Hope for the Future
Susan Fontaine is pushing boundaries in Athens, GA with her non-profit Love.Craft
Love.Craft Athens
Last post, I shared how the film has expanded past the scope of Brookwood to focus on other organizations serving the intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) community. Specifically ones that were inspired by Brookwood, like BiG, Brookwood in Georgetown.
Another one of these organizations is Love.Craft in Athens, GA.
Susan Fontaine and the co-founders of Love.Craft were inspired by Brookwood and toured the campus before deciding to start an organization of their own. The unique thing about Love.Craft is that it was NOT started by a parent of a child with a disability. Watch the clip below to get a sneak peek!
Beyond the Parent Movement
Vivian Shudde, the CEO of Brookwood, begins every Center for Learning conference with the same question: “tell me about your child”. She assumes the parent is there to create a Brookwood for their own family.
This is the case the majority of the time. In fact, when referring to the history of people with disabilities there is a time referred to as the Parent Movement, when families fought back to create services for their children on their own. This is how Yvonne started Brookwood.
Occasionally an inspiring story shines through about someone advocating for the IDD community even though they have no personal connections. These stories give Vivian hope.
Susan Fontaine and Love.Craft are a symbol of hope.
Susan Fontaine started Love.Craft after teaching Middle School Special-ed and watching most of her students go on to do nothing after graduation. As a teacher who poured her heart and soul into preparing her students for life after high school this was devastating.
This inspired Susan to retire from teaching to build Love.Craft, a non-profit committed to creating meaningful opportunities for adults with disabilities in her community.
The first thing she did before officially starting Love.Craft was take a tour of the Brookwood campus and meet with Yvonne Streit and Vivian Shudde. An inspiring day that gave her the confidence to move forward with her plans.
Susan is a dear friend of mine and it has been an honor to capture the Love.Craft crew for this film. I am so incredibly proud and in awe of all she does to fight for this community and am filled with a sense of hope for what the future holds every time we film with them.
More Premiere Updates!
In the next couple weeks we will be releasing a save the date for the premiere of The Brookwood Film. In the meantime, I am excited to announce that the event will be held at The Hobby Center in Houston!
I cannot wait to celebrate the citizens on the red carpet with all of you that evening.
Thank you all again for being apart of this journey!
Ariel and the Chispa House Crew