Graceworks Enhanced Living’s new location expands opportunities, accessibility

Graceworks Lutheran Services, a Dayton-based nonprofit, had much to celebrate this June with the opening of the new location for its Graceworks Enhanced Living Dayton Day Program.

While Graceworks is perhaps most widely known for Bethany Village, its 100-acre retirement community in Washington Township, its focus of helping people experience dignity and belonging spans many other services, including Graceworks Enhanced Living. According to the nonprofit, “Graceworks Enhanced Living focuses on loving care for adults with developmental or intellectual disabilities. The individuals we serve have faced unique challenges and maintain a zest for life that is encouraged by loving caregivers.”

Graceworks Enhanced Living currently serves more than 275 people throughout Cincinnati and Dayton through its 44 residential homes, two day programs (one in Cincinnati and one in Dayton), and emergency transitional care home.. With this new larger location in Dayton, Graceworks can serve more people than ever before here in the Miami Valley.

“Our Dayton Day Program provides a safe environment that offers opportunities for the individuals who attend to work on wellness, skill building, creative expression and community integration,” says Cari Oehlenschlager, senior service manager for Graceworks Enhanced Living. “We provide the space and all the opportunities to do that.

“There’s the belief that people thrive when they can live with compassion and experience inherent worth. Each of our staff is trained in what we call “gentle teaching,” which is a philosophy that we use that sets us apart from all the other providers,” adds Oehlenschlager. “Gentle teaching brings unconditional love, security and community to people with developmental disabilities and intellectual challenges. Gentle teaching creates a sense of place and happiness and peace, and it’s been a staple of our programming for over 20 years.”

Attendees of the Dayton Day Program can play games, socialize with each other, take art and cooking classes, and more. But in the program’s previous location downtown, there was no opportunity for growth and very little parking.

With the program moving to Dryden Road in Moraine, “We’ve doubled our space, which gives us the opportunity to serve more people, too. My goal is to see 50 participants a day at our day program in our new location,” says Oehlenschlager.

The new space features kitchens and dining areas, a classroom, gym, theater, arcade games, technology room and sensory room. It also has a Tovertafel, a projection table upon which one can play interactive games. Tovertafels have been shown to promote connection and improve self-confidence for dozens of adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities, international research shows. Graceworks was able to fund one for the Dayton Day Pprogram thanks to a grant from The Dayton Foundation.

Oehlenschlager says that Day Program attendees have been loving the new amentities. “Our folks have all kinds of disabilities and abilities, and they are getting a little bit of workout going from end to end of the building,” she says. “The arcade has been a huge hit; people are really enjoying playing Skee-Ball. … The sensory room has been a hit. It’s just nice to have plenty of space for everybody to do what they want to do.”

Dayton Day Program participants aren’t the only fans of the new space—staff members are loving it, too.

“We can monitor and safely provide supervision easily in our new building because the layout of it is very appropriate for us. You don’t have to be on top of everybody. Everyone can spread out and do their thing and we can still see where everybody’s at and [attend to their needs],” says Oehlenschlager. “And we’re still doing our whole community integration piece on that, too. We’ve been running more routes and more people out in the community. Everything’s a little easier [and accessible]. I know [it] sounds silly, but parking was such an issue for us before. [Now,] our vans can park without issue. Our staff can park without issue. Visitors can park without issue. It’s been a big deal.”

This new step for the Dayton Day Program couldn’t have happened, though, without the local community. Graceworks Enhanced Living specifically cites the help of a local benefactor and donor support for making this new space possible. Oehlenschlager hopes to connect with even more of the community thanks to new opportunities at the Moraine location.

“We are very much known for our residential services in Montgomery County. My goal is to [become] as equally known for our day programming services. That’s what we’re hoping to accomplish with our new programming [and expanded initiatives],” she says.