Ann Arbor nonprofit serving adults with special needs plans expansion due to high demand

When Zee Kennedy started her nonprofit, Exceptional Journeys, three years ago, she just wanted to find a community for her sister, who is developmentally delayed, and others like her. That mission blossomed into a community center that now has a contract with Washtenaw County to provide skills training, with plans to expand into more suites in the Packard Platt Plaza at 3060 Packard Rd. in Ann Arbor in the near future.

Kennedy was only 18 years old when she gained custody of her sister, about 17 years ago. Over the years, Kennedy’s sister has resided at several independent living homes and has made friends with special needs, Kennedy says. Noting a need for activities for special-needs adults, Kennedy began by sending out announcements to a small group of six or seven families with special-needs children. She invited them to birthday parties and other gatherings in other people’s spaces, like Feed the Need Sensory Zone. About two and a half years later, Kennedy signed a lease for her current space.

“Essentially, we started off as a community center where everyone was welcome. There was no set schedule or anything. It would just kind of be a center where you can come relax and do your own thing,” she says. Staff encourage visitors to participate in programming, but they can just sit, drink coffee, and relax with some music by themselves, Kennedy says.

After taking a floor-level suite, the nonprofit added another suite on the second floor, which is currently designated as a quiet space, with more noisy classes taking place on the lower level. Exceptional Journeys has also taken over running a prom program previously run by the Washtenaw Intermediate School District and rebranded it as a community dance party.

On a daily basis, the community center and its staff strive to encourage their clients’ interests, from jigsaw puzzles to dancing. As a testament to the center’s focus on client interests, an entire wall of the ground-floor suite is covered in jigsaw puzzles that have been assembled by clients, then varnished and mounted by staff. The opposite wall is covered in shelves sagging under the weight of more donated puzzles ready to be opened soon by the center’s puzzle aficionados. 

The center also hosts a Fashion Show Gala annually, with clients modeling the clothing. Other events and programs are focused on gardening, cooking, and the arts. And a program each Monday brings parents and guardians together to talk, share resources, and strategize.

On a recent Wednesday morning, several clients were making an art project with paints and aluminum pans while another, who needed some quiet time, helped a staff member make macaroni and cheese on the quieter upper floor. Ten clients were present that morning, but Kennedy says attendance is usually double that number.

Kennedy says the nonprofit’s operations “grew so fast that we had no choice” but to expand Exceptional Journeys into the second suite shortly after leasing the first one. One reason it’s been so popular is that programs and services at other organizations are available to disabled young people through about age 26, but after they age out of those services, they can end up “stuck at home” and bored, Kennedy says.

John Burnett has been a client at Exceptional Journeys since April of this year and was one of those clients who would be “stuck at home” without Exceptional Journeys.

“It’s been fun, and I enjoy all the projects we do, like this artistic stuff, and I read and do other stuff,” Burnett says. “And I like the cooking classes.”

Another client, Bree Watts, is a cyclone of energy, offering compliments on everyone’s fashion sense and offering to show off some of her dance moves. She says she likes getting to hang out with her friends at Exceptional Journeys. She adds that she always gets to do something new and exciting like cooking, music, or “doing scientific reports and stuff.” Watts was an enthusiastic participant in the Fashion Show Gala, and she’s formed a dance troupe with fellow clients. 

“I usually have a repertoire of choreographed pieces that I like to perform whenever I’m asked, but then I also like to hang out in the sensory room sometimes, where it’s quiet,” she says.

Dani Hiemstra, Exceptional Journeys’ assistant manager and program planner, says leaving her job in public school special education to help run Exceptional Journeys is “the best decision I’ve ever made.” 

While Hiemstra’s job is planning activities and programs that incorporate skills training for clients, she does that with clients’ needs and interests in mind. She says she always asks for their input.

“I have a really creative mind, so I love doing things and getting their hands moving,” she says.  “I always ask them what they think they need help with, and that might be something like learning to count money.”

Kennedy has plans for expanding Exceptional Journeys. She says the need for services is only increasing, and she has a fairly extensive waiting list she’d like to eliminate. One goal for the near future is creating a resource wall for families whose relatives attend Exceptional Journeys.

“I find that after 17 years of guardianship with my sister, I’m still learning new things, so this gives parents an opportunity to find everything all in one place,” Kennedy says.

She’d also like to create jobs for clients.

“Our goal is to have a reception area where we can hire some of our clients so that they could see what it feels like to have a job, but where it’s not risking their Social Security – just a few hours a week,” she says.

Kennedy’s most ambitious goal is to lease more and more suites in the building as other companies’ leases run out. Her long-term vision includes expanding into the entire Packard Platt Plaza building. 

“If every one of these other businesses plan not to renew their leases, I plan to take them over, as many suites as we can in here,” Kennedy says. “Then we can host different programs in each suite that we operate.”

Kennedy’s goal of creating community seems to be paying off. She says that regulars at Exceptional Journeys “make deep friendships.” 

“We have a parent support group, so they can build that friendship as well, and we host potlucks where siblings and spouses can all come too. They can bring their families and share a meal together,” she says. “We’ve become a family here.”