Arrow-right Camera
Subscribe now

COVID-19

Spokane nonprofit that helps adults with developmental disabilities goes digital to continue service

Lamb Family Home residents left to right, back row, Lauren Jones, Anna McCoy, and Mariah Bechtel and front row, Elizabeth DeLauder, all miss their activities with Project id, which serves adults with developmental disabilities. (Colin Mulvany / The Spokesman-Review)

Like every other Wednesday night, Project id was in motion, with scores of participants following their Zumba instructor’s lead.

But unlike a typical Wednesday, no students were in the room.

Unable to provide the in-person services for adults with developmental disabilities that are a hallmark of its organization, Project id has found creative ways to engage its members online – like streaming its weekly Zumba class.

As with Zumba, Project id has moved its weekly Sunday church service to Facebook Live. It organized a virtual safari by providing links to cameras inside zoos, where pandas and lions are on display. It organizes at-home scavenger hunts, hosts online interviews and shares drawings.

Ultimately, the goal is to stay connected, even when this tightly knit community is forced apart.

“The isolation is really hard, and we have had some homes that have told us there’s some behavioral problems because they’re not able to connect with people,” said executive director Bob Hutchinson.

Project id in Spokane provides a recreational outlet for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities who otherwise might not be challenged and engaged after aging out of the school system. Normally, its Wolf Den Recreation Center, 4209 E. Pacific Ave., offers a range of evening activities like coloring and card games.

But that’s all on pause during the COVID-19 pandemic, affecting members and organization leaders.

Hutchinson estimated that Project id is getting close to 50 calls a day from members who just want to talk.

“We still try to take a few minutes of every day and still have that connection and let them hear from us,” Hutchinson said.

On Easter, World Market on North Division Street donated two pickup-truck-loads of candy and other festive goodies that Project id volunteers packaged and distributed to its members. It delivered Easter cheer to more than 100 homes, accounting for more than 200 people, according to Hutchinson.

Hutchinson is acutely aware that Project id’s absence has put additional strains on the homes it serves.

Paige Lamb operates an adult family home that cares for four adult women with developmental disabilities, all of whom are “very, very active,” she said, and participate in the Wolf Pack, the Special Olympics team that Project id organizes.

Though the whole world is shut down, the women Lamb cares for take it personally.

“There’s a level of understanding and although they know we can’t go places, they don’t understand. I have a couple that are like ‘That’s not fair, it’s not fair,’ ” Lamb said. “We’re reassuring them that it’s not just us being mean.”

Without programs like Project id, the women are finding new ways to stay connected to friends. There’s a virtual bingo game Monday through Friday, during which five members receive a Bingo number by text message.

There’s also a daily journal prompt distributed by text among the network of friends. Each participant writes the question at the top, answers the question below and takes a picture of their journal entry to send to friends.

“It’s really hard without their regular activity, and (for) a lot of these guys, routine is huge,” Lamb said.

Project id recently transitioned to holding its weekly, nondenominational Friendship Church service – which typically has an attendance of 40 to 60 members – to a Facebook livestream.

It’s a stark deviation from the normal service, in which members are encouraged to play instruments, sing songs and just be themselves.

“It’s the interaction we have with our members that makes it so enjoyable. So we have to do that without them being there, and yeah, it’s a little different,” Pastor Rick Pisani said. “They take a very active part in the church.”

Friendship Church is a place where people with intellectual and developmental disabilities “get to be themselves, and they can’t do that in a regular church” Pisani said.

“They don’t have to stay seated, they don’t have to show that pastoral respect and sit there and listen. We don’t have those rules. We’re a nondenominational Bible church, and we don’t care who you are or what you believe if you want to participate in our church service,” Pisani said.

But the transition to a digital service required adjustment, including buying a new microphone and overcoming the technical challenges of playing music.

Like so many other nonprofits and businesses, the economic fallout brought on by the pandemic has taken a toll on Project id’s finances. Though many continue their support through monthly membership fees, the nonprofit already has been forced to cancel two fundraisers that account for about 10% of its annual budget.

Even if it could host its planned golf tournament fundraiser, Hutchinson wonders if its usual participants still will have the resources.

“We have to be conscious of our donors, too, because they’ve had their lives stripped away from them also,” Hutchinson said.

Project id doesn’t take its donors for granted, so it’s planned to operate in a lean way for the near future.

“We can continue for a few more months, but if this thing goes into September, I’m not sure where we’ll (be),” Hutchinson said.