IONIA:
A Consumer Community that Works

    Ionia Inc. has 501(c)3 federal tax-free status. The purpose and function of Ionia, Inc. is to provide a therapeutic environment for mentally disabled people and their families. Some live at Ionia, and others participate while living elsewhere. On either a temporary or permanent basis, here they use their common problems to their advantage. Here they are isolated from the prejudices and biases of normal society and are able to find a different but equal chance at a satisfying life.
   
Mentally disabled people working together to solve their own problems have come up with a simple, peaceful and unique neighborhood environment which is Ionia, Inc.
Transmuting their disabled status into an alternately-abled state of mind, they use their commonness to examine their differences from the regular world. Here they have created a life commensurate with those differences.

We are four single adults and four families which include thirty-two children. All the adults receive SSI benefits. We live on 60 acres on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska. Pooling our Alaska Permanent Funds, we have built six log homes, a road and dug a well. We have made an acre of organic garden with 70 raised beds and four large greenhouses which extend our growing season. The beautiful summer vegetables are also stored for the winter. Wild berries flourish in our spruce forest and are made into natural sweeteners and jams. We harvest edible seaweed from the clear waters of Seldovia and dry them in the sun for our annual supply. We heat with wood stoves and live here with a minimum of disturbance to the lands natural beauty and balance.

Grains and vegetables, beans, seaweed, nuts and seeds are cooked by each family from scratch every day. Eating is a valued activity in family life. The cooking and preparation of meals is an honorable and sought-after activity taught from an early age to both boys and girls.
   
Ionia uses the supervision of a psychiatrist who comes to the property from Anchorage on a regular monthly basis. He provides personal and group therapy. Ionia uses professionals who understand and are sympathetic and act as intermediaries to the world at large. These include a lawyer, an accountant, a treasurer, a medical doctor, and the psychiatrist. As much as possible Ionia networks these professional services so, that in cross-referencing their activities, they get more of a whole picture with which to work.

There are no "rules" at Ionia, Inc. Instead there are daily morning discussions. Problems are looked at from all possible angles and from the widest frame of reference. This talking therapy is the cornerstone of Ionia, Inc. Ongoing group discussions aim at relaxing-out unlivable behavior patterns and replacing them with patterns which are livable to the participants, their mates, their children and their society.

The physical therapy used here is a degree of isolation combined with simple activities. Family units grow much of their own food for a simple vegetarian diet. Families have large garden plots. They clear land, build raised beds and greenhouses for vegetables. They dry, can, and pickle vegetables and beans for the winter months. The families also sew homemade clothes with simple patterns and plain cloth and wash clothes with a hand laundry machine. Families have used the comparatively easy method of log construction to build their own log cabins and extensions. All here have become familiar with invigorating morning exercises and have learned some basic folk dances from around the world which provide a simple evening group activity, along with group singing and movies.

Alternately-abled people from the community at large -- both local and from the continental states -- use these facilities on both a temporary live-in basis and on an outpatient basis. These people participate with all the regular activities, most especially the daily morning group therapy discussions. Ionia has a log cabin for the purpose of housing this stream of special participants and their families at no charge to them. Some stay for a day, some for a week and some for a month. Many return regularly in order to maintain and renew the tools which they have acquired at Ionia, Inc.

Ionia, Inc. helps many alternately-abled people who would otherwise be a burden to society. In place of costly state institutions and costly medical treatment, Ionia, Inc. has formed a viable living environment. It is a place where like-in-kind, alternately-abled people and their families are finding rehabilitation.