The following outline summarizes the pivotal events in the CCMRS story.

• Central California Mennonite Residential Services (CCMRS) can trace its roots to the late 70s when a group of west coast Mennonite families, each with a child or children with developmental disabilities (DD), began voicing common concerns to representatives of West Coast Mennonite Central Committee (WCMCC). These concerns focused on some of the frustrations and difficulties the families faced when trying to find adequate resources for their special needs children. These families shared an even deeper concern — they felt the Church had not recognized or responded to the unique physical and spiritual needs of families dealing with DD.



• WCMCC leaders called a "needs assessment" meeting in August of 1979. From that meeting — when approximately 100 west coast Mennonite Church-related families were identified — an ad hoc DD committee working under the auspices of WCMCC was formed to study the issues. In February of 1981, the ad hoc committee became a standing committee of WCMCC, and identified 3 regions where constituents would be encouraged to plan a residential program: Arizona, Central California, and Oregon.



• With the official sanction of WCMCC, the group of DD pioneers from Central California could begin planning in earnest! By 1984, when the WCMCC DD Committee recommended that each regional group form a non-profit corporation, the Fresno area planning group was ready. The planning group: John Bergey, David Friesen, Will Friesen, Wilfred Martens, and Ruth Ratzlaff, met in the fall of 1985 and wrote and signed the CCMRS Articles of Incorporation. This same group officially became the first board of directors for CCMRS.



• CCMRS planning and development proceeded at a rapid pace. In March of 1986 a group of investors purchased a home on Huntington Blvd. in Fresno, and 14 months later — May of 1987 — CCMRS opened "Huntington House", a home for four men with developmental disabilities.



• It was on December 31, 1991 that CCMRS closed escrow on the purchase of a 10-unit apartment complex on Hampton Way in Fresno. This new program, called "Hampton Gate" welcomed its first residents and began operation in January of 1992.



• Finally, the Supported Living Program (SLP) began operations in 1994.