It’s nice to live with folk who are different
THE village of Newton Dee is what a commune would be like if it was run by an efficient committee.
On the outskirts of Aberdeen, it’s home to about 200 people and has a farm, bakery, cafe and shop. Both the hens and the children are free range.
About half of the residents have some kind of special needs – Down’s Syndrome, autism, learning difficulties.
Living and working in a safe, sheltered environment, they can have a level of independence that’s unthinkable in a normal village or town.
A BBC1 documentary, Village of Dreams, follows a year in the life of Newton Dee.
For Elizabeth, who grew up there, it’s the only life she’s known.
She said: “It’s nice to have people who are different. If we were all the same, I’d think this is weird.”
Villagers – those with special needs – live with co-workers and their families. They might be overseas volunteers spending a year in Scotland, or permanent residents.
Some, like Jake Vollrath, start as one and end up as the other. Growing up in Wisconsin, he got to know people at a similar community there.
His football coach was born in Newton Dee. When he was planning his gap year before heading to university, Aberdeen was the obvious place to go.
That was 11 years ago. Apart from one trip back to sort his visa, he’s been on Deeside ever since.
Jake, 34, said: “My intention was to come for a year, do volunteering, go back home. That didn’t happen.
“I met my wife here, she’s Austrian, we have a couple of young, lovely, very boisterous boys. I feel very settled here now.”
Jake runs Newton Dee’s website and recruits new co-workers. But his main job is as a house co-ordinator.
As well as their sons, who are two and four, he and his wife live with two other co-workers and seven adults with special needs. That’s a lot of doctors appointments and personal development plans to organise. He said: “It’s a big house. But this is a home where a lot of people have settled down and made their life.” Communal living is not an easy option. Jake said: “If you’re going to live together and support one another, you have to have frank discussions.” Newton Dee is at the heart of the international Camphill movement. It was started during World War II by Austrian paediatrician Dr Karl Konig, who fled Vienna when his country was annexed by the
Nazis. He came to Scotland, found a site beside the current Newton Dee village and began a community that now has 100 branches around the world.
Ali Baxter moved into the village five years ago. He was living in Cupar, going to college to study IT. Now he’s in a cottage with four other adults. He prefers Newton Dee.
He said: “People are really nice, friendly and supportive.”
Ali works on the farm. His family, who live in Aberdeen, come to visit and he goes home some weekends.
He would like to see everyone with special needs given the same chances he’s had. He said: “I hope in the future it’s possible to build more places like Newton Dee.” Village of Dreams, Tuesday, 9pm