“Atlantis was founded in 1975, the second "Independent Living Center" in the country after Berkeley. A group of young disabled adults and six concerned staff from a Denver nursing home concluded that no amount of outings to concerts or bingo games could normalize life for these young people. The real solution was to move into the community, in apartments within the city's neighborhoods, to create self - determined lifestyles where the disabled clients choose their own food, direct their own care, and determine their own priorities... In the more than twenty years since its founding, the agency has been able to assist over 400 disabled adults in moving from sheltered settings and maintaining independent lives. “

-from the website, www.atlantiscommunity.net

The Atlantis community, with the help of Denver Urban Gardens, built a garden that caters to the participants in the day program at Atlantis. The garden provides the opportunity for outside, physical activities and the food that is grown supplements the lunches provided through the center.

One remarkable feature of the garden is the perennial herb garden. The herbs provide an oppurtunity for participants at The Learning Center at Atlantis to make teas and medicines that can be sold locally at farmers’ markets in Denver.