Inclusion Connections and PawsAbilities: Working to help individuals with special needs

Inclusion Connections is a Kansas City nonprofit which serves teens and young adults with special needs by creating inclusive opportunities for community involvement, access to meaningful employment, and better options for independent living. With locations in Olathe and Liberty, IC offers a variety of programs to 13-29 year olds that are leading individuals to a happy, heatlhy lifestyle. Programs that are offered:

Healthy Living – a variety of cooking/nutrition classes, individual and team exercise, life skills classes
CreateAbility – access to art, theater, music and dance
EmployAbility – skills training and job placement through PawsAbilities.

PawsAbilities: Where love for pets and for people with special needs is one.

At PawsAbilities, young adult trainees are in the EmployAbility program, where they make delicious dog treats, cute bandanas, toys and other pet-related products, then sell them in the Pawsstore located at 2073 E. Santa Fe in Olathe and at community events and businesses. Exciting news this March, PawsAbilities products are now also available at local Hallmark stores around KC! Products are also available online at https://pawskc.org/online-store/ Be sure to pick up for your furry friend a St. Patrick’s Day themed or KC Royals Bandana for Spring!

How Kansas Citians Can Help

Inclusion Connections and Pawsabilities are non-profit, which means fundraising is vital to this organization. Donations can be given online here.  In February, they held their annual Gala FashionAbility and had a sold-out crowd for a night of dinner, drinks and a fashion show, featuring program participants! Their next fundraiser will be in June and wil be a family-fun Bowl-a-Rama at Olathe East lanes in June! Promote KC will post updates closer to the event! But of course, a big push would be to #shoplocal and buy the wonderful products of PawsAbilities- what a great way to give back and shop local all in one!

Spring has (we hope!) finally sprung and getting involved with this local charity would be a fantastic way to kick off the warmer weather and support our community. #GiveLocal #ShopLocal #PromoteKC