When Alison Thomas, 38, moved to Sarasota from Miami in 2010, her background as a teacher and a specialist in children’s mental health led her to The Haven, a nonprofit that offers a robust slate of services, including housing, for individuals with developmental disabilities. “When I moved to Sarasota, I wanted to become a game changer in this community,” Thomas says.

She started as the director of The Haven’s preschool; today, she is the organization’s chief operating officer, overseeing programs that support people from age 1 to adulthood.

“I love the concept of cradle to seniorhood,” she says. “We have a residential program that includes 52 full-time residents—soon to be 68. Some of our residents live into their 60s and 70s and we’ve become family as theirs passes. We’re their aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters.”

The Haven was founded in the 1950s by people Thomas calls “parent pioneers.” They rejected the idea of institutionalization for their developmentally disabled children, an uncommon response at the time. Instead, they rented a hangar near the Sarasota Bradenton International Airport and opened a small school with just four enrollees.

“We have two residents with us today from the 1963 preschool class—Eric and Elizabeth,” Thomas says. “The original school was the starting point and cornerstone of the agency, but as the original students aged up, more programming was established so that they could live meaningful and purposeful lives.” In the 70-plus years since its founding, The Haven has helped thousands of individuals and currently provides programming for 600 people with developmental disabilities.

Thomas has been instrumental in growing enrollment at The Haven Academy, which provides individualized education for teens—which, for The Haven, means people ages 16-22. “Our programs are structured around developmental ability, not chronological age,” she says. “We wanted parents to go to work knowing their children were getting a quality education and could go out and have an independent life after graduation.”

One way in which Thomas has helped boost enrollment is by organizing community outings to different businesses, emphasizing to both business owners and students that Haven participants have unique capabilities that can dwarf whatever limitations their disabilities present.

When the Academy was founded in 2013, there were just a handful of students. This year, there will be more than 50 graduates. “I enrolled some of this year’s graduates when I was still the preschool director,” says Thomas. “I can’t wait to see them walk across the stage.”