In north Texas, I met nine people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD) who have found community and meaning through employment. For Max, 35, a Richardson, Texas resident, working at All Saints Catholic Church gives him purpose. “I get to make the church look beautiful and clean,” he shares. Max's team at work say they love working with Max and his sweet sense of humor. The other people I documented have found the same feeling through their work environments at Hugs Cafe, Hugs Greenhouse, and Octopus Garden Preschool.
"The disabled (no word is truly fit or sufficient to define them) are a hidden majority: in spite of the machines and drugs and prosthetics attempting to prove death doesn't exist, nearly all of us, over time, will lose a superpower, sight, or an arm, or our memory... Sooner or later, we all become disabled."
-Claudia Durastanti
translated from Italian by Elizabeth Harris
Max Adamczyk, Groundskeeper at All Saints Catholic Church
Jerry Winters, Team Member at Hugs Cafe
Max Adamczyk, Groundskeeper at All Saints Catholic Church
Andrew Dennett, Team Member at Hugs Greenhouse
Jerry Winters, Team Member at Hugs Cafe
Kristen Lyons, Teaching Assistant at Octopus Garden Preschool
Blaine Harden, Team Member at Hugs Cafe
Marty Cole, Team Member at Hugs Cafe
Jacob Shaw, Team Member at Hugs Greenhouse
Serena Ashun, Team Member at Hugs Greenhouse
Jake, Team Member at Soap Hope
Max Adamczyk, Groundskeeper at All Saints Catholic Church