9/25/08

Activity program opens to serve developmentally disabled adults

by Beckye Randall

Aging presents new challenges for everyone, but for the developmentally disabled, getting older can be a uniquely distressing situation.

The services available locally for this growing population are rare. To help combat the isolation and inactivity many face, Quilceda Community Services (QCS) has begun an activity program at their headquarters, 1402 State Ave. in Marysville.

Under the operational name of Willow Place, QCS plans to host a 3-hour schedule for the area’s developmentally disabled adults that will include an hour of exercise and stretching, followed by crafts activities, music and games. The program will accommodate up to 15 participants each day and be offered five days a week.

Quilceda Community Services has hired Hillary Nettles, a young woman with energy and enthusiasm combined with special training, as the activity director for the Willows Place program.

“These individuals currently don’t have many options,” said Karen Harper, president of the nonprofit organization’s Board of Directors. “They can’t utilize the existing senior centers. Our folks like to play endless games of Old Maid, while the other seniors are playing rounds of killer bridge.”

Harper’s mother, Hazel Venables, was a driving force in the establishment of Quilceda Community Services, which operates a residential facility for developmentally disabled adults on 84th Street in Marysville called The Meadows. Venables, 86, maintains a keen interest in the needs of intellectually-challenged people and is a member of the QCS Board of Directors.

Venables’ involvement with QCS was forged out of necessity. Her oldest daughter, Leslie, was born with mental disabilities. In the 1940s, parents of special needs children had few options. The same year Leslie was born, 1947, saw the beginning of the National Association for Retarded Children, now known as The Arc.

“We were advised to institutionalize our daughter,” Venables recalled. “Educators and social service agencies in those days felt children with developmental disabilities were not their responsibility.”

The pain of placing her daughter in an institution is still palpable in Venables’ voice. “We took her to the Rainier School, and her bed was in a dorm with 105 children,” she said. “It was very hard to send an 8-year-old away from home.”

The local woman was determined that “there had to be a better way,” and in 1979 she helped found Quilceda Community Services with a group of other parents whose children were leaving the institutions where they’d spent their childhoods.

She had already helped pioneer educational alternatives for special needs children with the founding of the Sherwood Learning Center at Frontier Village in Lake Stevens. The private school developed a curriculum and methods that suited their students’ learning behaviors, and demonstrated to public school administrators that these children could be incorporated into neighborhood schools.

As Leslie has grown older, Venables’ focus has shifted with her daughter’s needs. Karen Harper, Leslie’s sister, has shared her mother’s passion for those with special needs. She recently retired after 25 years of teaching special education classes in the Edmonds School District.

“They need to get away from hours in front of the TV,” said Harper. “These adults want to be independent, but they need more activities that are suited to their abilities.”

To test the need and viability of the program, QCS offered a pilot program during the summer of 2007, serving a group of people from 24 to 59 years of age.

“It was definitely a positive venture,” said Venables. “People were more convinced than ever that this is a needed service, and wouldn’t unnecessarily duplicate services offered elsewhere.”

The program is not state-funded and its operation is dependent on community donations of time, materials and money. QCS recently held a successful raffle, thanks to the generosity of the Tulalip Resort Hotel, which provided a prize of accommodations in the luxurious Orca Suite along with dinners and gift cards.

Venables and Harper are also formidable grantwriters for the organization. Funds for the construction of The Meadows, which cost nearly $2 million to build, were mostly the result of HUD grant awards. The Meadows currently has 18 residents, ages 21 to 60 years old. Leslie is the oldest resident of the facility. The organization’s residential services manager is Michael Enright.

A modest user fee of $10 to $15 daily will be charged for the activity program, although the organization hopes to be able to offer scholarships so no one will be turned away due to lack of funds.

QCS is hoping to model Willow Place after a similar Bellevue program, operated and administered by the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. The city provides the staff and the building for the adult activity program, and even offers an after-school “clubhouse” for developmentally disabled students. Partnering with the Red Cross, the Bellevue program also offers advanced babysitting certification for young caregivers of special needs children.

Willow Place will be a place of vibrant fun and productive activity for developmentally disabled adults in our community. QCS, which operates on a shoestring budget, is seeking in-kind donations—particularly craft materials and a music system—and volunteer help.

“This is a great opportunity for high school students to earn community service credits, and for those in college to explore a career path,” said Harper. All volunteers are required to complete a background check and undergo specialized training.

To find out more, phone (360) 652-7526 or (360) 657-2728.

Caption: Quilceda Community Services held a raffle, supported by the Tulalip Resort Casino, to raise funds for the Willow Place program, and in early September awarded two packages including Orca Suite stays, spa services, breakfast at the Cedars café, and a $100 gift certificate to Seattle Premium Outlets. QCS Meadows resident Larry Berg (center) drew the winning raffle tickets as Board member Cindy Kinney (left), residential manager Michael Enright and activities director Hillary Nettles looked on.

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