Starkey, Inc.

"Hey, batter batter..." ⚾

A day spent watching the Wichita Wind Surge is the BEST kind of day!

Summertime! 🌞

You'll find us:

🐧 Getting acquainted with friends at the Sedgwick County Zoo
🎣 "Fishing" at the Museum of World Treasures
🎟 Spinning the Wheel of Fortune at All Star Sports
🏍 Checking out the Twisted Oz motorcycle shop
🍓 Picking strawberries at Meadowlark Farm

We enjoyed checking out Old Cowtown Museum's "155th Celebration of Base Ball in Wichita" exhibit, featuring the first organized Wichita team from 1871. The exhibit was created in coordination with the Cowtown Vintage Base Ball Club.

The exhibit showcases our city’s place as an inclusive innovator in the sport. During the game’s early history, Kansas was home to racially integrated teams, women’s teams and Native American teams. ⚾

Thank you to the Derby Knights for spending time with individuals from our Passport Program, teaching them to fish! 🎣 We had such a great time!

Also, sometimes it's fun to *catch* the fish but not *hold* the fish. 😆

Summer birthdays are in full swing around here! 🎂

Happy birthday, Luis and Charles! 🎉

Employees like Irene Medeiros, Community Living Trainer/CNA, make sure the individuals who live in our group homes have some fresh veggies to add to their meals! 🥕🥔🥗

This is part of one garden. They have planted squash, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant and sugar snap peas, among other vegetables!

ShaCorrie and Setrina learned to make taco salad in the Passport Program! 🌮

Individuals in that program can determine what new things they want to learn, and cooking is always high on the list. 👩🏾‍🍳

Some of the paying jobs on Starkey's campus involve recycling! ♻
We gather cardboard to take to Pratt Recycling and plastic to drop at PRo Kansas Miller Recycling Center. We also take our aluminum cans to Allmetal Recycling.

Just doing our part for the environment while earning a paycheck!

Thank you, Commissioner Baty!

Always enjoy visiting with Colin McKenney and Dotty Harpool from a truly wonderful organization. Starkey, Inc.

For the last 3.5 years, I’ve worked alongside my friends at Starkey to address a growing need for services related to individuals that have a dual diagnosis — a mental health condition AND an intellectual disability. There is a lack of resources, specialized training, and coordinated care for those needing this level of services, but we have made REAL progress in the last few years and there is a host of improvements being implemented now.

Special thanks to my friends Senate Majority Leader Chase Blasi and Senator Stephen Owens for their shared commitment for solutions!

Next stop — we have a desperate need for crisis Intervention beds to serve this population. I pushed hard to carve off FOUR beds out of the 104 for this purpose at the new mental health hospital, and even had the Governor’s interest, but failed to get it accomplished due to LICENSING constraints. 🙄

So, back to the drawing board, but it’s something I’m determined to help deliver before my time is done!

Learn more ⬇️
https://starkey.org
https://iod.unh.edu/national-center-start-services/start-model

Individuals who are part of our Semi Independent Living Program have been taking in all the FOOD and FUN that Wichita Riverfest has to offer this week! 🍧🎡