Interview with Embrace. A Community Project
Image from Embrace Instagram
This month I had the chance to interview a truly wonderful individual. Not only is their organization amazing, but the interview experience was even more special for me as this individual also happens to be an old friend that I first met back in Elementary School. Kylah Wilson-Zelmer recently founded 'Embrace. A Community Project' with Nevis Klaudt. I will be referring to the organization as Embrace. This is a fantastic startup organization which I am so excited to share. The company is still in the startup process, but it is already seeing amazing results. As Kylah and I talked about Embrace, our conversation focused on five core questions that reveal the extraordinary passion and potential of Embrace.
Q. In your own words, what is Embrace?
"Embrace exists to bring young adults with disabilities who are transitioning out of high school, together in work, volunteer, and community activities. What makes Embrace so exciting is that we are pioneering a unique group aid approach. Traditional day programs consist of individuals being brought to a large, isolated care centre, engaging in pre-set group activities, and then mostly distracting themselves with activities they do as individuals. What Embrace strives to do instead is invite these individuals into engaging with the greater community.
Practically, this is done in several ways. The first step is that most activities are done in a group setting. This allows everyone to feel like they are engaging in something larger than themselves. By constantly engaging in group activities, all participants can strengthen their confidence in trying new skills and create stronger connections with the other participants, which creates a sense of belonging. Additionally, all our activities are determined by the passions of the current group. If the group is made up of people who like to dance, we dance; if they like to draw, we draw. We work very hard to get to know each adult in our program to quickly and effectively adapt the daily schedule to fit their passions better.
Finally, we work hard to partner with other organizations that complement the interests of our group members. An example of this is when we recently partnered with the Calgary Flames Sports Bank. We reached out to them because one of our adults loves sports. The results were terrific. The adult loves it and brags all the time about the volunteer work they do in a space they are passionate about.
This combination of approaches allows us to create a catered care experience that empowers our clients to feel like they are truly part of their local community. Our goal is to create an environment that allows young adults with disabilities to experience a holistic sense of community. This can only really be done by our innovative approach of combining work, volunteering, and community activities."
Q. What inspired you to start Embrace?
"I have always had a passion for engaging and working with vulnerable populations. This is why I joined the Community Rehabilitation and Disability Studies program at the University of Calgary. During this program, I gained expertise on how to assess and improve existing programs for people with disabilities. After practicums, I gained some experience in the sector. I quickly noticed that most services focus on designing programs explicitly for individuals with disabilities but do not focus on including and building an entire community. These existing programs are needed for people with disabilities, but I dream of something more, where inclusion and accessibility are a priority and expectation instead of an afterthought, to enable diverse participation in all opportunities throughout our program. I also found there is a gap for programs specifically assisting transitioning into adulthood. A program was needed that serves to enhance skills and wellbeing in all systems of a young adults' life, such as daily living, self-care, vocational, and healthy relationship-building skills, all in one place.
We are still in the startup phase, but my dream is to foster a holistic community. While Embrace is starting with a focus on individuals with special needs, I know this movement could be something even more. My ultimate dream is to create a space for individuals with special needs, seniors, students, and other groups of people longing for community. That is why the name of the organization is 'Embrace. A Community Project', because the driving vision is to create a space in which all types of people can feel seen and known."
Q. What has been your favourite moment so far?
"That is such a tricky question to answer because we have so many unforgettable moments. Just yesterday we had a dance party. We often forget to take moments as adults to be present and enjoy silly moments. We have three clients that love dancing, so we as a group decided we were all going to learn a dance to Elvis Presley's Jail House Rock together. It was so beautiful seeing everyone smiling and laughing as they enjoyed being active and silly. Something surprising that has created a lot of amazing moments is networking. We attended The Calgary Resource Fair hosted by Knxion and Children's Link, an event that showcases disability serving resources in Calgary. Embrace participated as a vendor, and we were blown away at how inviting and supportive the other vendors were. Even though we were a new organization that had just started in September, we were invited into the community with open arms. I will always cherish the connections and support we received from our very first networking event.
Finally, another area that is amazing to reflect on is watching the participants support each other. Our goal is community, and we have been encouraged to see that sense of community and positive relationship building already so strong in our group members. Some great examples of this include when we were doing some painting or when we tried a new sport. Once a participant was painting away when another member came to look at what they had made. When the second member saw the painting, they exclaimed, "that looks AMAZING!". The painter was suddenly beaming and so proud of their art piece because of that.
Additionally, a client who may not have been interested in playing hockey at first tried with encouragement from other clients in the group, and they did really well. It has been a truly amazing experience getting to watch as the sense of community has gotten stronger and stronger. This sense of community is one of the key aspects that I hold onto, and it helps me know that we are on the right track."
Q. What does funding look like for Embrace?
"Well, regarding funding, we currently have no funding. I am presently personally funding this project. We pay aids for their time, and they are paid almost all the revenue at the rate we charge our clients. The rates we charge clients are based on their Persons with Development Disability (PDD) allowance. This is money that the government gives to people with disabilities to help cover the cost of their services workers, like ours. We create our rates person to person around their PDD, so our program is affordable and accessible to everyone possible. This allows our aids to be paid for their time while still being an accessible option to all. However, anything past direct PDD income is currently being covered by myself.
We are currently in the process of applying for grants to help cover the startup costs. Our goal is to raise $5,000, which will cover the first few months of operations. We work hard to keep our costs as low as possible, and to achieve this, we have done most of the startup work ourselves. All marketing material I created by myself, and I do almost all the behind-the-scenes work. I was going to build our website myself, but I recently found a program through DMS ShopHERE, powered by Google, to create the website and then train us on how to run it, which has been super useful for a budding entrepreneur that has no expertise in marketing and building websites. Once we start raising money, it will go to administrative duties, materials for programming, and making our program as positive of an experience for our participants."
Q. What is the most significant impact you have seen as a result of Embrace?
"That is another tricky question to answer. We work closely with each individual, so the impact of Embrace is shown differently in each individual. Yet each participant has already grown so much in the program. For example, we started Embrace because of an individual who disliked going to school, so their family did not want to put them into post-secondary or anything that felt like school. The family needed something to provide them with valuables, social roles, purpose, and meaningful experiences while transitioning into adulthood. So, I started Embrace. They now feel like they genuinely have a purpose and feel the value of that. This individual always tells people about their work, volunteering, and all the new things they have recently tried. Another individual was very shy when they first joined Embrace and would barely talk to anyone. Over the last couple of months, we have seen them slowly open up and start talking and engaging with the other group members. It has been so amazing to see them gain confidence in their community.
Overall, it has been amazing to see everyone find joy and pride while engaging in the community. There is always a moment when individuals join our program when they realize that they can choose what their adulthood will look like. They have the freedom to explore their community and participate in ways that they actually want to. For this reason, I am so excited to continuously push for new volunteer and work opportunities for our program participants. We're not looking to watch over or care for individuals for a couple of hours during the day, but we want to help them grow into their vision of what it means to be an adult and foster community building at the same time. Seeing this already happening and seeing how much this has encouraged our participants has been the thing that has most impacted me personally."
I am so thankful to Kylah for sitting down with me and sharing her amazing new organization. Embrace genuinely is already changing lives, and this is only the beginning. If you or a loved one is a young adult with disabilities, I highly recommend checking out the program. I can guarantee that you will find the sense of community you are looking for.