Brookwood Community provides meaningful work for adults with disabilities

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Jeff Joplin, affectionately known as JJ, is quite the local celebrity at the Brookwood Community. For the past 17 years, he's been painting comfort bowls that are sold in the Brookwood Gift and Garden Shop.

He's also featured in the 2015 Brookwood Calendar for his art work. But Joplin isn't just any artist. He's a 43 year-old Down syndrome man who, despite his disability, has found success and self-worth through his work.

"I like being motivated... and I like doing this kind of work," says Joplin.

The Brookwood Community gave Joplin the opportunity to achieve. Yvonne Tuttle Streit founded the non-profit nearly 30 years ago because she wanted to find a place for her own disabled child to find purpose as an adult. The Brookwood Community is a non-profit that does not take any government funding, and their gift shop sales help keep this village for disabled adults running.

The community focuses on continual learning and earning for these adults. So, each person who comes in finds a purpose through a career path. For Joplin and his classmates, it was through the artisan program. And Streit admits, it took some practice for these adults to craft their masterpieces.

"It is just amazing to see what they did when they first came, which were very simple things. The garbage men didn't even want to pick them up. And now, look at them. These are great. We sell as many as we can make," says Streit.

Joplin's comfort bowls are just one of the many items sold at the store, and Brookwood makes sure each art piece is of the utmost quality. "Then you add that layer, that an adult with special needs is also an adult with special talents, that those citizens of Brookwood had a part of making that, then that product has value beyond words," says Joseph Mazzu, the Director of Advancement at Brookwood.

Every brush stroke is special for Joplin, and when he leaves work every day, "I feel wonderful," he says.

"You can't find a harder worker. Somebody who knows that he's needed, that his role in painting is an essential role, that really only he can do what he does. That builds an enormous self-esteem and self-worth for our men and women at Brookwood," says Mazzu.

Which is why, when Joplin looks at his masterpieces on display at the store, he knows it was a special day at work. "I feel like a successful person at Brookwood."

"For JJ it is real work, which equals real worth," Mazzu adds.

The Brookwood Community has three stores located in Brookshire, Old Town Spring, and Town & Country.