Gary Messinger has been working as a community builder at Options for the past 10 years. His work is to help people with developmental disabilities become valued members of their community. Gary has a deep sense of the importance of community, and his work as a community builder has helped him to strengthen his own connections to his neighborhood and community, which he truly loves being a part of. He says that it was his accumulation of life experiences that took him from a degree in environmental science to his current work as a community builder—“just a slight shift from the environment of nature to that of people.” Gary believes that the key to people feeling connected to community lies in the strength of their relationships with other people and groups within their community. This is what continues to give him the passion and drive to move forward with the people whom Options helps support.

Lisa Mills has been interested in understanding community building and inspiring those who provide direct support to participate in community building for 5 years. She has worked closely with residential support agencies on person-centered planning and community building for all of those years, completing her doctorate by looking at the role of residential support staff in community integration outcomes for people with developmental disabilities who had moved out of institutions. Lisa has also been involved in developing and facilitating circles of support and in helping supported employment providers understand how they can use community-building approaches for successful job development. As the Administrator of People First Wisconsin, a statewide self-advocacy organization for people with disabilities, Lisa is very interested in exploring how issues of social justice can be used to build positive relationships between people with disabilities and members of other disenfranchised groups, and how community organizations can be assisted to move away from charitable “projects” and toward efforts that promote inclusive membership, friendship, and full citizenship.

Kyle Fite graduated from Bethel College in 1992 with a degree in Fine Art. He has worked for Options in Community Living as a Community Support Worker for the past 8 years. Kyle has found that the challenges of his work in supporting people with disabilities in the community have melded with the creative spirit, sometimes resulting in the making of visual art (such as this book!). Kyle is currently working on a comic book epic entitled ARG! (Available at Gorillahead.biz).