Lift Disability Network starts Club Elevate

The basketball session was winding down when someone suggested a few rounds of Just Dance. Before long, participants were spinning around to “Let it Go,” and even the most timid participants were dancing.

Six local residents are the first to join Club Elevate, a day program started by Lift Disability Network executive director Jim Hukill. There is room for six more.

The club is for adults with developmental disabilities and has been a dream of Hukill’s for 25 years — but until now he didn’t have the staffing or the funding. He said he is excited to see the community’s response to Lift Disability Network’s new journey.

“I am very excited about the future of this new venture,” Hukill said. “I believe it embodies the vision and spirit of our work. Lift is built on several important values. One of those core values is relationship, and Club Elevate is about providing an environment for relationships to be developed. It gives individuals the opportunity to connect with others and build friendships that can span a lifetime.”

A BLESSING

Members spend the day together building relationships, social and life skills, and community connections.

Stacie Rouse was hired by Lift to build the program prior to its Jan. 9 launch. She has previous experience with day programs and was eager to work with Lift and Club Elevate.

Rouse has one assistant, Andrew Vacca, and several daily volunteers, who keep the program running smoothly each day and assist with onsite activities, field trips and meals. More volunteers are needed, Rouse said, for daily activities and especially during community outings.

The six families who have already joined the club are thrilled with the program.

“They’re very encouraging, very grateful,” Rouse said. “Several (parents) have told me, ‘I’m so glad I finally found the right place for my child.’ The club members love it. Alex just told me, ‘I love being with you guys.’”

Club Elevate has been a blessing for Jennifer Goble, the mother of 21-year-old Ben, who said the program gets Ben out of his comfort zone. He likes music and dancing, but if participants start playing basketball, which he doesn’t care for, his choice is either to play with the others or sit alone.

“It opens his horizons,” Goble said.

The program offers new potential interests and is designed to help participants develop skills to lead a more independent life. Club members will work through a social-skills plan each semester, Rouse said. This might include how to hold conversations and how to behave in public.

These skills will be worked through as a group and individually. Each member’s plan can be adjusted throughout the semester based on individual progress and input from staff and parents.

Monthly field trips in the community will allow them to practice the skills they have learned. The first outing was a visit with the Orlando Police Department’s mounted horse unit.

“They told them about the horses, what they have to do to be police horses, what kind of calls they take; and then they let them ask questions about the horses and the police force and then they got to pet the horses and then go to the park and have a picnic,” Rouse said.

Upcoming field trips include bowling, going to the movies and visiting the zoo.

The tuition is $75 per day, and this includes all the supplies, activities, staff and space rental. Field trips are extra. The only requirements are that club participants must be able to feed themselves and use the restroom by themselves.

Goble said her son, Ben, is having a fantastic time.

“He’s so incredibly social and so incredibly outgoing … and because he always wants to go out on adventures, I have to constantly come up with ideas,” Goble said. “He gets that social action he needs, and it gives me a chance to breathe, relax, and I can take care of me for a couple of hours.

“Then, on the days I do have him, I have more energy to entertain him and I’m not so exhausted,” she said. “He wakes up every day and says, ‘What are going to do today, Mom?’”

She said she’s grateful Ben is someplace safe and having fun.

FUTURE PHASES

This is just the first of several phases for Club Elevate, Rouse said. The first one has more of a club feel with a focus on socializing, but the plan is to launch next year a training program that will provide job skills and independent life skills.

“It’s closest to Building Pathways,” she said. “It’s another day program in West Orange County that does life skills and jobs training. There’s such a need for it, we could start dozens of programs and it wouldn’t be enough. And everyone has different needs, so you have to find what’s a good fit for you.”

Once the second phase is ready, Club Elevate will solicit partners in the community for onsite training.

EXPRESSION OF THE HEART

“For more than 25 years we have been working towards this moment,” Hukill said. “Our work at Lift has proposed to build an organization in West Orange County that provides for our citizens an opportunity to have services that are accessible to them and not way across town. We have done many events, projects and outreaches, but this is our first program that is built on a day-in-and-day-out effort to serve our community.”

Hukill understands the need for accessible services and opportunities for success; he was born with a neuromuscular disease and has used a wheelchair for mobility since he was 6 years old.

“As Winter Garden and surrounding areas grow, we are going to be able to provide care for our local families living with disability,” he said. “This is very important to me and to our team at Lift.”

Hukill and his wife, Rhonette, started Lift Disability Network in 2006 to realize their vision of creating successful families when one member has a disability.

“Club Elevate also is an expression of the heart of Lift, in that we are concerned about families that face disability issues every day,” Hukill said. “Through this warm, caring environment we have an opportunity to daily touch the lives of families.

“God has given us a heart to minister to people who are often overseen and not given opportunities,” he said. “With Club Elevate, our team has an opportunity to pour out God's love every day. This is personal to us. It is who we are. And today we get celebrate another way for us to ‘Elevate Life in the Disability Family.’ ”