HOPE: Help Optimize the Potential of Everyone

Jam H.O.P.E Foundation creates athletic, social, and vocational opportunities to highlight and nurture the gifts of youth and adults with disabilities in order to strengthen and build community. 

Jam HOPE was initially created to provide support and accommodations for youth to participate in dance and gymnastics classes at our host site. Our adapted programming, Alpha Athletes, has grown to 24 youth with varying levels of physical and cognitive disabilities participating with one-on-one support in modified, sensory-friendly, and adapted classes. We also provide support in mainstream recreational classes for youth that need less intense levels of accommodations and modifications to be able to participate. 

As we build partnerships with local programs that also support youth and adults with disabilities, we continue to uncover barriers to inclusivity. Community members with disabilities continue to have unemployment rates at double the rate of typically-abled job-seekers. Youth and adults with disabilities also have twice the rate of depression, anxiety, and other mental health disorders. The loneliness epidemic and growing health concerns of our general population are even more profound with populations who also have physical and cognitive disabilities. The northern metro area of Minneapolis/St. Paul where we are located, and the surrounding more rural areas north of us, have very limited social, recreational, and vocational opportunities for youth and adults with special needs. 

As we have grown in our capacity and resources to provide programming, we have begun offering fieldtrips and community outings for adult day programs and local special education classes to experience social, recreational, and physical fitness opportunities with an average of 50 participants per month. 

In early 2024, we were able to open our Jam HOPE Café which is a small coffee, smoothie, and snack shop housed in our host facility. We currently employ 10 youth and young adults with disabilities who work alongside previously employed youth and young adults as mentors and job coaches. With all of our programs, we feel that the most significant impact is not on the youth and adults with disabilities we are able to support and employ, but by increasing our collaboration and inclusivity, we are inspiring thousands of community members to see the worth and gifts each one of us has to offer, especially those that may be overlooked, discounted, and underestimated. 

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