#intellectual-and-developmental-disabilities

#intellectual-and-developmental-disabilities

LAFAYETTE The campus at Las Trampas bustled as it usually does on the typical weekday, with dozens of intellectually and developmentally disabled individuals engaging with programs designed to stimulate and assist their independent living. This day, though, was busier than most. State Sen. Tim Grayson (D-CA9) would be visiting them, touring the grounds and meeting with some of the members, who Las Trampas empowers to advocate for themselves.

Clenching a broom in one hand and a dust pan in the other, Amber Levine-Mickel furiously sweeps a dirt walkway in Sunnyvale, bending small pebbles, fallen leaves and branches to her will. For over an hour, the 31-year-old and her companions from Life Services Alternatives (LSA) are braving the cold to tidy the grounds of Animal Assisted Happiness, a family-friendly barnyard in the city. Levine-Mickel loves to volunteer there every Thursday morning, even if the tasks can get tiresome.

In a portable classroom on the Santa Clara Adult Education campus, Abraham Leza prepares to teach his weekly class just after the Friday lunch hour. He pulls on a black T-shirt embossed with a drawing of a boombox before placing a gold chain around his neck. He makes his way to the head of the classroom, where atop a desk sits a turntable plugged into a laptop, and begins "scratching" out a beat as students file in.