Winter Weather Impacting Services For Those With Disabilities

These freezing-cold temperatures make it hard for a lot of people to get out and about, but for people with intellectual disabilities, they rely on help for food, work, and social interaction.

At A New Leaf, residents with developmental disabilities rely on staff to get to and from work and for things like groceries, and bad weather can make those trips much harder. On a freezing cold January day, Katy Lew is staying warm inside her Owasso home, cozy next to her Valentine's tree, and finding ways to pass the time.

Piece by piece, Katy has the outlines of a 1000-piece puzzle started. She lives at the Village through the nonprofit A New leaf— which serves people with developmental disabilities in Green country. The Village in Owasso is part of the nonprofit and is home to 62 people with disabilities offering levels of assisted living.

"It’s fantastic-- it reminds me of like a resort living here," said Katy.

But for people with disabilities that need extra help, this weather makes it difficult.

“Our staff is working incredibly hard to make sure they’re getting to work, " said Maranda Figueroa. "There’s no working from home for our staff.”

Chief Development Officer Maranda Figueroa said their clients depend on help from staff. They also take their clients in vans to and from their jobs so it’s important for social interaction too. A New Leaf also goes door to door to help people at home. When it’s dangerous outside, that becomes difficult.

"Making sure our clients are staying safe not okay from the elements but slips, trips, and falls all those components as well," said Maranda.

“The sleet is worse because a lot of people have to get to work," said Katy. "We can’t do that we have to be safe.”

Maranda said she wants people to consider the 90,000 people in Oklahoma living with developmental disabilities during cold snaps like these. At A New Leaf, staff are doing everything they can to see their clients continue to flourish.

“Get to know us," said Katy. "We're great people to know.”

A New Leaf said their clients deal with barriers in every part of their lives and the state needs more resources for people with disabilities.