By Hannah Walls
The hum of the paper shredder permeates throughout the room on a Thursday morning, fueled by the constant stream of papers fed in carefully by Cody Lewis.
“Go Cody, go!” he shouts after successfully loading each piece into the slot, grinning with all his might. His wheelchair is parked up close to the shredder, and his assortment of toy cows sits in a neat row on the table beside him.
Around him, other artisans carefully pour soap into decorative molds and create pieces of artwork. The smell of lavender drifts throughout the room from the soap station. Outside the door, a sign reads “The BEE Community,” surrounded by words like “belonging” and “meaningful work.” Initiatives like the BEE Community in College Station have altered the trajectory of Cody’s life.
Cody Lewis is 23 years old and has Dravet syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy that has caused him to experience daily seizures since he was 6 months old.
“Basically he is 23, but he has a 2- to 3-year-old mental level,” says Niki Lewis, Cody’s mom. But he can talk and respond to basic things, as well as tell you what he wants, she adds with a laugh. He has a sweet, simple personality and enjoys music, trains, and cows.
In addition to these things, Cody also has had the opportunity to participate in different organizations in the Bryan College Station community that exist to empower children and adults with special needs. Early on it was Project Sunshine, and today it is the BEE Community.
Cody goes to the BEE Community three days a week.
“He loves it,” says Mallory Seidel, one of Cody’s 13 caregivers. She joins him at the BEE Community every Tuesday and Thursday.
Cody’s mom is grateful for the BEE Community and the benefits it provides for Cody. “It’s really a great fit because Cody goes consistently,” says Niki Lewis. “He gets to know the people, they know him, he has friendship relationships, he’s actually doing something purposeful.”
These are the effects Taylor Ellerbrock, founder and director of programs with the BEE Community, says she desired for the group to have upon its creation.
“Here in the Brazos Valley, about 1,300, at a very conservative number, of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities are also unemployed, and over 13,000 individuals over the age of 5 have been diagnosed with a disability,” says Ellerbrock.
For the majority of adults with special needs in the United States, an experience like Cody’s is not common. “Up to 80 percent of individuals with [intellectual and development disabilities] are unemployed nationwide,” says Ellerbrock.
Additionally, 82 percent of caregivers of a family member with a disability worry that their family member will not have enough friends or social activities, according to the FINDS Community Data Report survey fielded by The Arc.
In her time as a special education teacher, Ellerbrock found that life after high school for many of her students often looked like a lot of time spent at home on the couch.
The Bryan College Station community contains numerous resources for children and adults with special needs and their families. One of these resources for adults lies with the Bridges Program, housed at College View High School.
“The Bridges Program is an 18+ program for young adults post-secondary,” says Bridges teacher Nikki Graff. “So they have completed their high school curriculum, and they are continuing their education to work on independent living and vocational skills.”
Students in the program are trained in skills that promote independence in daily life, such as cooking, cleaning, laundry, and using public transportation, says Graff.
The Bridges Program has access to different resources for learning that are extremely beneficial for students, says Graff. A variety of local businesses also partner with the Bridges Program and provide hands-on professional experience to students.
Involvement in the community is mutually beneficial for students as well as members of the community, Graff adds. Her students teach kindness while simultaneously learning about how to live socially and independently.
There is also the PATHS Certificate Program, a year-long program with three available tracks for adults interested in different areas of human services. It is offered through the Center on Disability and Development at Texas A&M University.
“The end goal of our program, as the end goal should be for any training program, is employment,” says PATHS Program Director Tracy Glass.
The PATHS Program has had a similar positive experience with the B/CS community.
“Bryan ISD has been just instrumental in giving our students the hands-on experience that they need,” says Glass. The district has worked hard to set each student up for success on an individual level, personalizing who they are partnered with and working alongside at different schools, Glass says.
“They not only take our students and train them, but they also give them opportunities for employment after they graduate,” says Glass. “We currently have three PATHS students employed there as paraprofessionals or substitutes.”
For children and adults with Down syndrome, there is the Down Syndrome Association of Brazos Valley.
The DSABV partners with CHI St. Joseph to provide free speech therapy classes for toddlers and elementary-aged children with Down syndrome, says Sydney Barnhart, program coordinator for the DSABV. They also provide courses for young adults about dating and communicating using technology, as well as host a variety of social events for their members.
Additionally, there is Texas A&M’s Project Sunshine chapter. It offers a holistic approach to serving families of children with special needs, says Aaron Wilson, treasurer and member of the officer board for Project Sunshine.
Not only do they partner with children who have special needs, but they also offer outreach and respite for parents as well as friendship and encouragement for the neurotypical siblings of their buddies, says Wilson. They provide childcare for parents who are in support groups as well as offer activities for the children like their annual Santa’s Wonderland trip.
Through different events and outreach, volunteers get to know the children on a personal level and provide emotional and social support while also having a ton of fun, says Wilson. “It really is an opportunity for them to step into a place of empowerment where, regardless of what society may call a disability, we are able to circumvent that and accommodate to make anything happen,” he says.
Many leaders in these groups and members of the community says there is still work to be done on the front of inclusion.
“At the end of the day, it’s about your mindset,” says Carly Blustein Gilson, Ph.D., an assistant professor of special education in the department of educational psychology at Texas A&M.
Gilson says she aims to impress upon on her students that inclusion for people with special needs is not a place or a service, but rather a mindset and a lifestyle. It should not be a concept limited to just special education teachers in the process of their education at Texas A&M, she adds. “It should be something that we’re all thinking about,” says Gilson.
“We are so much more alike than different, and I think people have a really hard time seeing that,” says Barnhart. “All they see is the different.”
