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He’s going to go very slow. <>
Okay, go ahead. Let go. Let go.
There it goes. (clapping and cheers)
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(Martha) Raising a child with a disability is challenging.
It’s kind of a lonely life when you have a disability
cause you’re not at liberty to go out and find your own experiences.
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(Victoria) I was one of those kids that was like deathly afraid at first.
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But, I mean, all in all it was probably one of the best experiences
I’ve had in my lifetime so far.
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<> That was a genuine smile!
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The dolphin trip when I was a little kid, that was one of my highlights of my life so far.
<> Oh, yeah alright! <>
<> Good boy! <>
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It was fun, just being able to bond with some of the people that I know now…
and um... pretty much my whole life. That’s actually how we met was on the dolphin trip.
And I pretty much look at them like they’re my brothers.
Just all the trips that I’ve been on with UCP has been a blessing to me
because I know that I have friends that I could go hang out with, spend time, and have fun with.
(Martha) UCP brings experiences into our lives that
we never would have thought to have.
I don’t know, like a passage into the rest of the world that everyone else gets to experience.
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I started working with people with disabilities 36 years ago.
I went to work starting programs without any sort of government funding, I was told it couldn’t be done.
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I have seen a lot of people come out of the system –
the developmental center system, the State hospital system.
A lot of what happens is these folks go into the community and the intent is
'Get people out into the community' and they’re just gonna move on and live their life...
and that ends up not being the case. They end up living incredibly isolated lives.
We come around and we change that isolation
and we turn the isolation into a feeling of community with other people.
We give them a sense of belonging to a group of friends.
And just simple things like going bowling or the other weekend we went
on Lake Cachuma and the kids got to drive a boat, and many of them
had never done that, and that’s what’s so important is that something
that might be very simple or something that you wouldn’t think twice about...
these people don’t have the opportunity.
(Brian) It’s always special and it turns into something special.
There’s always something you don’t expect, that makes these trips really enjoyable.
You might leave and go on your trip as friends, but I always feel that when I come back,
I feel like... more like, an extended family. Huh...
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Power Soccer is the first sport ever that folks who use Electric wheelchairs can participate in.
And we have a travelling power soccer team
that travels throughout the state. So for them to finally be able
to play a sport and compete... the enthusiasm level is off the charts
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(Marty) Kyle Colton, who has been in all of our programs,
he’s one of the top power soccer players probably in the country today.
I think this is my sixth year doing it, seventh year, and I’ve grown as an athlete.
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Almost should be at the level where I’m gonna try out for Team USA.
(Dylan) That guy’s amazing to me. He’s determined
and he kind of decided what he wanted to do with power soccer
and he’s serious about it. And he trains, he works out.
(Kyle) It’s just really good to have Dylan just to mentor me
on how to be a better athlete.
You know he doesn’t have the best circumstances, but he doesn’t let it stop him.
And he sees it as a challenge that he’s going to overcome.
(Kyle) People are just so amazed at what I can do,
and that’s a good feeling for me, cause
UCP has taught me that I can do it and nobody can stop me.
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Craig Hyams...
the person probably who inspired me more than anybody I ever worked with.
Here’s a guy born with Cerebral Palsy. He's...
at age nine or ten they found out he had cancer and he had to have one leg removed.
Completely deaf.
Living in an institutional setting with four or five people in a room.
We got him out of the institutional setting. We got him into his own apartment.
We found work for him so he could be paid for what he was doing.
We connected him with people with like interests. He drew people to him.
And the friendships that were created through our programs,
he kept to the last day of his life.
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<<♪♪ piano >> In order to keep these programs going,
since we don’t get any government funding at all,
we need private donations. We need individuals to believe in what we’re doing,
so that we can continue to do what we are doing and expand it.
You know, I think of things like the six-week course with the surrogate program.
Nobody else would do that – even touch that!
No one else would take you up on a plane and
let you see Grand Canyon in a private plane.
(Rita) That’s that community support that you get through UCP/Work, Inc. that
you know, I don’t know what our family would have done without that. It really reached out to everybody.
(Heather) You know, when you know that they’re having fun and when you see the kids with
big smiles on their faces or you hear a child with autism that never speaks
repeating to herself that she had such a great day, she had such a great day…
those are the things that make it so important.
I don’t think we’d have the joy of life that we have if it hadn’t been for
for everything that Marty kind of instilled
and injected into our life.
We’re people. I mean, we’re not some sort of alien from another planet.
I mean, we’re just, you know, your person next door.
and we want to be treated like a regular person, so...
I mean, we’re not looking for any special treatment.
We just want to be able to, you know, join in.
(Marty) I feel like I get back more than I deserve because
I always feel like there’s people whose needs aren’t being met. So...
It’s like no matter what I do, I feel like I could be doing more.
But I get back just an enormous amount of love.
I don’t think that could be beat.
I always think of the Nat King Cole song, “Nature Boy.”
(singing) The greatest thing you’ll ever learn
is just to love and be loved in reeeturnnnnnnn…"
That was almost on key.
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Captions by ACCESS Unlimited • Santa Barbara, CA