Opportunity Center: Expanding Hope for Clients
Story & Photos by Jennifer Vaughan / Ponca City Monthly Staff Writer
Ben Grubb has been an Opportunity Center client since graduating from high school in 2004. He works full-time at Village Screen Print, where he’s able to walk to and from work each day. Ben has a personal job coach who assists him with the sublimation machine and folding clothes, which he’s recently showed his mother, Cindy, that he’s able to help her with at home. Cindy is also employed by the Opportunity Center as a Habilitation Training Aide, and she provides in-home support to Ben ensuring that he’s eating right, waking up with his alarm clock, and staying hydrated, among other things. Because of the program offered by the Opportunity Center, funded by the state, Ben is able to receive in-home care from the person who loves him the most in the entire world. Cindy says she can’t imagine life without the programming offered by the Opportunity Center. “It would be very, very hard. Ben wouldn’t have anywhere to go. He wouldn’t have a job. I wouldn’t have this job. I just think we’re so fortunate here in Ponca City to have something like this. It’s absolutely wonderful. When Ben goes to work, he’s just so happy. The people down there just love Ben. It’s like a family. That’s how I’ve always considered the Opportunity Center.” The Opportunity Center, Inc. is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization that provides both residential and vocational facilities and services for the lifelong benefit of people in Kay County who have developmental disabilities. Founded in 1963, The Opportunity Center has served the community of Ponca City for decades. However, in the last few years, it has experienced many structural changes due to revisions in regulations at the state level. The state of Oklahoma mandated in 2016 that the Opportunity Center’s clients could no longer work on their campus at Opportunity Village, located at 2225 North Union. The state’s position was that it wasn’t considered communityintegrated, due to the existence of a group home in the Village. In response to the state’s decision, the organization purchased a building downtown on Grand Avenue with two storefronts that now proudly houses two businesses, Whimsy and Village Screen Print. Since moving out of the Village location and into the community, the Opportunity Center has seen a broadening of community support because of its expanded presence in the community.
and was also one of the first hundred patients in the world to be diagnosed with genetic mutation DDX3X.
In January 2019, an unaffiliated nonprofit called Positive Impact dissolved, and the Opportunity Center absorbed the program to continue providing those services to the community. Located at Opportunity Village, the Positive Impact program coordinates therapy services for clients including speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and any other types of therapy they may need. Many therapists travel from out of town, and because of the facility, are equipped with the supplies necessary to provide the services these clients need. Emma Grace, a young girl, is one of those clients,
Emma is one of fifty clients to receive Positive Impact program services. She was provided Occupational Therapy by a therapist who commuted from Stillwater. Emma’s mother, Lyndsay Grace, says driving to Stillwater or Edmond isn’t always realistic, especially when receiving multiple types of therapies, multiple times a week. Lyndsay serves on the Kay County Council, one of three boards put in place to provide oversight for the Opportunity Center, because she says, “Emma will likely be receiving those services as an adult, and it’s so important.”
Ben and Cindy Grubb
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