Residential Services

The Epilepsy Foundation offers a variety of supervised and supportive residential living facilities that meet OMRDD guidelines. Placement is based on an individual's unique needs and taken from the New York Cares wait list.

Please contact Patricia Pennella at (585) 359-2966 for guidance on these residential programs and for help in determining eligibility and how to apply.

Following are descriptions of our residential programs, progressing from the least to the most intensive in terms of support and supervision.

Individuals who do not require 24-hour supervision and who have the potential to learn the skills they need to live independently are prime candidates for the Supportive Individual Residential Alternative (IRA), a transitional community-based residential program.

The program provides semi-independent living arrangements in 13 apartments that are home to 19 individuals. These one and two bedroom apartments are in a local apartment complex in Rochester that offers a large community room as well as a swimming pool, exercise room, tennis courts, and playground. Also, the apartment complex is located on a bus route.

The Supportive IRA staff includes a program manager, a registered nurse, and four case managers who work to increase the individual's skills and self-confidence so that he/she may live as independently as possible. An Individual Program Plan is developed for each person with goals in the areas of:

Daily Living Skills
Medical/Heath/Nutrition
Interpersonal Relationships
Vocational/Educational Skills
Recreation/Leisure Activities

To be eligible for the Supportive IRA, applicants:

Are 18 years or older.
Have a medically confirmed diagnosis of a developmental disability prior to age 22
Are self-medicating, self-preserving, and require no more than three hours of support per day.
Participate in a volunteer, school, or vocational training program, and/or be employed.
Use public transportation with minimal assistance.

Howitt House
The next step up in support is Howitt House, a unique collaboration among the Al Sigl Center, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society of Upstate New York, and the Epilepsy Foundation.

The Epilepsy Foundation has five two-bedroom apartments within the Howitt House building in the Southwedge area of Rochester, providing a home to 10 individuals.

The Howitt House program provides residents with a structured and safe environment where they can develop to their fullest potential. Staff are available 24 hours a day to assist with banking, cooking skills, relationship building, recreational activities, and becoming more involved within the community.

Wagner House
The residential facility that provides 24-hour supervision and support is Wagner House, a two-family home that opened May 2000 in East Rochester. As a new Individual Residential Alternative, this program serves five individuals: three women will reside in a three-bedroom apartment, and two men will reside in the second unit.

Each apartment has its own living room and kitchen, and the home is convenient to all the amenities of small-town living. Residents are employed within the community or attend a day program.

Wagner House staff work with residents on daily living skills and coordinate recreational activities. Staff provide residents with 24-hour supervision, an on-site office, and a structured and safe environment in which they can develop to their fullest potential.

Sheila's House
Our newest residential facility, which opened in October of 2006, is named Sheila's House in honor of former executive director Sheila Appleby.

The large house in Henrietta is group home to six men with epilepsy and with related disorders as well as a cadre of residence assistants who offer 24-hour supervision.

Sheila’s House had undergone a transformation: a total reconfiguration and modernization of this 4,000 square foot house, both to meet municipal building codes for a supervised group home and to provide its residents with a warm and welcoming place to call home.