The History Venture Foundation, Ltd. Venture Together (nee Camp Venture, Inc.) was founded in the late 1960s by a group of concerned parents in response to the severe lack of community services available for people with developmental disabilities. In response, a free summer camp for children with special needs was opened in 1969. During the 1970s, Venture turned its focus to fighting the deplorabl
e treatment of the developmentally disabled living in New York State mental institutions and, offering an alternative, opened the first ever community-based group home in New York State. Throughout the 1980s, Venture broadened its scope of services by adding a residential Industrial Training Program, a Day Treatment Program, and by becoming an adult day service provider. Services and programs were added, making group living possible for people with severe developmental disabilities. In 1983, Venture Foundation, Ltd. was established to create public awareness about the people with developmental disabilities in our care as the charitable fundraising arm of Venture Together and as a financial safety net for needed capital and program needs unfunded or not fully funded by government reimbursements. Over the past three decades, Venture Together and the Venture Foundation have partnered on many signature projects. During the 1990s, fundraising campaigns helped to construct two indoor therapeutic pools, a memorial pond for handicapped victims of the Holocaust, and the building of the Kathleen Lukens Independent Living Center. Foundation dollars also have assisted in the building of an Alzheimer’s wing at one of our living centers and the rebuilding of Venture’s Summer Camp in Stony Point. Since 2000, Venture has shifted its strategic focus from operating large residence facilities to offering smaller group homes and supporting people with developmental disabilities living at home with their families. Innovative after-school, in-home, and weekend respite care programs have been added, including a Creative Fine Arts Program and the construction of an equestrian Therapeutic Riding Center, funded partly by the Venture Foundation. Today, Venture Together provides social services, assistance, and advocacy to over 1,200 developmentally disabled youth and adults in every town in Rockland County and has a budget of over $40 million.
