they publish a monthly activities schedule. Their efforts to integrate into the community at large include volunteer work and fundraising activities. As one example, the residents raised the money for a group trip to Disneyland.

The most unusual feature of Villa de Las Madrinas is that all of its revenues come from the private sector. This allows the agency to accept any person needing an assisted living experience without regard for the restrictive federal eligibility requirements which would eliminate a significant number of the Villa's residents.

Mike Lins, Program Director
7507 E. Osborn Rd. 
 Scottsdale, AZ 85251
 Tel: (480) 994-5704
 FAX: (480) 994-0491
mlins@starsaz.org

For more information e-mail:  info@starsaz.org