Brooklyn Street: From Vision to Reality

Nonotuck CEO/President George H. Fleischner recently spoke with the North of Boston Intentional Communities Coalition about Brooklyn Street, an intentional community in North Adams, Massachusetts, that brings together people with and without disabilities as neighbors, friends, and contributors. Drawing on more than four decades of experience working alongside people with disabilities and their families, Fleischner shared the story of how Brooklyn Street grew from a group of parents’ hopes for their children’s futures into a vibrant, multigenerational community rooted in belonging, relationships, and shared life.

Read and watch George’s full presentation below.

Lessons Learned Creating an Intentional Community for People With and Without Disabilities

Good day everyone.

Thank you for inviting me to join you today.

Whenever I meet with a group of families interested in creating an intentional community for their sons and daughters brothers, sisters or other love ones with disabilities, I am reminded of a conversation I have had hundreds of times throughout my 46-year career working beside people with disabilities and their families.

Every parent eventually asks the same question:

“What happens when I’m no longer here?”

Behind that question is another one:

“How do I ensure my child continues to have relationships, opportunities, support, and a place where they truly belong?”

Those are profound questions. They are questions rooted in love, concern, hope, and responsibility. They are also the questions that led a group of parents and their friends in North Adams, Massachusetts to begin imagining a different future for their children more than 15 years ago.

Today, I want to tell you the story of what became Brooklyn Street and share some of the lessons we learned along the way.

My Introduction to Brooklyn Street

About 15 years ago, a small group of parents and friends approached me for guidance.

Like many families, they were concerned about the future of their adult children with disabilities. Some of their children were living at home. Others were living in more traditional residential models including Shared Living. None of the options seemed to fully capture what they wanted for their children.

What they wanted was not simply housing.

They wanted community.

They wanted friendships.

They wanted opportunities for contribution.

They wanted a place where their sons and daughters would be known, valued, and connected long after their parents were gone.

At the time, they had a vision, a great deal of passion, and many questions.

Over the next several years, I worked alongside them as they clarified their goals, explored possibilities, learned from mistakes, and gradually transformed an idea into something real.

Eventually they asked if Brooklyn Street could become affiliated with Nonotuck. Today Brooklyn Street remains a unique community with its own identity under the Nonotuck umbrella while benefiting from the partnership, guidance, expertise, and support of Nonotuck.

I continue to be deeply involved and deeply inspired by what they/we have accomplished.

What Is Brooklyn Street?

Brooklyn Street is a community with intension located in North Adams, Massachusetts.

It is not a disability program.

It is not a group home.

It is not a residential facility.

It is a neighborhood and a larger community.

People with disabilities live there.

Families live there.

Shared living providers live there.

Professionals live there.

Children live there.

Retirees live there.

People of different backgrounds, abilities, and ages share life together as neighbors.

The mission of the Brooklyn Street is:

“To create a sustainable, multigenerational, life-sharing community within North Adams that includes persons with disabilities, families, friends.”

Their vision is equally powerful:

“We believe that everyone deserves to be a lifelong contributing member of a diverse community and to have the opportunity to form meaningful relationships. We envision a community that will provide opportunities for people with different abilities to live, work, and play together.”

Notice what is absent from those statements.

There is no mention of buildings.

There is no mention of programs.

There is no mention of facilities.

The focus is on people, relationships, belonging, and contribution.

That distinction is critically important.

Community Before Buildings

As I have worked with families over the years about creating an intentional community, many times the first conversations often centers on housing.

People ask:

How many homes should we build?

How much land do we need?

What should the facility look like?

These are important questions.

But they are not the first questions.

One of the thinkers who has most influenced my understanding of community is John McKnight, co-founder of the Asset-Based Community Development movement.

McKnight challenged communities to stop focusing first on needs, deficiencies, and services and instead focus on gifts, capacities, relationships, and contributions.

He reminded us that institutions cannot create community.

People create community.

Institutions can support community.

Programs can support community.

Buildings can support community.

But community grows from relationships.

Over the years I have visited beautiful facilities that were lonely places.

I have also visited modest neighborhoods where people knew one another, depended upon one another, and shared their lives together. Those places felt like home.

Brooklyn Street succeeded not because it built houses.

Brooklyn Street succeeded because it built relationships.

The founders understood that what their children needed most was not simply a place to live.

They needed a place to belong.

Belonging means being known.

Belonging means having friends.

Belonging means having opportunities to contribute.

Belonging means being missed when you’re not there.

Belonging means being valued for who you are.

The buildings support the vision.

The buildings are not the vision.

One of the most important lessons I can share with any group interested in creating an intentional community is this:

Spend as much time as you can on building relationships and after time you’ll have a community.

Nothing About Us Without Us

There is another lesson that I believe is equally important.

Too often, families and professionals and orgs like Nonotuck begin designing a future for people with disabilities without fully involving the people whose future is being designed.

The disability rights movement has given us an important principle:

“Nothing About Us Without Us.”

Creating an intentional community should never be an exercise in deciding what is best for someone else.

It should be a process of listening.

What do you want?

What does home mean to you?

What kind of relationships are important to you?

How much privacy do you want?

How much community do you want?

What are your aspirations?

What are your concerns?

What does a meaningful life look like from your perspective?

Those questions cannot be answered solely by parents, professionals, or service providers.

They must be answered by the people whose lives will be shaped by the decisions we make.

One of the greatest strengths of Brooklyn Street is that people with disabilities are not viewed as recipients of services.

They are neighbors.

They are contributors.

They are community members.

They are friends.

John McKnight often warned against defining people by their needs rather than their gifts.

When we focus exclusively on support needs, we unintentionally reduce people to problems that must be solved.

When we focus on gifts, talents, interests, and aspirations, we begin to see people as citizens with something valuable to offer.

That shift changes everything.

The question becomes not:

“How do we care for this person?”

But rather:

“How do we create a community where this person can belong, contribute, and flourish?”

That is a very different vision.

And I believe it is one of the reasons Brooklyn Street has succeeded.

The Common House

One of the physical expressions of this vision is the Brooklyn Street Common House.

At times Common House serves as the heart of the community.

It is where neighbors gather for meals, meetings, celebrations, concerts, game nights, classes, and educational activities.

The Common House exists because the founders recognized something important:

Community does not happen automatically because people live near one another.

Community requires opportunities for people to gather.  Those opportunities for gathering can be at the homes of the community members.

Relationships need spaces where they can grow.

For Brooklyn St. the Common House provides that opportunity.

Importantly, the Common House was never intended to serve only people with disabilities.

Its purpose is to strengthen the broader community.

It provides continuity, connection, and opportunities for shared experiences across generations and across differences.

It is a tool for building community, not an end in itself.

But in reality, the Common House is one expression of community—not the definition of community.

In many ways, emphasizing homes, porches, kitchens, backyards, and everyday hospitality is even more consistent with John McKnight’s philosophy. Community is created through relationships and shared experiences, not through facilities.

Community Does Not Require a Common House

When people learn about Brooklyn Street, one of the first things they notice is the Common House.

Naturally, they begin asking questions about buildings.

How large should a common house be?

How much would it cost?

How would it be managed?

What activities would take place there?

Those are reasonable questions.

But I think they can sometimes lead us to the wrong conclusion.

The Common House is a wonderful asset for Brooklyn Street.

It creates opportunities for gatherings, meals, meetings, celebrations, classes, and events.

But the Common House is not what makes Brooklyn Street a community.

The relationships make it a community.

In fact, many intentional communities throughout the world have never owned a common house.

They create community through a culture of hospitality and shared life.

Neighbors invite one another onto their porches.

Families gather in one another’s kitchens.

People host potluck dinners in their homes.

Children play in shared backyards.

Friends gather around fire pits.

People help one another with gardening projects, home repairs, meals, and celebrations.

Community often grows in the ordinary spaces of daily life.

Some of the most meaningful moments at Brooklyn Street have not occurred in the Common House.

They have happened while neighbors shared a meal.

While someone helped another person shovel snow.

While friends sat together on a porch.

While people gathered in a backyard on a summer evening.

While one neighbor checked in on another.

These moments require no building.

They require only openness, generosity, and a willingness to share life together.

This is especially important for groups that are just beginning their journey.

You do not need to wait until you have land.

You do not need to wait until you have funding.

You do not need to wait until you have a building.

You can begin creating community today.

Invite people into your home.

Host a meal.

Plan a gathering.

Create opportunities for friendships to grow.

Learn what people enjoy doing together.

Discover the gifts, talents, and interests that already exist within your group.

John McKnight often spoke about the importance of associational life—the relationships and connections that exist between citizens.

Those relationships are the true infrastructure of community.

A building can support them.

A building can strengthen them.

But a building cannot replace them.

If your community eventually develops a common house, wonderful.

If it never does, that does not mean it has failed.

The measure of success is not whether you own a building.

The measure of success is whether people know one another, care about one another, support one another, and share their lives together.

An intentional community is ultimately not a place.

It is a network of relationships.

And those relationships can begin around a kitchen table just as easily as they can begin in a community center.

“The strongest communities are not built around a building; they are built around a commitment by neighbors, friends, associates, people who have something in common to share their lives with one another. A common house may help that happen, but it is never what makes it happen.”

. In reality, community can begin with the very next shared meal.

Nonotuck’s Role

People often ask what role Nonotuck plays.

The answer is that we have served as a partner, mentor, advisor, funder, and supporter.

We provide guidance.

We help with strategic planning.

We assist with grant opportunities.

We share expertise regarding disability supports, sustainability, governance, and long-term planning.

We help ensure that the original vision remains intact as leadership changes and the community evolves.

In many ways, Brooklyn Street does what Nonotuck does every day.

The difference is that much of what happens there is done by neighbors, families, and volunteers motivated by shared values and commitment to one another.

Our role has been to help create the balance between autonomy and accountability that allows the community to thrive.

Lessons Learned

After more than a decade of involvement, several lessons stand out.

Start with values, not buildings.

Buildings are easier to create than community.

A clear vision and shared values must come first.

Build relationships before infrastructure

Trust, commitment, and shared purpose are the foundation of every successful intentional community.

Include future residents from the beginning

Nothing about us without us.

The people who will live there must help shape the vision.

Focus on gifts, not deficits.

Every person has something valuable to contribute.

Communities grow stronger when contributions are recognized and welcomed.

Create opportunities for contribution

People thrive when they are needed.

Meaningful roles create meaningful lives.

Include people without disabilities.

The strongest communities are diverse communities.

True inclusion benefits everyone.

Think beyond the founding families.

Parents age.

Leadership changes.

Communities must be designed to survive beyond their founders.

Sustainability matters.

Long-term governance, partnerships, financial planning, and leadership development are essential.

Looking Ahead

One of the things I admire most about Brooklyn Street is that its members think in terms of generations, not years.

They are not simply creating housing.

They are creating a legacy.

They are building a community that they hope will continue long after they are gone.

To me, that is the true measure of success.

Not the buildings.

Not the programs.

Not even the services.

The true measure is whether people continue to belong, contribute, form relationships, and live meaningful lives together over time.

There is much about Brooklyn St that draws people in. Special events, birthdays, and parties attract people within and outside the neighborhood. Even North Adams’ mayor has attended the community’s annual block party. The community has a mutually beneficial relationship with Habitat for Humanity. Habitat has helped with needed repairs and general maintenance projects.

Whatever Brooklyn St. decides to call itself, an “intentional Community” or just a neighborhood where people help and take care of each other, what matters most is its obvious good intentions that are put into practice every day. There is genuine caring for each other within and among the different households. If someone needs help with their meals, a ride to the grocery store, or a doctor’s appointment, there is always someone there to help. Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners are cherished communal events. Community gatherings, game nights, and sharing meals seem to have a way of drawing people from in and outside the neighborhood. Articulating what your community is about and the theory behind your decisions is helpful for many reasons. Still, it is meaningless without the core values that are so evident within the Brooklyn Street community. The founders of Brooklyn Street were wise to reject congregated, segregated, human service programs and instead chose to build community for those they love.

Brooklyn Street demonstrates that this is possible.

It requires vision.

It requires patience.

It requires partnership.

It requires a willingness to see people not for their needs but for their gifts.

Most of all, it requires a commitment to building community.

I think this closing should be both empowering and a little humbling. One of the things you’ve learned from Brooklyn Street is that you can provide guidance, but you cannot provide the vision. The vision belongs to the people who will live it.

I might close with something like this:

A Final Thought

As we conclude, I want to leave you with one final thought.

Many groups contact me because they want to learn about Brooklyn Street. They want to understand how it was created, what worked, what didn’t work, and how Nonotuck helped along the way.

To some extent, I am always happy to share those lessons.

But there is one thing I cannot do.

I cannot design your community.

And neither can Nonotuck.

That work belongs to you.

You know the people who will be part of this community.

You know their stories.

You know their gifts.

You know their hopes and fears.

Most importantly, you have the opportunity to ask them what they want their lives to look like.

The answers to those questions should become the foundation of everything that follows.

Before discussing buildings, ask about relationships.

Before discussing governance, ask about belonging.

Before discussing services, ask about aspirations.

What kind of life do people want?

What kinds of friendships do they hope to have?

How much independence do they want?

How much community do they want?

What opportunities do they want to pursue?

What roles do they want to play?

How do they want to contribute?

Those answers will tell you far more about the community you should build than any consultant, architect, service provider, or agency ever could.

John McKnight taught us that strong communities are built by discovering and connecting the gifts of their members.

The disability rights movement reminds us: “Nothing About Us Without Us.”

Brooklyn Street succeeded because it was built around those two ideas.

It was never simply about creating a place where people could live.

It was about creating a place where people could belong.

A place where people could contribute.

A place where people could be known.

A place where people could build meaningful lives together.

My hope for your group is not that you recreate Brooklyn Street.

In fact, I hope you don’t.

I hope you create something that reflects the unique aspirations, gifts, relationships, and dreams of the people who will call it home.

Because the best intentional communities are not copies of someone else’s vision.

They are expressions of the people who create them.

If you stay focused on the people at the center, listen carefully to their voices, and commit yourselves to building community, I believe the rest will follow.

Thank you, and I wish you great success on the journey ahead.

Thank you for allowing me to share this story with you.