Thank you to the SECURA Insurance Companies Charitable Fund within the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region for their $2,000 grant in support of SOAR Fox Cities’ Adult Education Program!
SOAR Fox Cities’ Adult Education Program is one of the keystone programs in our mission to Empower People with Differing Abilities. The program equips adults with disabilities with basic life skills through courses including healthy cooking, household chores, personal safety, public transportation, time management, and financial literacy. Skills obtained through our program empower participants to have success in their personal endeavors and lead safer, healthier, and more independent lives! With support from the SECURA Insurance Companies Charitable Fund within the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region, we look forward to another great year of learning in 2020!
Thank you to the Jewelers Mutual Charitable Giving Fund within the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region for their $2,000 grant in support of SOAR Fox Cities’ Wellness Program!
The Wellness Program was launched in 2019 to help adults with differing abilities stay healthy and active by providing year-round physical fitness opportunities in settings that are accessible and supportive to each person’s needs. Some activities include Y fitness classes that teach workout equipment use, walking groups, disc golf, geocaching, healthy cooking, and gardening. Participants in this program are growing stronger, losing weight, and creating healthy habits that will last a lifetime! With support from the Jewelers Mutual Charitable Giving Fund within the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region, we look forward to continuing and expanding our offerings in 2020!
SOAR’s Adult Social, Recreation, and Respite (SRR) is one of our most popular programs, offering unique activities for adults with disabilities year-round! Through this program, participants can develop self-esteem, social skills, and healthy life styles while trying new things out in the community! Offerings range from two-hour activities in the Fox Cities to day-long excursions to new cities and places!
Our most popular SRR Activities are our monthly dances with over 100 participants at each event!!
Other SRR events include:
Game Nights
Live Shows (WWE Wrestling, Disney on Ice)
Dinner and a Movie
Museum Trips
Craft Nights
Lambeau Tours
Holiday Celebrations (Garden of Lights, Nutcracker at the Castle)
It’s Back to School Season, did you know that SOAR offers programs for youth both during school and after school? Many of our youth programs include students with and without disabilities, providing safe environments that foster understanding and acceptance among all participants. Our youth programs include-
Kidz Klub: a collaborative after-school program for elementary aged kids.
Teen Stop: an after-school peer-to-peer social group for kids in middle school.
TnT: a youth group for Teens and Transitioning youth (ages 13-23) that offers educational, social, and recreational activities.
Activity Days: In-school activities brought to elementary, middle, and high school classrooms around the Fox Cities for free.
K.I.T.E. Kamp: a four-day day camp for youth ages 6-16 held each August.
For more information on our youth programs, contact Lisa McCallister, our awesome Youth Services Manager!
“Lisa does such a great job exposing our students to situations in which we can work on life skills, social skills, and executive function skills.”
-Katrina Bartell, Madison Middle School Appleton
Steven’s Success
Steven* is a young man who typically struggles with anger and bullying others. This year at K.I.T.E Kamp, however, he played games with younger campers, helped campers with more significant needs complete activities, and comforted campers that were scared to do some activities, like exploring a dump truck, by holding their hands and helping them up. When leaders told him he was doing a great job, Steven told them he was surprised he was being so nice to people, but it felt so awesome to help them. Way to go Steven!
All of our programs, including K.I.T.E. Kamp, help kids like Steven enhance skills needed to work in team settings, challenge their thinking, and build on appropriate social skills.
This summer SOAR participants worked hard and played hard with special programs for healthy living and active lifestyles.
This year we have been focusing on expanding fitness opportunities for our participants, and this summer was no exception! Our special activities included Six Parks in Six Weeks, a walking program around the community, Strong Bodies, a strength, flexibility, and balance class with Appleton Park and Rec, Y Fitness, an educational workout class at the YMCA teaching participants workout techniques and about the fitness equipment, Keeping it Cool, a fun, active afternoon of water based activities such as water balloon baseball, S’more Summer Fun, a fun night of outdoor games and foil pack dinners with family and friends, and Riverside Garden Volunteering, where participants weeded gardens, raked debris, helped with planting, and more around the gardens.
We are so proud of all of our participants who (literally) went the extra mile this summer with us. We had so much fun and can’t wait to keep getting stronger together!
“Congrats to the participants who all have really been challenging themselves. They strive to go further, faster, or longer than ever before. They are not afraid to sweat and push their bodies; and, they smile, laugh, and encourage each other all the way”
-Tammy Wittman, WOTFV Americorps Wellness Coordinator
