Community Connections
Shining a local light on:
Ability Beyond
Proudly serving:
Bethel, Brookfield, Danbury, New Fairfield, New Milford, Newtown, Norwalk, Ridgefield, Stamford, Westport, Wilton
Learn more about their charity:
Community Connections
Community Connections shines a light on local charities whose compassion, service, and dedication strengthen the fabric of our community. By sharing their stories, we hope to inspire others and help the spirit of giving spread throughout our towns.
Under the spotlight today: Ability Beyond
An interview with Elita Walker, Ability Beyond
How do you brighten our community?
Ability Beyond's mission is to discover, build and celebrate the ability in all. We aim to empower people with disabilities so they can live, work, and thrive as active members of the community. When people with disabilities are supported to contribute their skills, passions, and voices, the entire community benefits—through stronger local economies, richer social connections, and a shared sense of possibility.
Who do you serve in our community?
Ability Beyond annually serves more than 3,000 people with disabilities and mental illness across Connecticut and New York through a comprehensive network of employment, residential, day, clinical and behavioral services, and more. Our services help adults gain independence, meaningful employment, and a fulfilling quality of life, fostering full inclusion in the communities they call home.
What are you most proud of?
We take pride in our strong partnerships across Fairfield County and beyond. By working alongside families, employers, volunteers, foundations, and elected officials, we are helping to build inclusive communities where people with disabilities are seen, valued, and fully engaged.
What are some of your future impact goals?
One of our future impact goals is to ensure that children experiencing crisis receive immediate effective intervention and counsel, emergency shelter, medical and psychological care, and connection to support services they require; Furthermore, to provide children the individualized medical, therapeutic, educational and family services necessary to stabilize, heal from trauma and achieve developmental gains; and to maintain a strong community awareness and presence by providing prevention and outreach services that give children, youth, and the adults with whom they interact the information and skills needed to identify and address problems before they are in crisis;
Local-Insta thanks Fairfield County Bank for making our Community Connections series possible!
Celebrating the charities that make our community stronger.
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Hillside Food Outreach
We home deliver healthy Nutritious, Medically diet related food to those who cannot, for whatever reason, access local pantries. We also deliver to those who can access pantries, but when they get there, they find that, due to their illness and/or medication, there is nothing they can eat.
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