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Patricia Sullivan was born with disabilities so profound she couldn't talk, or walk unassisted.

Nonetheless, her parents, Joan and Jim, were determined to include her in every aspect of their lives. They filled their Potomac home with music and took Patricia to basketball games at schools their other three children attended. They went to Mass weekly at Our Lady of Mercy, a Potomac Catholic church at which they were parishioners.

It was there, one Sunday in 1994, when Patricia was 26 years old, that Joan Sullivan got the idea to ask for help through her parish.

"As she was sitting there listening to Father John Enzler give his sermon, it occurred to her the church could do more to help people like Patricia," Jim Sullivan said.

The Sullivans posed the idea to Enzler, then the parish priest, who took the family's request to heart. He helped organize a meeting around the Sullivans' kitchen table among several parishioners with disabled children. He asked them, simply, what they needed.

That meeting 15 years ago sparked the idea for Potomac Community Resources, a group that now serves more than 400 teens and adults with developmental disabilities, including Down syndrome and cerebral palsy. It organizes social and recreational programs ranging from chorus to gardening to photography. And while it still maintains offices at Our Lady of Mercy, the group is open to all.

The group "has provided Mike a social life away from his family, and this is so important," said North Potomac resident Anne Quinn Glickman, whose son Mike, 21, has cerebral palsy. "For most 21-year-olds, we just assume that they have that, but when you have a young adult with a disability, that's not as easily assumed."

The group, according to board members, serves people with a wide array of disabilities. Some are largely independent, but have "aged out" of the support network provided by schools and need a place to socialize with others who are faced with similar obstacles. Others, like Glickman's son, require round-the-clock care.

Mike Glickman takes part in a program that offers activities such as massage, music and pet therapy for the disabled, many of whom use wheelchairs.

The program — which runs from noon to 5 p.m. every other Sunday — also provides a much-needed break for caregivers, families say. Glickman usually spends the time with her husband or meets a friend for lunch.

"To be able to have a breather allows me to then come back early Sunday evening and say, ‘Hey Mike, I'm looking forward to giving you a bath,'" Glickman said. "When a caregiver can have that attitude, it can become contagious to the individual who's receiving the care."

The group caught the interest of Donald Wuerl, the Catholic archbishop of Washington. Wuerl, who spoke at a recent benefit dinner for the group, is helping to start new initiatives for the developmentally disabled at parishes throughout the Washington region.

That's been a longtime goal for Potomac Community Resources, which aims to stay small, but seeks to help others launch their own programs, according to Executive Director Stephen Riley. While the new efforts have been launched largely through Catholic parishes, activities are non-denominational and the group hopes to eventually see programs in other communities, Riley said.

One program, at the St. Rose of Lima Parish in Gaithersburg, provides housing and care for three developmentally disabled adults. Using Potomac Community Resources for training and advice, parishioners there opened the home several weeks ago.

The Sullivan family, however, was never able to see their daughter take part in the programs they helped launch. Patricia Sullivan died on New Year's Eve of 1994. She was 27.

"She was a very affectionate person — very quick with a smile and a hug," said Jim Sullivan, who is now a board member of the group. "Even though she had a complicated life, she had a happy life."