Community Service / Volunteerism / Jobs
Breckenridge Village’s Day Program seeks to embody the organization’s core values of “Love God, Value People, Care Passionately and Work Together.
From volunteer opportunities to working off-campus in the local community, giving back is an important part of living these values — and one that our Participants greatly enjoy.
Meals on Wheels
Monday through Thursday, our participants play an important role in the community by delivering hot meals to seniors who might not otherwise get one. They get to know the people they serve, often taking a moment to chat and occasionally praying with them.
Hand Up Network
The Hand Up Network is driven by a mission of helping those struggling in the community. Participants help collect clothing, and sort, fold and hang clothes weekly to help Hand Up Network carry out this mission.
East Texas Food Bank
Participants help twice monthly sorting, measuring, labeling, and packaging food for the East Texas Food Bank, helping to distribute much-need food to families in the area.
Relentless Service
Our participants are always looking for new and varied ways to help in the community, including specific service groups. For example, the Recycling Group collects and takes gently used clothing to a local thrift store. The proceeds, in turn, help a low-cost clinic provide healthcare.
The Knitting Group makes hats to donate to cancer patients, and another group recently started visiting residents at a local nursing home.
Off-Campus Work
Day Program participants have the option of working in the community if they choose. Day Program Staff, Residential Staff, and Case Managers work together to support those who work off campus.
Spiritual
We feel blessed to start our days with Chapel.
Our Chapel services take on the diverse personalities of the Administrative, Residential, Day Program Staff, and Day Program participants who lead the services. Participants enjoy the setting and opportunity to worship and to share from the Bible, while Chapel Leaders teach, preach, share devotionals, playing Bible-based games, or act out a skit.
Programming
Active Treatment
Active Treatment is a tailored, goal-setting program for each participant.
A Breckenridge Village team, along with the participant and their family, meet annually to agree on goals that will help the participant grow and learn new skills or maintain current skills. Day Group Leaders help to ensure that Active Treatment is carried out.
Life Skills
Life Skills classes teach and reinforce skills necessary for daily living, so when participants go into the community, they’re prepared with the skills they have learned, discussed, and practiced.
Life Skills encompasses character traits, communication, personal safety, professional and personal boundaries, and more, and can be taught or reinforced on or off-campus, building to help our participants to be successful in many settings, such as church, at a restaurant or on a shopping trip.
Leisure Activities
Day Program participants engage in a variety of leisure activities from annual events, to clubs and daily activities, on and off campus.
On-Campus Activities
A favorite is Therapets, where therapy dogs come visit participants on campus. It’s relaxing and fun, with participants brushing the dogs’ coats, rubbing their ears, playing with them, and talking to them and to the dog owners.
Friends of Breckenridge Village get participants up and moving with aerobics. Participants dance and have so much fun they hardly realize they are moving toward their health goals.
The swimming pool opens in May each year with a Kiwanis Club cook-out in the pavilion. Participants love swimming, playing games, or just hanging out in the pool, and under sunshade sails. Day Program and Residential staff have been certified as lifeguards and make sure everyone remains safe.
The Kiwanis Club also sponsors the Aktion Club, a service club for adults with disabilities that focuses on service projects. The Kiwanis’ club president helps with the election of officers for the Aktion club and with scheduling services that members will provide throughout the year – such as ringing the bell for the Salvation Army during the Christmas season.
Participants can engage with horses Cloud, Cimarron, and Charlie on their weekly Equine Therapy visit. Participants groom, feed, paint and walk the horses.
Other on-campus activities include creative expressions, hand bells, and a food handler certification class, and different elective classes are available such as nature walking, art, culinary arts, knitting, candle making, and the Recycling Group.
Participants are also invited for an annual cookout and boat rides at nearby Hide-A-Way Lake.
Off-Campus Activities
Volunteering
Opportunities for participants to volunteer at a variety of places in the community are available. We currently volunteer at Meals on Wheels, East Texas Food Bank and with the Hand Up Network.
Off-campus learning
Off-campus learning is centered on participant choices (where they want to go and what they want to accomplish). Favorite places for our participants include the bookstore, the library, movies, parks, and a gym at a nearby church. These visits help teach life skills in the community, and offers opportunities for socialization.
