Larry: Reaching For His Goals
“Learning by doing” is the best way to describe Larry on a typical day. Larry lives with his parents, brothers and grandmother, and has participated in the St. Louis Arc’s Community Integration (CI) program since 1996. Each day, when the rest of his family heads out to school or work, Larry attends CI at a site near his home. From there, Larry participates in a wide variety of activities in the community. With support from a CI team member, Larry volunteers at a local church. He goes to parks and community centers to exercise and play different sports-like tennis, which is one of Larry’s favorites. And he visits the public library to listen to music or practice “matching the button” on the computers there. Because he’s active in his community, Larry is learning to do all these activities in a safe and appropriate way, while also developing skills and building relationships with other people.
“Even though Larry can’t express it to us, we know he’s disappointed if he can’t go each day,” says his mom. “Everybody wants to have a purpose and this really makes his life meaningful.”