BY JULIA NGUYEN | March 29, 2022
The pandemic has brought an unprecedented amount of change to every aspect of life. For the immunocompromised and people with disabilities, it has required significantly more caution. Organizations catering to these vulnerable groups had to change their approach to both serve the needs of these groups and keep them as safe as possible. One of these organizations is Abilities for Kids in Santa Maria. The nonprofit serves kids with disabilities, and since the onset of the pandemic, they have changed their approach to continue providing physical therapy for youths.
Abilities for Kids (AFK) was created by Connie Chan, who serves as the Founder and CEO. Connie’s son was born prematurely, and she was told by doctors that he would be mostly immobile for the rest of his life. Little did the doctors know that Connie, a veteran, would shift her life’s work into developing AFK, where she pours her heart and soul into supporting her son and other youth with disabilities in the Santa Maria Valley.
AFK became a nonprofit in 2018 after years of trying to be a business as KindredCare Therapeutics. AFK now strives to decrease disabilities in the community ‘one child at a time’ by providing therapeutic services to children with neuromuscular disorders or injuries so they may improve on fine and gross motor skills, needed to function in everyday life and improve cardiovascular and pulmonary capacities.
“I believe that we should invest more in our children with disabilities,” said Connie. “We have to try to change their future for them so they can become productive adults.”
AFK assesses the needs of each child and creates a therapy plan. This includes swimming and aquatic therapy at their indoor swimming pool, which is set at around 88 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. The extra warmth of the pool helps to relax muscles and promote skill learning, while the indoor environment provides a safe space for youth to focus without weather distractions. Unlike other programs that run more than one class at the same time, AFK only runs one swim class or aquatic therapy session in the pool at any one time. This reduces confusion for children and allows them to hear and focus on instructions.
Due to the lack of resources for youth experiencing disabilities in the Santa Maria Valley, AFK found many families that needed therapeutic services for their children. AFK’s patients are usually from low-income families and Connie found it difficult to ask them to pay for therapy due to their already hard financial situations.
“The money that we have goes to pay for therapists and needed supplies, equipment and repairs,” Connie remarked. “My whole family, by default, are volunteers. I don’t pay myself or anybody in my family to help with this because I consider the children at the program to be my children. I’m connected to each one of them. I know them by their first name and what their situations are.”
In 2020, the pandemic hit and complicated the development and growth of AFK.
“During COVID-19, we had a huge population of kids who are medically fragile,” shared Connie. “They had fewer reserves due to disabilities and some were financially disadvantaged. We tried to do what we could to support them through this prolonged pandemic.”
AFK adapted to keep their program running employing personal protective equipment and separating classes to prevent the spread of COVID-19 transmissions. During this time AFK also provided therapy sessions at children’s homes and worked to cover payments for families who lost their jobs or were at-risk.
Understanding the need for this community-based program, the Foundation supported AFK through the Child Care grant in 2021. The grant helped with transportation, PPE needs, and capacity building. AFK was able to continue providing therapy sessions and keep their doors open during a critical time.
“We are so fortunate to have Abilities for Kids in our community. This nonprofit gives more than they have,” said Petra Gomez, program manager at the Santa Barbara Foundation. “Connie and the Abilities for Kids team is one of these community efforts that embody resilience and strength. We were grateful to honor their work with a grant from our Child Care Grant program.”
With the ongoing pandemic, AFK carry on with their mission serving the disabled youth community in Santa Maria. She hopes that the organization will gain more funding to increase their services and capacity.
Currently, there are many children on the organization’s waitlist for therapy sessions. Instead of denying these children in need of therapy, the organization places them on waitlists hoping that future funding can open doors for them to begin their therapy session. In addition, AFK wishes to expand services, take care of equipment repairs, maintaining needed supplies, and additional supplies.
“I feel bad that sometimes some of these kids fall through the cracks and there’s no help for them,” said Connie. “I just feel like something needed to be done and I don’t want to leave anyone behind.”
To learn more about Abilities for Kids’ mission, please visit abilitiesforkids.org/index.html.
Santa Barbara Foundation LOGO