On Friday, Oct. 11, the community is invited to dinner and dancing with members of The Next Stop, a nonprofit serving adults with special needs. The event will take place from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at The Next Stop, located inside the Suwanee Sports Academy at 3640 Burnette Road in Suwanee. Tickets to the event are $10 a person and reservations are required. For more on the event and The Next Stop, please visit www.thenextstop.org or contact Vicki LaRoche at 404-932-3953.
Who doesn’t like to hang out with friends for a few laughs? At The Next Stop in Suwanee, a nonprofit serving adults with special needs, there is plenty of hanging out and laughing. And cooking and zumba dancing and card playing. “The whole point of The Next Stop is to give our members a way to interact, to be social,” said Vicki LaRoche, the nonprofit’s executive and program director. “It is cool when people meet at The Next Stop and then go to the movies together and their families become friends.”
LaRoche and her husband Stu, who founded the nonprofit six years ago, understand how hard it is for many disabled adults, especially those who don’t drive or work, to find ways to socialize. The couple are parents of three grown children, two of whom are intellectually disabled and attend The Next Stop.
Q: Can you talk more about The Next Stop’s purpose.
A: By law, people with special needs can be served by the school system until they are 22 years old. After that, they have fewer opportunities to be with people other than their families. We realize that we can help our members continue to mature and grow.
Q: Why is it important that people with special needs interact socially?
A: Without these experiences, the skills they have learned from being part of a group can start to regress. Some people become isolated and lonely and depressed. That would be true for any of us.
Q: Where did you get the idea for The Next Stop?
A: Another woman and I started a program at my church where young adults with special needs could get together one Friday a month. We were amazed at how many people came. They had such a fun time and we thought, “We have to make this happen more often.” My son who is not disabled encouraged us to do just that. Before I knew it, my husband and I were focused on the idea of The Next Stop.
Q: Who is the program for?
A: It is directed at people who have special needs and are high functioning. We are not trained professionals. We are mom and dad and volunteers. We are mentors.
Q: How has the response been?
A: We can serve up to 30 members a day and we always have a waiting list. We would like to have our own building some day so we could serve more people.
Q: What’s a typical day like?
A: The first hour is free social time — playing card games, shooting baskets in the gym, doing puzzles. We have a kitchen and our members cook up something different every day. We have some kind of physical activity — zumba, tennis, walking, etc. We have a social learning hour where we work in groups. Today we talked about ways that we have grown.
Q: Does the program benefit the parents of your members?
A: If you have someone with special needs in your family, then you know. I hope that part of what attracts parents to the The Next Stop is that my husband and I are like them. Their situation is our situation.
Q: What are the challenges of running the program?
A: Fundraising is work. Members pay $10 a day but these fees don’t cover a whole lot. My husband and I love The Next Stop — it is our passion and our job. At the same time, we are the parents of two children with special needs and sometimes I feel completely overwhelmed.
Q: Is it unusual to have two children with special needs?
A: Yes. We did seek genetic counseling but didn’t get any answers. I am way beyond the why. If I wrote a book about this experience, it would be called, “When Your Dream Changes.”
Q: What are your dreams for your children?
A: When you realize your children will not grow into typical adults, your perspective of what’s most important becomes clear. Our biggest priority is that they are happy and secure.
The Sunday Conversation is edited for length and clarity. Writer Ann Hardie can be reached by email at ann.hardie@ymail.com.
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