People with disabilities can receive specialised training and support to acquire valuable skills. — Photos: 123rf.com
Sherri Clarke has a dream of building a community for children with special needs, to help them live a life as independent adults.
“My dream is to have one big village, like Marbridge Life or A New Leaf in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the United States,” Clarke said.
These two communities provide residential and educational opportunities to individuals who want to live on their own but whose disabilities keep them from that dream of independence.
Clarke’s son Mackenzie Clarke was diagnosed with severe autism at the age of three.
“I cried for three days, continuously, when I heard the diagnosis,” Clarke said. “Then I got on with our lives.”
The important thing for these kids, Clarke said, is to give them purpose, and for them to feel normal.
“They want to work, and most importantly, have their own lives,” Clarke said. “They are adults – young adults.”
Gardening and farming programs tailored to the needs of individuals with disabilities offer a therapeutic and inclusive environment for personal growth.
Clarke’s dream centres around the models of Marbridge Life and A New Leaf, two organisations catering to special needs adults. Another one on her radar, Brookwood Community, located outside Houston in Texas has a similar vision of changing the way the world thinks about adults with disabilities.
Gardening and farming programs tailored to the needs of individuals with disabilities offer a therapeutic and inclusive environment for personal growth.
After deciding to leave California during the pandemic, Clarke moved to Tahlequah in Oklahoma in with her son, and was later joined by her mother. She had established Second Chance Building Materials, a non-profit organisation in California.
She believes it is a learning experience that will help her with her dream in Tahlequah.
“It gave second chances to people, those with felonies coming out of rehabilitation for example, and I was in business for two years,” Clarke said.
In her case, necessity was the mother of invention for her idea of establishing a place for those that require lifelong care, Clarke said.
“I’ve got an adult autistic child and the responsibility of my 43-year-old disabled cousin,” Clarke said. “What are you going to do? You are going to spend all your time taking care of those around you and never take care of yourself.”
A sense of purpose and to be able to live independently is what Clarke believes these individuals need.
Dignity and inclusion
At a time when the medical professionals were recommending parents send their children with disabilities off to institutions, Ed and Marge Bridges incorporated Marbridge Life as a way to provide residential training and an educational experience for their son Jim, who was born with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
In 1953, the couple founded Marbridge Life with the first established village, The Ranch, in Manchaca, Texas. This village offered training based on the philosophy that adults with developmental disabilities can learn skills that could make them into contributing members of the community.
In the 1980s, after receiving gifts of land, they expanded the campus to include Mabee Village and The Villa Skilled Nursing center, that caters to adults with cognitive disabilities, to increase the number of adults they could serve.
Sewing workshops for individuals with disabilities teach practical skills and self-sufficiency in their daily lives. Photo: Filepic
Today, there are more than 273 adult residents who live and work in the community.
Sewing workshops for individuals with disabilities teach practical skills and self-sufficiency in their daily lives. Photo: Filepic
The dream Clarke holds is as big as what Marbridge Life has managed to build: a village that supports individuals and helps them develop a “whole life”.
Closer to home, RiverHawks Scholars at Northeastern State University in Talequah, offers an opportunity for students with disabilities to integrate into regular campus life.
RiverHawks Scholars director Justin Chase, says it takes a team to make the program a success and not just during the academic years on campus.
“We call it Alumni Supports. We don’t want to totally drop them once they graduate. We have a five-year commitment to support our alumni after they graduate,” Chase said.
After the student graduates, a team composed of Chase, the student, a family member, the Department of Rehabilitation Services, a counsellor from the Department of Disability Services and a representative from Work Force Oklahoma, collaborate to support the student. The four focus areas in the RiverHawks Scholars program are academics, independent living, social skills and career development, Chase said.
“A great thing we hear from juniors and seniors in our program who graduate, is that they want to stay in Tahlequah,” Chase said.
“Most of the students come from outside this area. They feel accepted in Tahlequah and safe. It would be wonderful if this kind of community was available to them after they graduate.”
“In Tulsa, A New Leaf, provides job training, life skills and residential services to “elevate confident independence and self-sufficiency for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and autism.”
The first phase of A New Leaf, The Village, opened in May 2022. The Village is an Agrihood, a community built around a farm. The individualised housing options, according to the organisation’s website, are designed to create a path to independence and consistency of care.
This maximises a person’s choices, according to the site.
Last week, Clarke held the first meeting of individuals in Tahlequah that have shown interest in helping get the dream off the ground.
“When I go to the monthly mingle, or sit with the principals of Tahlequah schools, I really believe this is going to happen,” Clarke said. “There are a lot of people motivated to get this off the ground.”
And it isn’t just those young adults graduating high school that need this kind of help, Clarke said.
“Veterans go off to war and come back and are put in nursing homes because there isn’t another facility available to deal with the traumas of war,” Clarke said.
“And young people who are disabled and can’t be taken care of at home, are often stuck in a nursing home with an aging roommate and not allowed to leave the facility to work.”
Her dream is in its infancy stage, Clarke said. But she dreams that a community that supports disabled adults will come to fruition. – Tahlequah Daily Press, Okla./TNS
