About Us

Celebrate neurodiversity. Grow your abilities. Choose your path with us.

3LPlace is an essential reimagining of what’s possible for neurodiverse people, individuals often described as autistic or with intellectual and developmental challenges. We offer highly personalized, experiential programs in a vibrant community setting. 

Our premise, with neuroscientific research at its foundation, is that intellectually and developmentally challenged people learn best when learning occurs in the places and situations where skills will be needed. Our members decide what they want to explore based on their interests, goals, timing, and budget. We believe that those personal interests can be harnessed to accelerate self-determination, learning, independence, friendships, and social interactions.

Find out more about what a day at 3LPlace is like.

A group of parents seeking more options for their own maturing children established 3LPlace in 2009. These parents knew first-hand that for too many young adults with developmental disabilities, reaching the age of 22 means losing the support and services that make continued growth possible. Finding no curricular resources that met best practice standards, 3LPlace assembled a talented collaboration team, including educators, clinicians, and researchers from Harvard, Tufts, and Lesley Universities. Over the next few years, 3LPlace raised funds to develop a comprehensive curriculum that now provides the framework for all of our work and represents the collective wisdom of more than 40 professionals with front-line expertise working with individuals with autism and developmental disabilities. 

Self-determination is at the heart of our work at 3LPlace. In addition to working on their individual goals, members have a lot of autonomy in picking what topics they focus on based on their interests, their own life experiences, and their current development. With one well-trained staff member for every three members, we work with members to pick an ongoing and changing set of learning goals. 3LPlace is currently the only community-based program in Massachusetts that is eligible for the Department of Developmental Services’ self-directed funding.

Find out more about our curriculum.

We know that self-determination and independent choice through self-direction are matters of justice and human rights for adults with autism and developmental disabilities. As a result, we are dedicated to making our service model and curriculum available to other organizations that want to deliver dynamic, developmentally effective programming. Our model for serving a highly diverse, growing population of adults with autism and developmental disabilities is ready to be replicated.