Kathy Stopper could see that her daughter Jo missed being with the friends that she had made at the Hope programs, so she and a couple of the other moms with adult children who were also missing their friends decided to get everyone together informally at a park.

After about a year, they decided they wanted to include more people, so the group approached Hope. It was suggested that Agape Fellowship, where Stopper is a member, would be a good place because of the handicap accessibility it offers.

“We started coming here — a small group of four or five, six at max,” Stopper said.

Hope helped the group meet once a month at the YMCA and so they continued to get together.

The group became a seed that had been planted and just needed other elements to help it grow.

Last summer, Lauri Rintelman, student ministry leader at Agape and a lecturer of Spanish at Lycoming College, spent time in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to be “immersed in the language,” she said. While there, Rintelman helped at a local church.

“They had members who were volunteering at a day center for adults that had severe cerebral palsy. There was only one woman running all of this by herself,” Rintelman said.

“(She) would be giving them at least two meals a day, giving them education, giving them therapy. Not only was she running it herself, but her adult child was disabled — (she was) taking care of him and her own elderly father,” Rintelman said.

After returning home, she couldn’t stop thinking about that.

“I had a fun couple of hours. I did something worthy and then I went home. I’m just thinking there’s one woman in particular…she’s still there. This is her everyday existence,” she said. “It kind of changed my perspective.”

She thought of Stopper, who had been putting together activities for the group meeting at Agape.

“I should be supporting Kathy and Jo, because I hear her talking. I know it was so much work. She’d be gathering these big tubs of stuff. I know how hard this is to make activities…I should be supporting her,” Rintelman said.

Because of her position at Lycoming College, she knew about their Community Based Learning (CBL) program where they partner professors and students with the community so that the students get real world experience. So, she contacted Kimberly Kohler, assistant professor of education at Lycoming. Kohler, along with Lycoming College, provided the next element in the growth of the Friendship Club.

Kohler was told by the director of CBL that there was a need in the community for programming for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities once they are beyond school age.

“Hope does an awesome job of doing a lot of programming and things, but (this helps) to get a little bit more variety because on the off-times when they’re not working with Hope, they might have gone to the mall, but the mall is no longer here,” Kohler said.

Kohler shared that at first she couldn’t conceptualize how the program would work, but through discussions with the director, it was decided that students could participate as part of a course.

“This is a tremendous opportunity because it’s tied with my introduction to Special Education course that all students who are in the education track take at Lycoming,” she said.

“It’s also a wonderful opportunity to show that when we have school-aged children they’re covered under IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). But, when they turn 21 and now 22 in Pennsylvania, a lot of those supports and services that they were getting for many, many years are no longer available. It’s a great way to really emphasize that disability is a lifelong thing…we really need to think about how are we going to support adults with disabilities,” Kohler said.

Out of this, the college’s involvement in the Friendship Club began last fall.

The first month, students spend the time getting things ready and planning. Then, every Thursday, Kohler has two students go to the club and do activities with those attending. They plan out everything, such as procedures and materials, and also write a pre-reflection.

“We receive a lot of positive feedback from not only the individuals who come, but also the students who came last semester,” Kohler said.

“I had them do reflections and for some of them it was really life changing. Just to be able to be within this community and be a part of it and really engage with people that they might have never been able to just in their day-to-day life,” she said.

Although the club started out small, it’s been gaining momentum. Stopper shared that they started with nine attendees last semester, but since the beginning of the year, there have been 20 people at times. The club is open to anyone, even if they’re not associated with Hope Enterprises. The only requirement is that they have to be accompanied by a companion.

The college’s education department has also posted about it on social media to get the word out.

It’s hard to describe, Kohler said, what the Lycoming students get out of their time at the Friendship Club.

“They come back in with their bin of supplies. Just the look on their faces,” Kohler said.

After returning to the college, one student told her, “I am so tired, but I am so elated. I am so excited…this was just amazing.”

“To be able to offer that to our students, I think, is just so valuable. They learn about these different disability categories in my class, and then they come out and they actually see people, and all those preconceived notions of what that disability is kind of goes out the window,” Kohler said.

In their pre-reflections before going to the club, some students have expressed concerns about being able to communicate with the friends there and will whether they will understand.

“They come back and say, it’s just like everybody else getting together and they’re talking with one another and there is no barrier,” Kohler said.

Underpinning the club has been the support of Hope Enterprises.

“It might seem like there’s all these things to do in the community for everyone, but when you’re out there every day trying to find something to do for someone, it’s hard and it gets monotonous,” said Jen Kaufman, Hope Enterprises’ supervisor of Choice Services.

“It’s nice to have this once a week,” Kaufman added.