2024 SPIRIT OF SERVICE HONOREES

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Animalytix and its partners would like to recognize the 2024 Spirit of Service honoree, Inclusion Connections/PawsAbilities

Inclusion Connections/PawsAbilities

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Mission

Inclusion Connections has served individuals with developmental disabilities (I/DD) in Johnson County, KS since 2013. Its mission is to strengthen their lives by creating inclusive opportunities for community involvement, access to meaningful employment, and better options for supportive living. Everything Inclusion Connections does is designed to promote the independence of the individuals it serves. Its innovative and successful programs are unduplicated in Johnson County, providing opportunities to become healthier, explore the arts and friendships, learn job skills and connect with employment that is meaningful and sustainable, and to transition from school and the workplace to supportive living.

This year Inclusion Connections projects it will serve 200 individuals ages 16-40 with developmental disabilities (more than 90% live in Johnson County). Program participants all have developmental disabilities such as Autism, Down syndrome, and Cerebral palsy. All adult participants have very low income (less than $12,000 per year), with less than half with no earned income only Social Security Disability. Each student experiences negative physical, psychological, and economic outcomes associated with disabilities. None can drive, making transportation a tremendous barrier in accessing employment and other opportunities.

Program

Current programs include:

Education: cooking, life skills, fitness and social opportunities, art and theater classes, school break camps

Employment: skills taught through PawsAbilities employment program, with trainees making dog treats in our bakery, handcrafting bandanas, toys and other products, selling in our retail and mobile stores; daily job readiness and fitness classes; job coaching and placement into community-based jobs; transportation assistance to/from workplaces; Transition Academy prep classes for living independently. PawsAbilities is well-known in Kansas City as THE place for individuals with developmental disabilities to obtain the training they need to prepare for and be placed in meaningful, sustainable, paid jobs.

Supportive Living: our young adults are still waiting to live more independently! Inclusion Connections is developing an innovative (first of its kind in Kansas!) community called BelongKC and has purchased land In Olathe, with a capital campaign underway. Other states such as Colorado have multiple projects in the works, while Kansas has zero. Inclusion Connections strives to put the needs of I/DD at the forefront as more and more individuals are living with caregivers aged 60+, setting up forced placements in the future. Having a choice of where to live is essential to fulfilled, independent lives.

As its model and strategies evolve, Inclusion Connections’ programs are efficiently and effectively meeting unmet needs. Its employment program, and now BelongKC, are specially designed to advance the social equity for our students by providing CHOICES leading to paying jobs and a pathway to greater independence.

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