Jenkins Find Fun, Safe Place for their Daughter

New to the Wichita area, Vincent and Teena Jenkins visited many adult day programs before they found Catholic Charities Adult Day Services (ADS) for their daughter, Caitlin, in 2014. Teena remembers the feeling she had after touring ADS and visiting with a team
that was welcoming and eager to work with them.

“It was like you just knew God was watching out for you and He provided this place for us and Caitlin to be able to stay a family, function as a family and have what we needed at that time,” Teena recalls. Caitlin has Angelman’s Syndrome; she is 28-years-old but functions as a one-year-old.

“It was a big deal to have some place that I trusted,” Vincent says. “Just to have somebody going along beside you saying ‘we can make this work and it will be good for her’ was huge.”

ADS offers Caitlin group and individual activities, socialization, care coordination, transportation and nutritious meals. And, more importantly, a sense of safety and comfort that allow her to be away from her parents so they can work, do chores, run errands and tend to their health needs.

“Caitlin needed to know that there was a safe place and safe people outside of Vincent and I, and her family,” Teena says. “That was so important developmentally for her to know that she could be somewhere else and not only is it okay, but it is good, it is fun, it is someplace she wants to be.

“That didn’t come easy, but the staff and the other clients made it seem natural because that is where their heart was.”`

Since 1975, Adult Day Services has provided an affordable, quality day program, helping adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and seniors coping with Alzheimer, dementia or loneliness.

Currently, ADS operates out of two locations in West Wichita. Plans are underway to transform the former Michener Elementary School in north Wichita into a larger and more functional single campus for ADS.

A campaign committee is currently identifying lead donors and foundations for major gifts to the Blessing Families, Enriching Lives capital campaign.