The Ability Connection Summer Camp at the organization's new Irving headquarters isn't just for fun and games. There's a learning component as well.
"I need to know how you guys are feeling today," Ability Connection Director of Learning Meghan Payes asked a small group of students.
Payes teaches C.O.R.E. Skills Camp, which stands for Communication, Organization, Responsibility, and Empathy.
"So during the summer, a lot of kids don't practice a lot of these skills," Payes said. "They go back to school and they've lost a lot of it, and then oftentimes students with disabilities have to have more interventions put in place to regain those skills."
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The Ability Connection serves about 900 people across the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex who have developmental or intellectual disabilities.
"We work with an exceptional population, and I will say that a lot of people that we serve, 20 or 30 years ago, would have been stuck in a state institution," Ability Connection President/CEO Jim Hanophy said. "It's about having a really great quality of life as you define it, and that's what we're here for, and that's our mission."
C.O.R.E. Skills Camp started last year and has expanded to include Ability Connection Summer Camp, as well as day-long pop-up camps across DFW.
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Students work on skills, like time and money management, to help them be more independent.
"We need to give them credit where credit is due. This population is a lot smarter than we think they are, or what society thinks they are," Payes said. "I love to see when that lightbulb moment comes on."
C.O.R.E. Skills Camp has two pop-ups scheduled this month -- July 22 at The Potter's House in Dallas in conjunction with the Capable Minds, Hearts, and Hands program, and July 29 at Ability Connection in Irving.
