ABSTRACT
Camphill communities are based on a model of life-sharing, and thus are spaces of intentional communal living designed to respectfully incorporate people with developmental disabilities into the daily life of the community. Communities are made up of several households, each of which is populated by "co-workers" and "residents" or "companions". While institutional practices hinge on the isolation of residents in multiple ways – socially, geographically, emotionally – Camphill, l'Arche, and Geel rest on a completely different model: that of intensive life sharing. Perhaps better known than the Camphill movement is the L'Arche movement, started by Canadian theologian Jean Vanier. Unique compared to the presented alternative models of care, Geel or the so-called City of Fools is located in Belgium. Geel has persevered as a model of integrated community care and support for centuries, even in the face of the forceful institutionalization movement of the twentieth century, which forcefully sought to segregate and contain people with significant or severe psychiatric diagnoses.
