I founded the Center for Supported Learning in 2016 to help connect youth and young adults in the Huntington Metro area with life-learning activities. My son Colin has profound developmental delays and is soon graduating from high school. A few years ago I began worrying about what was next for him. Unfortunately, there are very few opportunties for people with profound and severe developmental disabilities after high school.
This was unacceptable to me.
As a result, in collaboration with other family caregivers and professionals working with people with neurodiversity, we established the Center for Supported Learning to build capacity and connections in our region for inclusive creative activities.
Previously, we connected with community gardeners, with the Huntington Museum of Art to develop weekly pottery and ceramic classes, with Huntington’s Kitchen and WVU Extension (Wayner Co) for cooking lessons, and with Tri-State STEM+M Early College High School for a Virtual Reality Deep Sea Dive project. This year we are focusing on performing arts with two initiatives.
Our first project is a weekly blog that highlights voices from our community. This blog collects narratives, stories, poems, and interviews of neuro-divergent youth and young adults talking about what interests them.
We also will have stories about news and issues of importance to the neurodivergent community (e.g. ASD and other developmental disabilities) in our region. We are currently conducting interviews, collecting stories and poems from our community, and identifying other topics of interest to highlight in the podcast.
The second project we are focusing on this year is a theater production of a play in collaboration with our local community theater organizations. In this production, the lead roles will be filled by youth and young adults with significant developmental disabilities or ASD. This production is scheduled for Summer 2021 and is exciting because the lead/starring roles being filled by members of our community with typical actors providing peer support.
We are a completly volunteer organization, and raise funds for our programs by donations, fundraisers, and grant applications.
Ware looking for funding and volunteers to help us adapt the play for our non-reading population and also to support other adaptations and modifications necessary for meaningful participation.
Want to help us or make or donation? Email me at sloftus@csemploy.org!
Sara Loftus
