Mission and History

CHAI’s mission is to enable adults with intellectual disabilities to live full, rich, safe lives while meaningfully participating in the community.

CHAI provides residential group home services for 31 adults with intellectual disabilities. Within 9 group homes across North Dallas, wraparound services are tailored to each resident’s level of independence, with opportunities to learn and grow through activities that provide happiness and a sense of pride. Our group homes offer safety and emotional well-being to residents, who are surrounded by supportive direct care professionals that help them develop healthy relationships with their peers and engage with the local community.

CHAI tailors the support of each resident to their specific needs in order to provide the most dignified and independent life possible. Group home services are intended to provide care for a resident for as long as their needs are being met; the longest tenured resident has been living in CHAI group homes for 36 years.

CHAI also supervises over 20 “Host Homes”, where clients are individually cared for in their homes by a designated caregiver.

We have been fortunate over the years to expand our services and purchased homes, create the Wolens Day Program Services due to the generosity of donors who understand the importance of CHAI as a force for good in the community. They recognize the principles upon which CHAI was founded and how society improves when those principles are put into practice. There is still room for improvement in our community, and we at CHAI believe our work has only just begun. We look forward to many more years of making a difference and touching lives in profoundly positive ways.

Founded in 1983, Community Homes for Adults, Inc. (CHAI) was the innovative idea of a mother who wished for her intellectually disabled daughter to live the best life possible. At the time, housing options for intellectually disabled adults, who were unable to receive care from their families, were primarily only in institutional facilities. These facilities offered little freedom, minimal community interaction, and limited opportunities for learning and growth.

Our founder, Dr. Carmen Miller Michael, inspired by her daughter, aimed to start a residential group home to offer a more normal life for its intellectually disabled adult residents. A graduate of SMU and Professor Emeritus at UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dr. Carmen Miller Michael was a longtime community mental health advocate in the Dallas area. Her work in the field of clinical psychology provided services that did not previously exist for those with intellectual disabilities.

Dr. Carmen Miller Michael and a group of caring and passionate leaders in our community, including Milton Levy, Buddy Rosenthal, and Herbert Shore, envisioned a caring and one-of-a-kind environment servicing those in our community with intellectual disabilities. After several years of surveys, cost analyses, and feasibility studies, the concept for Community Homes for Adults, was approved by the Social Planning Committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas and quickly endorsed by its Board of Directors.

Since its inception in 1983, CHAI continues to fulfill its mission of supporting those in need by providing a place to live, life skills education, day habilitation, job training and support, opportunities for social inclusion, multiple healthcare options, and a team of tireless advocates that makes certain every resident and client is treated with respect and compassion.

Dr. Michael also founded the Dallas Epilepsy Association and the Dallas Mental Health Society. The Dallas Historical Society once honored her for excellence in community service, and since 1998 an award in her name has been given to a select number of students for their scholarship, citizenship, and clinical skills.

Although Dr. Michael passed away in 2013, her legacy of fostering change within the community and providing expert care lives on in every venture CHAI undertakes and every life it touches.

Under the leadership of CHAI’s Board of Directors, our organization has enacted an ambitious strategic plan that provides a roadmap to achieving CHAI’s goals.

Our mission has been simplified to “To enable adults with intellectual disabilities to live full, rich, safe lives while meaningfully participating in the community.” We believe this new mission statement stands to show our commitment to the individuals and families that we serve.

Goals of the new plan include expanding existing services and kickstarting new programs to better serve our community’s needs, all without sacrificing CHAI’s high standard of care. Another priority of the plan is to attract and retain skilled staff members that are empowered to fulfill CHAI’s mission in the long-term. CHAI also hopes to raise our profile by increasing advocacy efforts and becoming the local leader in intellectual disability services and expertise. Finally, we will expand fundraising efforts and explore revenue generating activities to ensure long-term financial stability.