Stiftung INLUMINE
Arlesheim
inlumine • Taking fate into your own hands
- 07 August 2026
- 100%
- Permanent position
- Arlesheim
Job summary
In the 1960s, parents faced a crisis when their disabled children aged out of care. They sought solutions to provide safe living spaces for their young adults.
Tasks
- Parents formed a support group to address the lack of suitable homes.
- They aimed to establish a permanent residence for those with severe disabilities.
- The initiative led to the creation of the Sonnenhof Arlesheim association.
Skills
- Parents pooled resources and experiences to tackle challenges.
- Collaboration and community building were essential for success.
- Fundraising and strategic planning were crucial to securing a facility.
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About the job
What to do when caring for a disabled child exceeds the family’s own strength and no suitable care options are available in homes? Affected parents faced this question around 60 years ago.
The children’s home Sonnenhof Arlesheim, which had cared for their children until then, informed them that their loved ones could no longer stay after reaching the age of 18. There was a lack of places and homes in Switzerland to care for young disabled adults.
So what to do? The only option was to take matters into their own hands and become active. Thus, in November 1964, about three dozen affected parents met at Sonnenhof and decided to form an association. They applied to the Federal Disability Insurance for support to establish residential homes for their now adult children. The aim of the initiative was to find a place of security for severely disabled people.
Finally, on 5 September 1965, the statutes of the association were adopted at the founding meeting at Sonnenhof. It began its activities under the name "Elternverein Sonnenhof Arlesheim" (Parents’ Association Sonnenhof Arlesheim). The name was intended to express the connection with the parent home.
The first and most urgent concern was to place the young people and adults with severe intellectual or multiple disabilities in their own permanent home. The parents contributed all their professional skills, experience and private financial resources to make this project succeed. They recruited around 150 association members in a short time.
The advice Sonnenhof gave the parents was: If you want to found a home, first find the home management, then the house, and finally the money. And so it was done: A couple to manage the home (with their own severely disabled child) was soon found. Also a property in Langenbruck. The children’s home Sonnmatt, which had been vacant for some time. Since tuberculosis could now be treated with medication, air health resorts like Langenbruck were no longer in demand. A stroke of luck for the young association. Thus, the first two prerequisites for founding a home were met.
However, financing was then, as now, the greatest challenge. How the parents overcame the most important hurdle to founding the home is told in the next story. It is also the story of the founding of the house Sonnmatt in Langenbruck.
