About us

The Adults in Motion story begins when Rodd and Shelley Murphy met in 1998. While working in a residential home for adults with high behavioral support needs and significant mental health challenges, Rodd and Shelley both recount that it was love at first sight.

During a January snow storm, Shelley’s car allegedly became ‘stuck’ at work resulting in her joining Rodd for his shift that evening (the verdict is still out as to whether Shelley was really stuck in that snow drift or not 😉 The shift ended with Rodd returning home announcing to his family that he had met the girl he was going to marry, while at the same time, Shelley drove home practicing what could be her new married name… ”Shelley Murphy… Shelley Lorraine Murphy”, she recited out loud and liked the sound of it. This is a true story.

Fast forward some years, including a marriage and a handful of children, Rodd and Shelley found themselves owning and operating residential home programs for high risk teenagers in foster care for the Children’s Aid Society of Guelph. For 15 years they helped raise, guide and mentor dozens of foster children with the help of their team of extraordinary mentors. It was during that time that a spark for supporting people with disabilities was reignited and in 2009 the Murphys set out to ‘fill a need’ in the disability community.

Rodd and Shelley wanted to ‘find a need and fill it’ (The Robots Movie, 2005) and more specifically, discover what people with disabilities were missing and where they could help with a solution. They soon learned that after graduation, at the age of 21, people with developmental disabilities had limited options for filling their days in meaningful ways while still receiving the support they needed. Rodd and Shelley were inspired by their belief that ‘Everyone has the right to be accepted, valued and understood. To have a place where what they do has meaning and purpose, not only them but to others and to their greater community”. It was with that belief, that Adults in Motion was created. Providing day programming for adults with disabilities in a safe, welcoming, inclusive, fun and meaningful place to spend their time and be involved in their community. A fundamental importance to this design was the thinking that THIS would be a place that Rodd and Shelley would want to send their own loved one to: a place that could be trusted with integrity, family values and where common sense and compassion are the foundation.

Therefore, in 2009 our flagship Kitchener day program opened, followed by our Oakville program in 2016, then the Cambridge location opening in 2017 and the Hamilton day program in 2019. With Covid-19 starting in 2020, this brought on the addition of the Virtual OnLine Programs which continues to be a popular online option for people across North America.

The roots of the Adults in Motion story are honest and heartfelt, with the intent to make a little piece of the world a better place by giving people the things that everyone is entitled to – a place of belonging, acceptance and importance.