FAIM provides help for adults with developmental disabilities

By Lorenzo Gavilan Vargas Times Reporter

The Strathmore office of Foothills Advocacy in Motion (FAIM) is providing a wide array of support for adults with developmental disabilities in Strathmore and surrounding area to help promote inclusion within their communities. 

Employment and Day Services Program Manager Bev Roppel explained the diverse services FAIM provides to help its clients. 

“We help them get integrated into the community. So, whether that’s through employment, through social networking, through exercise, through volunteering.”

Roppel added it is important each person receive their own personalized care.

“Some of them just need to have reminders to continue to do their employment and to pay attention and stuff like that,” she said. “Sometimes it’s very minimal; we’re there just in case they need to come and ask us questions. That step is almost a step before they become independent. And then there’s other times that we do complete care, whether they need personal care or whether they just need support in different aspects of their volunteering. It’s a good range.”

The Strathmore FAIM office, which opened in 2009, tried their best to continue care throughout the pandemic. Roppel said the agency closed down three times within a year and a half.

“We tried to support through phone calls and online and stuff like that, but yeah, it was an awful time, that’s for sure.”

Despite the struggles, Roppel is optimistic for the future and hopes the upcoming reopening is the final one. 

“Even when we were not supporting people, the amount of people kept growing from where we were to where we are now,” she said. “It just continues and continues. We feel that we will be integrated into the community and be a huge part of the Strathmore area, so you’ll see our faces everywhere. I can only see big, wonderful things in our future.”

FAIM’s annual High River Half Marathon is set to go on Sept. 11, with funds raised being donated to the organization.

“FAIM has suffered cancellation of all major fundraisers since March 2020, so we’re very excited to get back into it with the 2021 High River Half (Marathon),” said Jessica Koch, fundraising coordinator at FAIM. “We’re excited to engage with the running community again.”