When you think about Owensboro, Kentucky, things like bluegrass music and fantastic barbecue probably come to mind.

But for a lot of folks, they probably have no idea that for nearly 70 years, this river city has been home to a very special place.

The Opportunity Center of Owensboro trains and supports adults with disabilities.

And it's an integral part of a community of caring there that deserves attention.

[music playing] If you're from this area, you've probably driven past the Opportunity Center of Owensboro hundreds of times, and you might not have ever noticed it.

But what you would have been missing out on is a place with a long history of supporting people with disabilities.

The mission of the Opportunity Center of Owensboro is to serve and support persons with disabilities in helping them achieve their life goals and helping them thrive.

We have an amazing team of direct support professionals that support our clients every single day.

They provide them with a lot of life skills and work skills.

And then they're also the people that take them out in the community and help guide them with money management and shopping and just that socialization.

The nonprofit center has grown into a day training facility for adults that focuses on life skills and occupational readiness.

But it didn't start out that way.

With a long history, nearly 70 years, it started in 1956 by a group of concerned local parents whose children with disabilities were not allowed to go to public school.

So they felt like they deserved an education, and they came together with a group of local business leaders and started a school that was actually called the Opportunity Center.

As the children at the Opportunity Center grew, their needs changed, and the school began exploring job opportunities and life plans after graduation.

They came up with different projects and programs, and then they partnered with the business community.

They had a program where they put nuts and bolts in bags for manufacturers.

And then they even evolved to where they built wooden pallets for different companies.

And then the center took an enormous leap forward when they opened a full-service restaurant called Pinocchio's.

Pinocchio's is a really unique story because it started back in the 70s just as an extension of the services we provided.

And they didn't realize at the time that that was unique to the nation, so they were recognized nationally.

It was around for quite some time, I believe in the early 2000s, due to some changes in leadership and things of that nature, it did close.

And within the last year, we've actually brought Pinocchio's back in a series of monthly pop-ups.

The monthly pop-ups allow the center's clients to learn all aspects of the restaurant business, which will prepare them to join the workforce.

But there's so much more than just that.

It is social interaction.

It's that feeling confident and feeling proud of what you do.

And I think that's what we've seen the most, is how they've just blossomed in learning these skills and how much the community has embraced it.

With the Opportunity Center focused on adults, you might wonder who's looking after the kids with disabilities.

The answer is across town at Owensboro Public Schools.

We believe three things.

Our students are going to be college-ready, career-ready, or independent living-ready, or a combination of those.

And so how do we prepare our kids to go out into the workforce, because these students, these now adults, deserve the right to do what everybody else does, and they have the skills to do what everybody else does.

They just do it differently.

Embracing a skills-based system was a huge step forward for special education.

For years, disabled students have had to struggle in what's known as a deficit model of learning.

Our job is to teach you how to read, to teach you how to do math, to write, all of those academic skills.

And a lot of times our kids with disabilities, those are their deficits.

So we work a lot in a deficit model, where you are constantly working on something you're really not very good at.

And so our program here, especially at the high school, works on those transition skills.

So we teach them, hey, you have these great strengths, and it's really a strengths-based model.

Owensboro senior Zach Bartlett is part of the school's Community Work Transition Program, where he's learning to build on his strengths to prepare for a career in the food service industry.

And what happens to students like Zach after graduation is what brings us back to the Opportunity Center.

There's a lot of families that aren't aware of the resources that are available.

Our school system is incredible in offering support for persons with disabilities.

But then once those children begin to age out of school and graduate, the families are kind of at a loss of what's next, what do we do?

For families like Zach's, the Opportunity Center is a godsend.

He will be able to continue his occupational training at the newly revamped Pinocchio's, and he'll be in great company.

A lot of our guys, Emily included, want to go out into the workforce.

They want to work at a restaurant, or they want to work at a cafeteria.

And here at Pinocchio's, we're giving them that opportunity to learn those job skills.

Emily Burks has been coming to the Opportunity Center for three years, and she is one of the stars on the Pinocchio's team.

I cook, and serve the people, and bake cakes, cookies, that's about it.

You help prep the food also.

And prep the food.

And I really love interacting with the people too.

You've learned a lot.

And I learned a lot from Tiffany.

[people cheering] As incredible as the Opportunity Center's successes are, the achievements don't come without challenges.

I would say our biggest challenge is helping the community get over the stigma of being around, and working with, and socializing with persons with disabilities.

I know when we used to talk about inclusion a lot in our community, it never crossed my mind until I came here that, that meant everyone.

And getting everyone together for a fantastic meal at one of Pinocchio's pop-ups is a great way to break the ice and start building trust and understanding.

It's a really great way to get the public to come in and see us, and visit our clients, and just kind of continue to push towards that more inclusive world that we all want.

When it comes to pushing towards a more inclusive world, the Opportunity Center has a not-so-secret weapon in client Joey Newton.

A lot of people don't understand that cerebral palsy is not hereditary, that usually it's a birth injury, and that even though Joey has some physical limitations, he is completely super intelligent and able to function in the world as any of us want him to be.

And see with the cerebral palsy, I just don't want to give you down.

I just keep on living life to the fullest.

He is such an inspiration to me, and I've only been director for about 30 years, and so when I came here, every day I would see Joey and I would say, how are you doing?

And he'd say, I'm fantastic.

And I would walk away like, how is that possible?

You know.

So one day I said, I need to know, how do you have that attitude?

And he shared with me that he used to be really bitter and sad and angry at life, and that the person that is his caregiver now, and he gives her full credit, kind of challenged him one day to just look at life in a different perspective, and he said a light came on, and I realized it was up to me to choose what kind of day I was going to have.

Since then, Joey's positive outlook has led him to become an advocate for people with disabilities.

A story about his roommate's challenges and the need for adult changing tables caught the attention of state and local officials.

My caretaker, Mary, would have to get him out of his chair and place him on the floor, and I just thought being placed on the floor is a health hazard.

Joey's efforts found a partner in Owensboro Health Regional Hospital, and before long, it opened the state's first adult changing table in a public facility.

I feel that it is super important for not just my voice to be heard, but everybody's voice to be heard.

Empowering clients like Joey and Emily is what the Opportunity Center of Owensboro has been doing for decades.

Their stories are inspiring, and their example, a lesson for us all.

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