“At the Opportunity Center, we help adults with disabilities become as independent as possible in their lives and in their communities.

“Since we closed in March because of the coronavirus, I’ve been calling parents to check up on our clients as much as possible. The other day I was missing them so much that I said to the staff, ‘Y’all, we should do drive-bys. Let’s make some signs and go see everybody.’ We’re used to seeing them every single day. They need to know how much we really miss them and that we’re thinking about them.

“So we’re trying to drive by different people’s homes at least once a week. We’re trying to visit as many as we can. We drive up in our van, honk the horn, and come out holding our signs and yelling for them.

“The ones we’ve seen so far have been super excited. We keep our distance. We want eveybody to remain safe. But a lot of our clients want to hug. One even chased me down the driveway. I had to say, ‘Sorry, baby, but you can’t hug me.’ My natural instinct is to hug them, so that’s been hard for me, too.

“Many of them don’t fully comprehend what’s going on, and why they can’t come to the center like usual. They’re ready to come back, to get back to work. I’m not sure when that’s going to happen and how things may have to change in the future, so we’ll have to see. I just know that I miss interacting with them. It’s like they’re my kids. We really do miss them a lot.”

— Kim Frederick-Brown

Kim is director of the Opportunity Center, a program at Bay Area Rehabilitation Center in Baytown.

Related:

• ‘I like being able to positively impact people’s lives’

• Client takes job interview into his own hands

The post They’re missing Opportunity Center clients appeared first on The Baytown Project.

Starting with a simple social media connection, two communities in pain joined forces to help hundreds of families impacted by Hurricane Harvey.

“About seven years ago, I became Facebook friends with a lady named Angie in Indiana through one of the FarmVille games, believe it or not. We kept in touch and always joked around about politics and different things,” Jerry Cates said.

“She’s very much involved with the Southport, Indiana, Police Department, and does a lot of volunteer work. That’s how I learned that they were looking to help out somewhere down here after the hurricane.”

As Baytown and surrounding communities were dealing with the aftermath of Harvey, Southport — a town of about 2,500 just outside Indianapolis — was still coming to grips with a recent tragedy.

Lt. Aaron Allan of the city’s police department was killed on July 27 while trying to help at the scene of a car accident.

“He went to a car that was inverted in a crash. After he climbed in to help, the guy pulled a gun and shot him 12 times. It took Aaron’s life,” said Tom Vaughn, Southport police chief.

“Our community came out and overwhelmed us with food, gifts and memorials. Anything we needed, the people from our town were there. So when the hurricane happened down here, we were trying to find some way to give back to a community that was devastated like we were. We reached out to the same people who were really good to us, and they said, ‘Oh, we’d love to do that.’ They filled our whole garage with stuff.”

Cates, who works at Bay Area Rehabilitation Center in Baytown, got the OK to make BARC the distribution point for a truckload of supplies that arrived on Sept. 8.

“We didn’t really think about it. We worked all day, and then we just jumped in our vehicles and drove straight through,” said Vaughn, who was joined by his wife, Jane, and several officers in making the 1,046-mile trip that took more than 15 hours.

Opportunity Center clients, BARC staff and volunteers were busy throughout the day. First, they handed out cleaning supplies donated by ExxonMobil. Then, after the Southport team arrived early afternoon and they helped unload the truck, they distributed water and a range of household items to more than 200 carloads of families.

All of the supplies were stacked in a building that is normally used for job training for adults with disabilities in the Opportunity Center program. Among other things, they construct industrial-strength pallets that are sold to ExxonMobil.

While Cates made the initial connection that got the ball rolling, “this was really a collaborative effort between Southport Police Department and Baytown PD for our community. They communicated a lot in the background. We were just glad to assist in making it possible,” he said.

Special items that made the long trip were three big bags of stuffed bears that were donated in Allan’s memory. He had earned the nickname Teddy Bear for going out of his way to help local families.

Vaughn recalled how Allan, 38, had met a family whose car wouldn’t start. The husband had been diagnosed with a brain tumor, the wife wasn’t working while she cared for him, and they had a 3-year-old daughter.

Allan went to an auto parts store and bought them a new car battery using his own money. Then he asked the chief whether the department could further help the family.

The police department threw the little girl a party at Chuck E. Cheese’s, with pizza and tokens, and police cruisers filled with toys.

“You’re just a big teddy bear,” Vaughn’s wife said to Allan. And the nickname stuck.

Allan’s wife asked that the teddy bears be handed out to children in need. “So we thought, there’s no better opportunity to give away a bunch of them than right here,” Vaughn said.

After grabbing something to eat and resting for a couple hours, the Southport crew jumped back in their vehicles to make the return trip home.

“We need to get back for a fundraiser,” Vaughn said. “It’s for Aaron’s wife and kids.”

The post Police assistance honors fallen lieutenant appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“I really enjoy seeing our Opportunity Center clients succeed in life and accomplish things they never thought they could.

“I saw a little girl today who mentioned that she just wrote her name, which was a big achievement for her. It’s something other people take for granted, writing our name, knowing our address, living independently.

“We see 30-something-year-old adults who are still underneath their parents’ roof, and some of them do understand the concept that they are disabled. But they don’t necessarily want to be stuck in that situation forever. Our programs help them realize that you don’t have to be limited by your disability. You can achieve certain things if you put your heart and mind into it.”

“Through YTAP (Youth Transition to Adult Program), students from local and area high schools come to our center for skills training to improve their employability after graduation. We work with them on things like how to fill out job applications, how to put together resumes, and how to communicate with a new employer or coworkers. So whenever they graduate, they have the skills needed to get a real job.

“It’s really fulfilling to see some of them grow and end up doing things that, at first, they weren’t able to do.”

— Amber Arceneaux and Karen Orellana

The post Students learn skills to help them land jobs appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“One of my client’s goals was to work at Golden Corral. So I arranged an interview with the manager, and the two of us went over there.

“He was so nervous, I think he drank like 14 Dr Peppers waiting on the manager because it was pretty busy at the time. So finally he gets up and says, ‘Miss Kim, I’m going to the restroom.’ Then he’s gone for a long time and I’m wondering, where did he go? I thought to myself, I hope he hasn’t run out of the place.

“So I called back to my coordinator and said, ‘I think he left. I don’t know where he is.’ And where is he? Well, he’s back there doing his own interview with the manager.

“He comes running out all excited and says, ‘Miss Kim, I got the job. He says he’ll call me in a week or so.’ He was so excited, and I was excited for him.

“I really like to see people achieve whatever goal they’re trying to reach.”

— Kim Frederick-Brown

Related:

• They’re missing Opportunity Center clients

The post Client takes job interview into his own hands appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“We’re focused on helping mentally and physically challenged people become as independent as possible in their lives and in their community.

“We start at age 16 for school kids, and we even have a 78-year-old man in the program. Whatever age, being able to see them come into the program and watch them grow in developing new skills is very rewarding.

“On a good day, the work activity room is full and it really makes me proud. I like being able to positively impact people’s lives. I guess it’s a natural thing for me because somebody impacted my life, as they do every day.

“Sometimes I may be walking down the hall and thinking about work or whatever, and one of them will stop me and say, ‘Miss Kim, I love you.’ You can’t believe how good that feels.”

— Kim Frederick-Brown

Related:

• They’re missing Opportunity Center clients

The post ‘I like being able to positively impact people’s lives’ appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“We exist to serve the needs of the community. If you look at the history of Bay Area Rehabilitation Center, we’ve gone from assisting a small group of individuals with cerebral palsy at the very beginning to where we now provide services to the full spectrum of individuals. Everyone from newborns on up to seniors, in all of the major rehabilitation disciplines: physical, occupational and speech therapies. When we brought the Opportunity Center on board in 2007, we added the component of vocational rehabilitation.

“On a personal level, what really drives me is the notion that I can help make a difference in someone’s life. I’m not out there providing the services. I’m not a therapist. I don’t treat people. But if I do my job right I can help put in place the right personnel, the right resources, the right types of facilities and the right opportunities for this organization to meet our mission. As a facilitator to allow our programs to happen, I think that’s what really keeps me focused.”

— Mark Alexander

The post His focus is on people, programs and facilities appeared first on The Baytown Project.