ARVADA —With wide smiles, Mark Bote, 25, and Justin Wilson, 20, stood side by side carefully stringing a bead bracelet at Arvada Church of Christ.
The duo said they plan on starting their own business making NFL-themed cat and dog collars and are excited about making new friends in the process.
“I just like beadwork, and I like working with other people,” Bote said. “If I’m feeling stressed or anything, I take a breather and do beading, and it helps me relax.”
While Bote and Wilson worked on their beads, other small groups stayed busy reading, forming polymer clay pens or working on an assembly line cranking out homemade dog treats.
The dozen or so participants are all members of , an Arvada nonprofit started by Shana Riley, who wanted a way to keep her daughter and other adults with special needs productive and socializing after they graduated high school.
Two years ago, she started with a small group in her home kitchen making and selling dog treats and quickly saw the pent-up demand for services.
Riley said all too often, young adults with developmental disabilities leave behind the structure and entitlement to certain services when they leave school. They enter into a system and many end up isolated at home.
“There is such a high need for this sort of program,” Riley said. “I watched many of the adults in this population just sitting at home, and thought to myself, ‘What am I going to do here?’ ”
Seventeen adults come four days a week for seven hours of activities meant to foster self-sufficiency, teach job skills and train them to take control of their lives and decision-making. The products are sold across the region in pet and specialty stores.
“Not only are they learning job skills, but socially they have grown in their ability to think for themselves,” Riley said. “All their lives there’s always someone telling them what to do or making decisions for them, and we want them to have a choice.”
Three job coaches and a volunteer guide the group. Ninety minutes of every day is spent in a group setting honing social skills by asking questions or just talking about their week.
“I really like coming here, because people can relate to you and you can relate to them,” Wilson said. “It’s a welcoming environment.”
Therese Bote said her son Mark Bote has always wanted to work. The family spent years navigating waiting lists and bureaucracy before finding Hearts ‘n’ Hands.
She said her son has become more engaged with the family, more self-sufficient and aware of how other people are feeling.
“It’s been amazing — it’s been life changing,” Therese Bote said. “It’s given him such a purpose, and I think because she also teaches relationships that he’s really been able to better relate to other people.”
Austin Briggs: 303-954-1729, abriggs@denverpost.com or twitter.com/abriggs
