Community Connections

Inclusion Programs For Adults With Disabilities
Disability Support Organizations
Developmental Disabilities Support Services
Disability Inclusion Programs
Support For People With Developmental Disabilities

What We Do

Inclusion Seekers’ Community Connections helps a person with a disability build real relationships and lives rooted in belonging.
Through project funds, mentoring and learning experiences, we support a person with a disability, their family, staff and neighbors as they create community projects based on their own strengths, interests and ideas.
These projects might look like a neighborhood gathering, a music event, a community garden, a creative project, or something entirely new. Each one creates a path for people to be known, valued, and connected.

4 Commitments

For Community Building

  • 1
    DISCOVER YOUR COMMUNITY’S GIFTS
  • 2
    CREATE SOMETHING THAT BELONGS TO YOU & YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
  • 3
    GROW CONNECTIONS
  • 4
    LOOK FOR JOY

This Is How We Do It

  • Project funds that help individuals take real steps into community life.

  • Mentoring and learning experiences that guide each person’s journey.

  • Second‑year funding that sustains and strengthens new relationships.

  • Good Neighbor Day, launched in 2025, where we fund small community projects that celebrate connection, contribution, and belonging.

Our role is to spark possibilities and provide the support needed to make it real.

  • Community members bring their welcome.

  • Each person brings their strengths.

  • Families bring their insight.

  • Inclusion Seekers bring the guidance and investment to help belonging take root.

Inclusion Programs In Cincinnati Ohio

Why It Matters

People with disabilities are too often left out of everyday community life. 

Community Connections exists to change that, one relationship, one family, and one project at a time. When people are supported in sharing their gifts, building friendships, and contributing in meaningful ways, communities become stronger for everyone. 

What grows is simple and powerful: more people with disabilities becoming known, valued, and connected. 

What Are Pop-Up Stories?

Pop-Up Stories are a chance to hear how a community project was created. These gatherings highlight how everyday interests, gifts, and simple ideas can become opportunities for connection and belonging. Through real stories from real people, Pop-Up Stories invite people to imagine what becomes possible when we turn toward one another, share what we love, and create spaces where everyone can be known, welcomed, and included.

Creative Community Fest

The Clincy Family hosted a festival of art and creativity at a local coffee shop to bring people together through shared strengths and passions. Mieke, the family’s matriarch, participated in an initiative led by Inclusion Seekers, powered by Starfire, which centers families as catalysts for community building. Through this experience, she received a small stipend and support from a mentor, helping her surface and trust her family’s own wisdom about creating and nurturing community.

What Inclusion Seekers are saying

“Since doing this community building project with my family, my son is now the one connecting me to the community.”

A Cincinnati Mother

“For me, it’s like something has changed. We were told no Troy’s [son with disability] entire life. We were told no by a lot of disability services. We kind of withdrew and became isolated. But I think, maybe that was the wrong way to approach things anyway. Maybe we should have always been thinking about, ‘This is where we live, in Clifton. How should we be including Troy in Clifton?’ Looking to the neighborhood for support instead of looking to disability services for support. I think we’ve been happier here in this last year than ever and it’s because we included our neighbors…”

Cassandra Clement

“We came to Starfire and started learning different strategies – taking people to lunch, taking other runners, birders, artists, taking even neighbors, just taking people to lunch and pick their brains, I just call it getting out of my own head. ”

Tammi Stauber

“We will work the rest of our days to continue to learn and walk a path of belonging, community building, and Love. We are so grateful for Starfire’s planting seeds in our path as we navigate this journey that we have learned requires forgiveness, bravery, and a beautiful imagination for what could be. ”

Ashley Hart