Special Connections hopes to build a playground for ‘literally’ everyone
Trending
STEUBENVILLE -- Working to make sure everyone can participate in events is important to Alycia Clark and Kristina Gabel.
The co-founders of Special Connections discussed the efforts of the organization as well as plans to build a universally accessible playground in the city’s West End during Tuesday’s meeting of the Steubenville Kiwanis Club at the Sycamore Youth Center.
Special Connections, the nonprofit collaborative partnership that offers free, inclusive community activities for people of all ages and abilities, was founded about four years ago by area residents who saw a need and came together to address it explained Gabel, who is the children’s director at Crossroads Christian Church.
“We had a few families in our congregation who have children who have autism and who have children who have some form of a disability, she explained. “We decided, why don’t we do an Easter egg hunt. And then the late Steve Forte from the Sycamore Youth Center approached us and said he wanted to come alongside and do a summer bash. It grew, and we had 100 people show up for our first summer bash.
“That was the first time, and these families were so excited,” she added. “They were excited to have a place for their kids. And from that, we just started pulling different people in from the community.”
From there, the free gatherings have grown into quarterly events, which attract hundreds of children and their families. The next one is scheduled to be held from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at Bright Promise, 256 John Scott Highway. It will feature many activities including pumpkin painting, baby goats, refreshments and an apple bar, where attendees will be able to slice an apple and cover them with a selection of toppings.
“Our main goal, at every event, for everything we have planned to be for all ages and all abilities,” Clark explained. “Our biggest goal, and something we see a lot in the special needs community, is to help families who have multiple children. Some of them might have a diagnosis, and some don’t. A lot of times, the parents have to split and decide who’s going with this one and who’s going with that one, because there’s really nothing the siblings can do together.”
Obtaining its 501(c)(3) status in August 2025 has helped Special Connections expand its ability to fundraise, she added.
Besides the fall fest, the organization, which is a collaboration among the Jefferson County Board of Developmental Disabilities and the Special Needs Parents of the Ohio Valley Support Group Facebook page and Crossroads, puts on a holiday presentation where children with different abilities enjoy time with Santa Claus; an Easter egg hunt designed with special needs in mind; and its biggest event, the summer bash, which features carnival-style games and food including hot dogs, nachos and popcorn.
And every activity, Clark said, is designed to bring people together.
“One of our main goals is to provide events for all ages and all abilities so that all family members, no matter what they are diagnosed with and no matter what, can come together and have fun. Everything that we do is planned with disabilities in mind, so it is inclusive and accessible for everybody.”
Special Connections also works with Arc of Ohio which advocates for people with developmental disabilities, their families, their friends and the people who work with them on the state level, Clark and Gabel explained.
They are also running a pilot program for a 14-plus social and emotional support group designed to help with life skills, becoming young adults and working. The organization also hosted a caregiver mini-retreat in August.
Among their other efforts is working to help raise funding that will allow the JeffCo Community Playground to be built at Jim Wood Park.
The goal is to privately finance the playground and to make raising money a little bit easier, JeffCo Services Inc. has committed to matching contributions up to $250,000.
It’s a $1.8 million project that is a collaboration among JeffCo Services Inc., the city of Steubenville and its Department of Parks and Recreation and Unlimited Play, a 501(c)(3) nonproft based in St. Peters, Mo., that partners with Little Tikes Commercial to help plan, design and build fully accessible playgrounds.
Plans call for the playground to be built where the existing playground is located, with equipment being moved to another area in the city. The original plans called for the playground to be built in the middle of the track area. Fully accessible restrooms are part of the project as well.
The need for the facility is great -- only a small percentage of fully accessible playgrounds in the country have been built, and those are not sufficient to serve the 43 million Americans who have disabilities, a brochure for the project said.
Families from our region need to go to Moon Township, Pa., to be able to use a fully accessible facility, and having to make the 40-minute drive can be taxing on families, said Clark, who is the mother of a child with the special needs.
“This is something that I think we all have been wanting for a very long, very long time in our area,” she said. “The reality is that there are so many kids in this community who cannot go to the playgrounds that we have right now.”
When it is completed, the facility will offer something for everyone.
“What we are building is not only for kids who have disabilities, whether it’s physical, emotional or developmental. This will be, literally, for everybody in the community, a place where people of all ages and abilities will be able to come together and be one community together,” she added.
The project, Clark and Gabel said, will be fully enclosed with a fence. Its surface will feature rubberized material and turf. Everyone will have access to the whole multi-level main structure in the park, and there will be a completely accessible roller slide, even to those who have cochlear implants, devices which can be damaged when their wearers use traditional metal slides because of a buildup of static electricity.
“I’m very excited for it,” Gabel said. “Imagine that now you have adults in group homes who are able to access this. Imagine grandparents who might have a walker -- now they can take their grandchildren to the park. Now, we’re for all ages and all abilities. We are just building the community for them.”