When participants in Daily Companions Inc.’s adult programs look into a special mirror in the Daily Companions center in Martinsburg, they can smile knowing they helped create something unique and meaningful.
Daily Companions Inc. is a center that provides assistance for members of the West Virginia Title XIX I/DD Waiver program. DCI offers a residential living program, a supported employment program and a rehabilitative program geared toward adults with mental or developmental disabilities.
Part of DCI’s mission is to help program participants live and work as independently as possible. Daily Companions founder Lee Cloughfeather shaped the center’s mission to follow something her brother, Arty Smith, said related to being an adult with special needs:
“Don’t tell me what I can’t do. Let me show you what I can do.”
Janice Anderson, executive administrative assistant at DCI, helps organize weekly field trips for the clients on Fridays.
Recently, Anderson arranged for the clients to attend CraftWorks at Cool Spring, an art and nature center in Jefferson County.
Anderson said she asked the clients what they wanted to do, and they said they wanted to learn how to cook and how to make art.
“I sent a number of letters to artists, but the only studio that responded was CraftWorks,” Anderson said. “We had taken (the clients) out to Michael’s (craft store) in the past, but they would be bored and want to leave in five minutes. They liked going to CraftWorks and experiencing what it’s like to make a piece of art and have that physical and mental challenge.”
According to Linda Case, executive director of CraftWorks, the DCI participants learned how to make polymer clay tiles and decorate them. Many of the clients pressed leaves or beads or carved their names into their tiles, which were then arranged as a border around a mirror.
In addition to making the clay tiles, those who participated in the field trip to CraftWorks learned how to make quesadillas, salad and brownies, which they had for lunch that day.
“Daily Companions staff said their clients had been given too many childish projects in the past, and they wanted something more challenging. They also wanted to be able to walk away with something they could take home at the end of the day,” Case said. “They (DCI) have a strong philosophy of not dumbing things down and instead, really engaging people.”
Anderson said field trips and projects like the visit to CraftWorks help build clients’ self-esteem, hand-eye coordination and their appreciation for the world around them.
“I think the trip to CraftWorks helped them think creatively. Now, when they look at a picture or a painting, it has more meaning and they can understand how it came to be. Art is just something that happens until they experience it, and it’s stimulating,” she said.
Case said CraftWorks specializes in connecting people with art and nature, which are subjects that span all ages and skill levels.
“Art and nature touch our hearts. They’re subjects that span the spectrum of age and ability, and it’s a combination of an emotional response and an intellectual one,” she said.
Anderson said the Daily Companions group is tentatively planning another visit to CraftWorks in the spring, where they will do some painting and walk on the trails on the CraftWorks property.
“These trips and activities are good for (the clients’) self-esteem and self-respect,” Anderson said. “They are adults, and they deserve to be dignified and respected as adults.”
-Published in The Journal, written by Staff Writer Mary Stortstrom