Some programs start with a business plan. This one started with a dad who wanted enriching experiences for his son — a life not limited to four walls.

Dear families,

I've been my son's caregiver for more than twenty years. The idea behind this program is almost embarrassingly simple: I wanted him to have a life beyond four walls and a television.

My son is nonverbal. He can't tell you when something's wrong. You have to get to know him — learn to read him, decode him, and let the people who already speak his language teach you. He does one thing at a time, because the point was never speed. The point is knowing what he needs, what he wants, and what makes a day feel like something happened — like he went somewhere, saw something, and wasn't stuck in a room.

Here's what this program is built on: adults with developmental disabilities still grow. Give a person the right amount of challenge — a little more than comfortable, nowhere near overwhelming — and they stretch. Our job is to learn where that line is for each explorer, then walk with them right up to it, out in the real world.

So our days happen outside more often than not. Walking. Watching a pickup ballgame at the park. Shooting baskets. The trail, the library, the lanes, the garden — and somewhere in there, a Jamba Juice, a frappuccino, or a Costco smoothie. The rest is simple: mix it up, keep moving, stay engaged.

Some people's good days don't happen out in public — they need calmer spaces and a quieter pace, and that's a real need, not a lesser one. Local Explorers is for adults whose lives can be enriched through daily outings: discovering the places they love to be, uncovering what they enjoy, what they can handle, and what they could become.

If that sounds like your person, come meet us.

Come explore with us.

Jason

Jason Dodds — founder, and dad