- Matching.
- The yellow goes over there. - Oh, I did need-
- The back of the tile -matches.
-- Good. -There you go.
- Good job. -Nice one.
- We've got peak. (gentle music) -[Adeline] To be able
to have your child go to a place that
you know is safe, that they love to go to, (gentle music) it's everything. (gentle music) That's what every parent wants. (gentle music) - [Narrator] Before 2018, there was no place for teens
with special needs to go when the school day
was over in Hastings. Parents were forced
to find in-home care or leave work early to
ensure their kids were safe. As Adeline was looking
at these options for her own daughter, she knew there had to
be a better solution. -[Adeline] Our oldest daughter, who is six years older than Zoe, she was a junior in high school and it kind of occurred to us, oh, she's going to college. What shall we do now? And so I started hunting around other like Special Olympics
parents and saying, "So, what do you guys do?" "We stay home." Well, that's not an
option. I'm a teacher. My husband works a day job. That's a no. We just gotta figure this out, and so I started asking, "Well, what if we did our own? What if we like
co-opt something? Could we do that?" - [Narrator] They
did exactly that and started their own program. Our Place After School Care. It began in the basement
of Adeline's Church, but quickly grew into
a place of its own that let them help
others, like Joslynn. -[Erin] My daughter
Joslynn, she's 15. She was born early and
she has cerebral palsy. So, she's in a wheelchair. She's 100% physically
dependent on others to care for her. So, life before Our Place was I had in-home care providers that would come to my house and watch her until I
would get home from work. Unfortunately, recently, she started to have some pretty
significant health issues. She's been having some seizures, and so my providers in-home are not able to provide
the emergency medication, and so unfortunately, they had to let us go. I was actually looking
to have to cut back my hours at work, which literally means
not enough money to put food on the table, to pay my mortgage, to provide the things
that my kids need. - There ya go.
- Oh. K. Here, Zoe. Will you throw
that away, please? -[Joslynn] Well,
that was no yolk. (people laughing) - [Caregiver] That
was was no yolk. - That was no yolk. Like, that was no joke. - [Caregiver] Right. -[Erin] She absolutely
loves it here. The caregivers that I
would have in-home before would be middle-aged, maybe a little bit older women, and so she's a 15-year-old girl. She's a teenager, and so having other teenage
girls that she could be around, it just makes her thrive -in that area.
- Almost a strike! - [Adeline]
Depending on the day, if they're in the mood, they'll do games or
things like that. Otherwise, sometimes, they're just hanging
out, talking. -[Raegyn] They do a
lot of fun activities, like games, baking,
snacks, cupcakes, usually always
cakes when we bake. Otherwise, we also
do art, crafting. - It's just more fun
than stuck in my bed. (gentle music) -[Christie] We have families
with kids with special needs that there are so
many different things that they explore or need, maybe like being able to
hang out with friends, but going to birthday parties or hanging out with
friends after school is not something that
they get a chance to do. - [Narrator] Our
Place was created to give teens with special needs opportunities they
didn't have before. In 2022, they took it one step further by opening a consignment store to give the students a
new level of independence. - [Adeline] So, the
Freedom Factory happened, because we saw a program
called Roots to Wings in Arlington, Nebraska, and they do that program
for 21 and older, and I thought well, that's a fabulous idea that their people make things, and then they sell it
in a consignment store. I thought, well, why couldn't my teens do that? (gentle music) They get their first paycheck and one is just staring
at it, mouth agape, doing this jump up and
down kind of thing. It's just so fabulous. - Who's ready to
frost some cupcakes? - Woo hoo!
- I am! - [Narrator] These
past six years have just been the beginning for Our Place After School Care. Dreams and ambitions
for the program are big. No matter what growth
comes in the future, their focus on caring
for and celebrating teens with special needs
will always remain. -[Erin] Moms and parents, advocates are allowing
those kids to be seen, and so we're not
ashamed or shunning or hiding them away anymore, and so we have to give
them the full realm of being able to
fit into a community and having a space that's safe. (gentle music) -[Adeline] That's why
our name is Our Place, 'cause it is their place. It's where they can
go to be themselves and not have to worry about
what someone else is thinking or any of those kinds of things. (gentle music) - On your napkin. There's your knife, honey.