Real Work for Real Pay in San Antonio

Jennifer and Ruben lived with their mother in San Antonio where they grew up. They are brother and sister and they are persons with developmental disabilities. When Ruben approached his mid twenties, as most men do, he decided that he wanted to move away from Mom and live a more independent life. As a person with significant disabilities, he had very little options. He wanted to be independent, he wanted to be his own person and he wanted a job to earn money as all good Texans do.

His mother was being compensated by the state of Texas to assist Ruben to adequately access the community. He wanted desperately to be on his own. About three years ago, Rubin contacted Community Options. Community Options is a non-profit organization that has been doing business in Texas for the last 15 years. The mission of Community Options is to develop housing and employment for persons with disabilities.

Community Options has offices in San Antonio, Amarillo, Dallas, Corpus Christie and El Paso. Ruben contacted the case manager to express his interest in living more independently.

Staff at Community Options worked diligently with Reuben to develop a paradigm in which he could both live independently as possible, but receive support to ensure health safety and well being.

After extensive work and due diligence, staff and Reuben were able to locate a home on the south side of San Antonio. He now resides there with three other men and they have a great life.

However, staff and Reuben were still not satisfied. They knew that there was more to life and that Reuben needed a job. About eight months ago Reuben worked with the Community Options Director of Employment, Wendy Mahan. Her job is to find jobs and develop supports to enable people with developmental disabilities to remain employed. Wendy used her business advisory network and was able to secure a meaningful job for Reuben at the Burger King. Here, Reuben is responsible for restocking supplies and making sure that the restraint is kept in great shape.

Reuben filled with great joy and success at his placement decided that he would talk to his sister, Jennifer about the possibility of her working in a similar industry. She contacted Community Options and was able to secure similar housing on the northern eastern side of San Antonio. Jennifer lives in a lovely home with three other women. She affectionately refers to them as “my sisters.” They do basically what any other family does together. They plan meals and outings. They go shopping for bargains on the weekends and enjoy the community. Jennifer can do this because she contacted the Director of Employment and Ms. Mahan landed a job for Jennifer at Wendy’s. Here Jennifer has similar job responsibly as her brother and she has aspirations to be more involved with kitchen activities.

All in all, both brother and sister are doing well because of the help of Community Options. A year ago they rarely spoke, now the two of them are very close and enjoy each other’s company.

Community Options is a great non-profit and is constantly doing good to help its consumers. On February 12 Community Options of San Antonio will have a 5k race at Brackenridge Park. The race starts at 10 and the registration is at 8. It is called Cupid’s Chase and it is really exciting. Community Options runs this race simultaneously in 24 cities in 10 states. Mary Pat Christie, First Lady of New Jersey (Governor Christie’s wife) is the national Chair and she is challenging Texans to run in this race.