community engagement: inclusive, diverse & equitable

program pillars - COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT (Part 2 of 6)

Some of our best memories growing up are riding the school bus and going on a field trip! Our Members, having recently graduated from school miss the daily routine of riding the bus and it is one of their most favorite activities!

Through a generous grant from The Heart Space Initiative, we were awarded $55K for our “Wheels for The Center” to purchase our beloved bus! We can accommodate 14 seated or up to 4 wheelchairs and 6 seated which allows us to safely coordinate outings and field trips for all our Members.

We focus on locations that are nearby and provide safe accommodations to support lunch and hygiene activities. Some of our favorite outings have been to the Aquarium, Petting Zoo and of course Bowling! Community engagement is a critical factor in our ability to enhance advocacy and awareness for local businesses to support special needs. Regular and frequent engagement with our local businesses build a strong supportive community and lead to increasing the comfort level of our Members while in the community.

Members practice safely navigating getting in and off the bus, appropriate behavior while in the community such as properly greeting and interacting with others. They practice personal finance and agency by ordering and purchasing items for The Center’s upcoming projects or for their own lunch "off-campus". Members are strictly supervised while in the community and we tend to have volunteers join us for longer outings to provide more hands-on support.

We believe that an inclusive community is a resilient community and the more that we are able to safely engage with our community the stronger and more secure our Members will be as the community support equity and diversity for differently abled persons.

BECOME A MEMBER

be a community leader - become a "friend of the center"

We are fortunate to be located near downtown Roanoke, TX - the Unique Dining Capitol of North Texas! The local businesses, restaurants and shops along Oak Street have been super supportive of our growth and welcome our Members into their place of business. This is a true sign of leadership, diversity, equity and inclusiveness and we could not be more grateful as community engagement is such an important part of our mission.  We welcome an invite our community partners, leaders and businesses to become a "Friend of The Center" and join us as advocates for Special Needs. 

By being a "Friend of The Center" you are publicly supporting The Center. You declare that you welcome and advocate for those with special needs at your place of business and you participate in our community fundraising and partnership activities.

​We extend our community partners co-marketing material and join in efforts for fundraising events. We can always use more "Friends" so please join us to make sure our community remains inclusive, diverse, equitable and engaged in advocating for those with special needs.  

BECOME A FRIEND OF THE CENTER