Iowa City nonprofit looks for adults willing to build relationships, no matter the ability level
Whether it's bowling at Colonial Lanes, playing softball at Napoleon Park or potlucking at the Odd Fellows Lodge, members of a growing nonprofit in Iowa City have been all over town since their first event last fall.
But increasing the Community Inclusion Club's volunteer base comes with a specific challenge: getting more people to understand the value of building friendships between people who do and don't have disabilities.
Shelby Cooper, 23, is among the adults with intellectual disabilities who notice a void when it comes to finding ways to meet people her age.
"(Those relationships) help you understand each other; it creates a bond," Cooper said in an interview last week.
As a member of the CIC's board of directors, she's also among the people trying to create more spaces where people with and without intellectual disabilities can spend time together.
Since launching last fall, the CIC has been holding free events around Iowa City that mostly fill up through word of mouth. Now that the nonprofit is up and running, members of its leadership say they are actively looking for partners and volunteers with a goal of recruiting adults recently out of high school all the way to older adults.
Cooper is the type of quiet person who is comfortable at home reading a book, petting her two dogs or listening to Elton John on her record player. But she's also become increasingly outspoken as a result of her involvement with the nonprofit.
"About Community Inclusion Club; people with disabilities; anything I care about," she said.
The CIC has no paid staff. It relies on support from organizations like the Odd Fellows Lodge, a space near City High the club has been using to hold events, and help with launching a website from Vortex Business Solutions.
This month, members of the nonprofit have met with representatives from the Johnson County Board of Health, Reach For Your Potential and The Village Community about growing their volunteer base.
Finding places to meet new people has been especially tough on adults with intellectual disabilities during the coronavirus pandemic. Local programs offered by organizations like the Village, Goodwill and Systems Unlimited suspended in-person services, meaning an already limited list of options for socialization grew smaller, said Jodi Cooper, Shelby's mother and fellow member of the CIC board of directors.
"It's just kind of those typical activities that we take for granted," she said.
Tom Braverman, a special education teacher at City High and Cooper's former teacher, founded the nonprofit after envisioning it for years. He's concerned that even if someone with an intellectual disability meets someone new at work, where adults commonly meet, it might not turn into a true friendship.
"It might be a situation where someone thinks of them as so 'other' that they're not going to form that friendship; it's just strictly going to be a work relationship and not blossom outside," Braverman said.
But what he's learned from years of working as a teacher is that relationships across ability levels are reciprocal. Spending time in an inclusive space for him allows him to be less focused on things like "what you're wearing, what are you driving, where do you live," but instead, how people treat one another.
"What is it that we're really here for on this planet, right?"
The organization will host a "night out" at Unimpaired, a dry bar downtown, on Aug. 18 and a trip to Wilson's Apple Orchard on Sept. 18.
Cleo Krejci covers education for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. You can reach her at ckrejci@press-citizen.com.
This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Iowa City club builds friendships among those with differing abilities
