SPHERE, a non-profit that provides programming for adults with intellectual disabilities in the Ridgefield, Connecticut area, celebrates its thirtieth anniversary on November 4, 2017. The anniversary provides an opportunity to tell the story of a successful and enduring coming together of families and community to enhance the lives of adults with disabilities, and, in doing […]
special needs jobs
The Reflex To Protect Meets The Need To Emboldened: Pushing the Envelope of Adult Employment
At many points while raising children, we come to crossroads where directional choice is complicated, when a parent’s impulse to protect their child collides with the necessity of launching their offspring into adulthood. Parents of children with disabilities have a particular challenge at these crossroads because by definition these children are more vulnerable than […]
The Power of Meaningful Employment – 1/29/15
Our twenty-five-year-old special needs daughter returned to her parents’ home to spend the latest N.E. snowstorm. We have a generator. Two days of cooking, watching The Big Bang Theory and The Fault in Our Stars and generally hanging out went swimmingly. The bedtime hour and wake up call on the last night and following morning […]
Employed! And Some Tips: 11-4-14
It has been ten months since I posted on our daughter’s adult life. In a few days she will be twenty-five years of age. And while I am counting, it is three years and four plus months since she returned to her home state to begin her special needs adulthood. What our daughter has accomplished […]
Unbridled Joy, Some Ick And A Great Cocktail: 12-17-13
Twenty-Four and She’s So Much More: Three months have passed since I posted on our daughter’s adult life. And the reason rests in the paws of our new puppy Tillie, whose own developmental stages have usurped much of my writing time with her walking, leaping, nipping and general mayhem-ing. Across town our daughter is developing […]
Super Good Week: 12-5-11
A Complete Program: Last week ranks as the first ever where all pieces of our daughter’s independent adult life were up and running. Miraculous. For starters, she went to three volunteer jobs, and none of them had a glitch. Ridgefield Crossings, the senior residence, gave her the task of escorting seniors to their yoga class. […]
Ringworm! 10-28-11
Really? I stopped by our daughter’s apartment yesterday afternoon to drop off some Halloween costume options and a bunch of winter wear, only to find out that her first day as an official ROAR volunteer, scheduled for today, had been cancelled due to cases of ringworm found among the animals. How Ironic: Apparently our daughter handled […]
A Litter of Kitties and Buck: 9-16-11
Mocha: Today our daughter has her Complete Cat volunteer job. I spoke with Dr. Eisen, the vet, who informed me that her cat Mocha had a litter Thursday and our daughter will be able to interact with one-day-old kittens when she shows up for her work this morning. The clinic has embraced our daughter, offering […]
ROAR Follows Up: 9-14-11
Off To The CRS: My daughter has her residential support day today. One of her activities is banking, which at first I heard as baking. She also has a team staff meeting where the young ladies meet with the behaviorist assigned to the CRS (Continuous Residential Supports), the nurse and other staff. I believe they […]
Yearning For Return: 8-30-11
Disruptive Despite The Fun: These are hairy times in so much of our area. Though I find consolation in the continuous party atmosphere, reassuring myself that though our daughter’s been dislocated from her new home, she is enjoying the adventure, in fact she is yearning to return to “my cozy little apartment and my apartment-mate.” […]
Sheer Coincidence and The Personal Pays Off: 8-21-11
Magic: The sheer coincidence of things makes me wonder if readers will think I am writing fiction not fact. But fact it is. Two days ago my focus was on concerns that our daughter’s volunteer job at the cat clinic was ending with no new animal-related work on the horizon and what was my role […]
The Elusive Job Piece: 8-19-11
A Door Closes: The latest news on the volunteer job front is a bit unsettling. The Complete Cat Clinic, a veterinary practice which specializes in the care and breeding of our feline friends, is a small and cozy operation. Dr. Sharon Eisen, the owner and friend, welcomed our daughter’s services over the last few years […]