COMMUNITY INCLUSION CLUB

The Community Inclusion Club was first conceptualized in 2022 by Tom Braverman and his son, William Braverman . Tom, a 30 year veteran special education teacher, recognized that there were very few socially inclusive opportunities in his community for adults with intellectual disabilities (ID). Knowing this, Tom and William created a nonprofit named the Community Inclusion Club. Initially, the organization had 12 members and a board of directors made up of a diverse group of stakeholders. In just a few short years, this club now has 187 members and a board of 15 people. Half of the board is comprised of adults with ID and they are actively involved in all aspects of our organization. We hold community based activities at least once a month at various locations and we also sponsor/ provide coaches, equipment and transportation to a number of Unified Sports/ Special Olympics teams for people living in our community and surrounding communities. We have participated in numerous community presentations and fund raisers and our club has become an important community resource for both people with and without ID. Some of our monthly activities include holiday based theme parties, Karaoke and game nights, movie nights, concerts, film festivals, bingo, arts and crafts and biking just to name a few. We do not charge our members any admission fees, although if people are able to contribute we certainly allow them to do so. We now have people who travel up to 50 miles so they can attend our events! We do vet all applicants as we want all members to be safe when they attend our events and we honor all direct care providers, parents and advocates by including them in our activities and this has created a family atmosphere at all our community based events. We also support our community businesses by holding events at many different locations in Iowa City and surrounding communities.
All of our board members volunteer their time, as do our coaches and other support people. We do have a liability insurance policy and own a wheelchair van to help transport some of our members to and from events. Those two things represent our only recurring monthly expenses and all other funds raised go towards paying for our monthly events and supporting our Unified Sports/ Special Olympics athletes and partners. We do not have a building, and we use our public libraries, senior center and recreation facilities for many of our activities as we can do so either free of charge or for minimal fees since we have 501C3 status.