Just Like Us is building a vision for inclusive community where adults with special needs can live with dignity, work with purpose, and belong, alongside essential workers and neighbors who strengthen the community around them.
A stable, welcoming place designed around dignity, privacy, choice and community.
Purpose
Opportunities to work, learn, contribute, build skills and pursue individual goals.
Belonging
Relationships, responsibility and everyday participation in a community where each person is valued.
Individual homes
Village Commons with a public cafe
Accessible walking paths
Employment and enterprise buildings
Dog park
Room to grow
Conceptual rendering
A Different Kind of Community
A Real Village. Not an Institution.
Home is more than a place to live. It is where we are known, where we contribute, where friendships grow, and where we discover that we matter. Just Like Us was created around a simple belief: adults with special needs deserve the same opportunity to build a meaningful life within a real community.
The planned Just Like Us Village brings housing, meaningful work, lifelong opportunity, recreation and community connection together in one integrated vision. Not to separate people from the surrounding community, but to create a strong home base from which they can participate in it.
Individual homesApproximately 50 envisioned, each its own home
Village Commons with a public cafeThe heart of the Village, envisioned with a mountain lodge feel
Accessible walking pathsConnecting every home to the Commons
Employment and enterprise buildingsApproximately 3 flexible workshop buildings
Dog park
Room to growSpace for future expansion
The exact site, acreage, unit count, resident mix, phasing and final design remain subject to site control, financing, public approvals and program needs. What will not change is the purpose: to create a place rooted in dignity, opportunity and genuine belonging.
Independence is not achieved through isolation.
Independence grows within a community that provides encouragement, opportunity, responsibility, and meaningful relationships.
Our Mission
Just Like Us creates communities where adults with special needs live with dignity, work with purpose, and belong through supportive housing, meaningful employment, and lifelong opportunities.
At the center of the current concept is the Village Commons: a gathering place envisioned around a genuine public-facing cafe, where residents may have employment opportunities and the wider community is welcome.
A meaningful life includes the opportunity to contribute.
JLU intends to create and coordinate employment, vocational development, education, entrepreneurship, training and skill-building opportunities that reflect individual interests and abilities. Residents may work with JLU, community businesses, partner organizations or unrelated employers.
Employment with JLU will never be a condition of residence.
Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities are at the heart of JLU's charitable mission.
The Village is also envisioned to include qualifying essential workers as neighbors, helping create the kind of naturally integrated community where people with different backgrounds, abilities and roles live alongside one another.
Just Like Us is a Colorado nonprofit corporation with founding governance in place. On September 28, 2026, JLU submitted Form 1023 to the Internal Revenue Service requesting recognition of exemption under Section 501(c)(3) and classification as a publicly supported charity. The application is pending IRS determination. The Village, partnerships and charitable programs are in development.
Colorado nonprofit corporationCompleted: Formed in 2026
Founding Board and governanceCompleted: Established
Form 1023 submittedCompleted: September 28, 2026
We are hereIRS determinationStatus: Pending
Village, partnerships and programsStatus: In development