North Side nonprofit marks 50 years of uplifting adults with disabilities: 'You're not alone'

CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - It's lunch time, and things are bustling inside Lincoln's Square's Gateway to Learning.

Walk in the side door, and you'll be greeted by the smell of fresh baked brownies from their sweet shop.

"Today is brownie day. My favorite day is brownie-making day," laughed Kathryn Lavin, Gateway to Learning’s executive director.

Gateway was founded in 1974 as a school.

"It was started by a woman named Dorothy Huff who had two children with intellectual disabilities, and she wasn't happy with what she saw in the public schools so she started a school for her kids and their peers,” Lavin recalled.

Now, it's celebrating 50 years. The space is a place for adults with disabilities to learn life and work skills and socialize.

"We are now an adult service provider that is licensed through the state of Illinois. We serve mainly adults aged 22 and above,” Lavin said. “The youngest is 22, and the oldest is 71, 72."

Lavin said they currently serve 150 adults.

"We provide lifelong learning for adults with intellectual disabilities that come during the day,” said Lavin. “They are in an intensive training program. We are known for our culinary program, so we use food as a tool for teaching life skills and employment skills."

Inside their four operating kitchens, they bake, distribute and package cookies and chocolates. Barley's Biscuits, dog treats are also made on site.

"Peanut Butter fills the air on dog biscuit making day,” Lavin said. “We have a partnership with Half Acre Brewery, so every time you drink a Daisy Kutter, you're helping out Gateway because we are using their spent grains to make the dog biscuits. All 4 ingredients are all made here."

Dorothy's Sweet Shoppe is a retail bakery that offers real life vocational skills.

"We have 30 varieties of cookies, we have chocolate covered Oreos, pretzels and handmade chocolate business cards. We have the best brownies in the city of Chicago. Everything you see is baked and produced and packaged and sold here,” Lavin said.

Participants work behind the counter and run the cash register.

"The Sweet Shoppe is about inviting the community into Gateway and giving the participants the opportunity to have hands-on experience. So, when a customer comes in, they are learning and interacting and learning real world skills," said Lavin.

"The skills that are practiced here are transferable to the home or the community. If you're learning to create a meal, you're learning skills like how to read, how to measure, how to use executive function, how to bake something to see a cause and effect. These are skills that can be used at home too."

James Gaona, 27, has been coming to Gateway for two years.

"I come for a few hours each day. I love it here," he smiled.

He bakes the cookies and works in the sweet shop three days a week.

"I've learned how to measure ingredients, I learned how to serve customers and use the tools correctly. I bake at home now," he smiled. "My favorite thing is baking. I want to open my own business someday."

Lavin is also a parent of a developmentally disabled child.

"My daughter is 27 now, and she's a participant here as well,” Lavin said. “We made a decision early on that Emily would be a member of the CPS community, and we fought really hard for inclusion. She was one of the first students with intellectual disabilities to be fully included in her school and she graduated from that school in 2011."

She said Gateway is a place of inclusion and acceptance, a place that is changing lives and changing hearts.

"Students are saying, ‘I'm in a classroom with a person with intellectual disabilities and that's okay.’ When I grew up, students like my daughter were separated. That has changed,” Lavin said.

She said it's been a long road, but there has been improvement.

"We do job placement. One woman who came here was looking for life skills. For her, it was the confidence to say I can have a job, I have a right to have a job. I can ride the elevator by myself. She got a job at SalesForce, Inc. which is our main employer. More people are open to the fact that people with intellectual disabilities are valuable to their businesses." she added.

Gateway for Learning's annual gala, "Rockability," raised more than $200,000.

"The biggest thing is knowing you're not alone on the journey, and, so, that is really powerful that we have a community that comes together to say we are doing this together. That was everything to me,” noted Lavin.

She said  Gateway's ultimate goal is to co-create a wider community of inclusion in the City of Chicago.

"When you walk into this building, there is a sense of community, a sense of love. There's a spirit of acceptance.

Gateway to Learning is a 501(c)(3). To learn more about its history, its services, or to volunteer, you can log onto gatewaytolearning.org .

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