OTS 183: Brewing Community with A Neurodiversity-Affirming Model for Transition-Age Youth

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Welcome to the show notes for Episode 183 of the OT Schoolhouse Podcast.

Discover how you can make a tangible difference in the lives of transition-age youth. Jacklyn and Greg Boheler, occupational therapists and co-founders of B3 Coffee, discuss their unique, neurodiversity-affirming non-profit.

They share how they've built a multi-faceted organization that includes a transitional employment model and a robust community program to support young adults with disabilities beyond high school. This episode provides invaluable insight into how school-based OTPs can support transition-age youth by focusing on foundational skills and connecting families with crucial adult services.

You will also get a look at B3 Coffee's exciting plans!

Listen now to be inspired to facilitate meaningful change for your students and your community!

Listen now to learn the following objectives:

• Learners will identify why a "cliff" occurs and recognize the urgency of addressing it by connecting students and families with crucial adult resources and advocating for a focus on lifelong skills.
  

• Listeners will understand the significant gap in services and support that many young adults with disabilities experience after graduating high school.
  

• Listeners will grasp the occupational therapist's vital role in helping students develop a comprehensive, occupation-based transition portfolio.

Guest(s) Bio

Jacklyn Boheler, MS, OTR/L

Jacqueline Boheler is an occupational therapist and co-founder of B3 Coffee. Inspired by her experiences at UNC Chapel Hill, she co-founded B3 to create authentic, inclusive spaces for young adults with and without disabilities. As the project coordinator for Work Together NC, she advocates for disability inclusion, universal design, and neurodiversity-affirming approaches in the transition to adulthood.

Greg Boheler, MSOT, OTR/L

Greg Boheler is an occupational therapist, co-founder of B3 Coffee, and the founder of OT for Neurodiversity. As an autistic individual, he focuses on hands-on, occupation-based activities to help others. He works as a high school transition facilitator and has integrated B3's model into schools, helping students build foundational skills through practical projects like a student-run coffee cart. He is committed to challenging ableist assumptions and views his role as a community facilitator.

Quotes

"But we know that many adults with disabilities, especially if they're not going on to college, experience a huge loss in structure, a huge loss in meaningful day activity once they exit the school system."

-Jacklyn Boheler

"We know that not every person with a disability wants to work at a coffee shop forever, right? So we do our best to connect our interns on the back end with employment."

-Jacklyn Boheler

"I view us more as like facilitators for it...so in our role, I feel like, very much as like OTs is...is to kind of create opportunities for engagement and the community is going to show up and it is going to build from there."

-Greg Boheler

"I'm a big proponent of...the idea of foundational skills, like the roots to the tree, those types of skills, the things that come, they're precursors to participating in everything else."

-Greg Boheler

Resources

👉 B3 Coffee

👉Instagram: @b3coffee

👉Facebook: B3 Coffee

👉Instagram: @neurodiversity_OT

👉Teachers Pay Teachers: They have a storefront on this platform with materials for transition-age youth.

👉ChatGPT

👉UNC Chapel Hill:

👉Chapel Hill Public Library:

👉Bryden Carlson-Giving

Episode Transcript

Expand to view the episode transcript

Jayson Davies   

Hey there. Welcome to Episode 183 of the OT squads podcast. I'm your host, Jayson Davies, and today we have an inspiring conversation lined up with two incredible occupational therapists, Jaclyn and Greg Bohler. They are the dynamic duo behind b3 coffee, an innovative non profit that is redefining Community Integration and Support for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Today, we'll dive into the inspiration behind b3 what the 3b actually are and how b3 has now grown into a multi faceted organization that not only serves coffee but also fosters belonging and empowerment through unique programs and initiatives. Whether you're an OT practitioner, an educator or just someone passionate about inclusive communities, this episode is packed with insights and inspiration. So grab your favorite cup of coffee and let's get started with Jacqueline and Greg Bohler. 

Amazing Narrator   

Hello and welcome to the OT school house podcast, your source for school based occupational therapy tips, interviews and professional development. Now to get the conversation started, here is your host, Jayson Davies. Class is officially in session. 

Jayson Davies   

Greg and Jacqueline, thank you so much for being here. Really excited to talk to you about b3 coffee. Jacqueline, we'll start with you. How are you doing today? 

Jacqueline Boheler   

 Doing well. Thanks for having us. Awesome. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah. Thank you so much for being here. And Greg, you as well. How you doing? 

Greg Boheler   

Doing awesome. Thanks for having us. Jayson, absolutely. 

Jayson Davies   

I am so excited to talk about b3 and everything that you're doing over there. I've been following you now on social media for a little while, and it's just every time a new post comes up, I'm like, wait, what they're doing that that's so cool, the way that they're helping students and and especially young adults really kind of transition into the workforce and get everything going. So let's really just kind of dive into that. And I don't know who wants to take this first question, but what inspired you to create b3 and how did that background of occupational therapy influence its founding? 

Jacqueline Boheler   

Sure I can share about b3 inception. So I was an undergraduate student at UNC Chapel Hill, and I happened to get a job at Starbucks as a barista, and I loved that job. The Starbucks on campus really became a third space for me, so not home, actually. I mean, it was work, but like, it was a space where I would also hang out, socialize, connect with people, study, and it became my little community hub on campus. And at the same time, I was also involved with some student organizations on campus that promoted friendship between people with and without disabilities, and that really got me connected with the local disability community, young adults with specifically intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families, and I enjoyed it in the sense that I got to connect with those individuals and really form those meaningful relationships. But at the same time, I did see flaws in the way that the quote, unquote, inclusive community was being facilitated. So I noticed just how it was contrived in a way, and how there was definitely a charity mindset underpinning a lot of what was happening. So, you know, for many students, this was a resume booster, or this was, you know, something to feel good about themselves, and you have to, like, submit a certain number of friendship updates and go to this many number of events with your so called buddy, which I find to be a slightly patronizing term. And, you know it this is where we are as a society. So organizations like this are needed, but I also know that we can do better. And so I saw the way that coffee can really organically bring people together and create spaces of authentic community. And so I really merged those two experiences and came up with the idea of starting a pop up coffee stand in conjunction with that student organization. So at the time, this was a really small little shindig, just, you know, a folding table that we would pop up on campus, and I knew nothing about, like, quality, brewing methods, and you know, as it just kind of took off from there, especially when covid happened. I met Greg and occupational therapy, um. Um school, or my master's program at UNC, and Greg really helped push it across the finish line, as far as forming a nonprofit and branching off from what was then a student organization, or like a component of a student organization, and really broadening our reach and serving the whole triangle area, so chapel, Hill, Durham, even a little bit of Raleigh. 

Greg Boheler   

 I think it's important to note that she pulled me in with special interests. So we're both neurodivergent, and I love doing things with my hands, like fixing things, cooking, gardening, whatever, do something with my hands. And she was like, the the b3 coffee was a pop up, if we had thing, they had equipment, right? And she was like, this equipment needs to be built, or this equipment needs to be fixed. And so I was like, oh, cool, yeah, I can do it. And then next thing, you know, I'm in, and we're forming ourselves as a nonprofit and and, like she said, that happened right at the time that covid was coming along, which actually proved beneficial for us, because people had this like void in, like what they were doing each day, and like community and like so we kind of moved online that really built up our numbers. And then from there, we started building the nonprofit into what, what it is today. 

Jayson Davies   

 When you when you say you that you moved online. Greg, what do you mean by that? 

Greg Boheler   

So, because during that time we were so isolated, like everybody was so isolated. I mean, even in OT, we were in OT school, during that time, you had to have one person that you were with, and then, like nobody else, like that was your study partner, that was your person that you were in contact with. And so for a population, the individuals with disabilities, especially like young adults, who are already in many ways isolated and vulnerable, covid really like really emphasize that. So what we did is we created online, Zoom meetings, just social. It's just come in. We've got a topic. We're going to talk about stuff, we're going to connect. Maybe there's online games that we're doing, and the community really responded to that, and kind of it was a good like weekly, bi weekly thing that people could come and connect. Awesome. Jacqueline, go ahead. 

Jacqueline Boheler   

yeah, during those calls, we would also do a weekly challenge. That's the terminology we still use today, although it's evolved in meaning. But we would have something like do something kind for a neighbor, or do something artistic this this week. And you know that is a challenge to do, maybe a novel occupation, right? And it also was just a simple way to connect week to week. And, you know, have something to look forward to, and today, everyone's busy again, so we've kind of just turned it into a discussion question. So you know, what's your favorite ice cream flavor? Who's your favorite actor, actress, things like that. And, you know, we're, we're still doing those weekly community zoom calls to this day. You know, once neurodivergent people have a routine. We're not letting it go. I think everyone else is tired of zoom, except for our b3 community. We've got, you know, at least 30 folks on those calls every week. So. 

Jayson Davies   

that's awesome. That's fantastic. Congratulations on getting that going and also keeping it started, but also just congratulations on having built a community for this community. That's awesome. 

Greg Boheler   

I don't want to correct anything, but like, building a community. Like, the idea of building community, one thing that I didn't realize going in is like, I imagine that it's like, oh yeah, we're building this thing. We don't build it. I view us more as like facilitators for it. The disability community in our area is very strong. There's a lot of, like, cross disability collaboration stuff going on. So in our role, I feel like very much as like OTs is, is to kind of create opportunities for engagement, and the community is going to show up, and it is going to build from there. So I view myself as more of like a community facilitator, rather than somebody who's like, it's not on us. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah. I mean, it sounds like that's kind of how organically it kind of came to be with what Jacqueline was talking about, this, this community that already existed. She became a part of, but kind of found a little niche that really even facilitated it even more so, very cool. I know that your model b3 or the b3 model. I should say really, b3 stands for being, belonging and becoming. How has maybe the model or the mission? Has it shifted over the last several years? Has it largely remained the same? How has the growing gone and what has changed around that? Yeah. 

Jacqueline Boheler   

So fun fact, we actually came up with the 3b before we'd ever learned about Ann Wilcock. But obviously the you know, ot framework has had a huge influence on b3 so many of our activities and our programs that address life skills and community participation are incredibly occupation based and hands on, and we're using universal design and scaffolding activities and doing task analyzes. And I think that's one of the reasons that our the programming aspects of b3 has really taken off, is because of that lens that we're bringing to it. But yeah, the b3 model has changed a lot over time. And Greg, if you want to talk about like. 

Greg Boheler   

Yeah, I'll provide some context, because you're talking about programming. So initially b3 was just pop up coffee. Is it kind of a catering thing? Somebody can pay for us to pop up, or we would pop up at, like a local town event, you know, to provide visibility, Disability Visibility, and to just get out there. When we became a nonprofit, then covid happened, we realized the social piece, like that's the huge part, is the connection. And how can we we maximize that and and create different avenues from that. So coming out of covid, we had this big social piece that we wanted to do, we had the pop up piece that we were doing, and that's where we went into our other two areas. One of them is a an employment model. I'll let Jacqueline talk about that we have, like a coffee kiosk. It's a very unique model of it's an internship model. And like I said, Jacqueline, you can go into that. And then the other piece, the fourth piece, is educational programming for adults with disabilities. We create curriculum based off of what the popular, what our what our community would like to learn about, and then we have classes. 

Jacqueline Boheler   

Yeah, so the programming was really created after seeing the cliff, or at that many of our folks experience after leaving high school. So I'd say we primarily serve the young adult age range, although gradually we're recruiting more and more of middle aged and even older adults to be a part of b3 but we really embrace the concept of lifelong learning, so anyone 18 and older to can can enroll in a b3 program. But we know that. You know, many adults with disabilities, especially if they're not going on to college, experience a huge loss in structure, a huge loss in meaningful day activity once they exit the school system, if they have a job, it's very likely that it's a part time job due to a variety of reasons, including income caps on their benefits or stamina or other reasons. And so you know, there's a lot of time outside of that, that part time job, if they have a job where they might be experiencing what we know is occupational deprivation and yeah, our program topics vary from how to take public transit to cooking to emotional regulation to computer literacy. We do lots of needs assessments and kind of whatever our members say they want to work on. We make a program out of it, and we've got a lot of help from field works ot fieldwork students, thankfully, to bring that all to life. But yeah, and then we have, like Greg was mentioning, a transitional employment model out of our kiosk at The Chapel Hill Public Library, and it is an integrated model, so people with and without disabilities work alongside each other in equal but collaborative roles. We have, you know, the barista role, the customer service role, we might kind of tag team both roles, depending on the person's support needs, but it really serves as a launching pad into long term employment. So for the person with a disability, in most cases, this is their first ever work experience and an opportunity for them to build confidence, build some soft skills, and hopefully build skills that will be generalizable to any setting. We know that not every person with a disability wants to work at a coffee shop forever, right? So we do our best to connect our interns on the back end with employment, or maybe they want to just volunteer somewhere, or maybe they just want to increase their community participation. And so we always have a closing meeting at the end of the intern. Internship, where we do our best to connect them with what's next and make sure that they're supported to achieve their goals post internship. And then for the ally, or the non disabled individual who's working alongside the person with a disability, the the internship serves a slightly different purpose, right? So for them, it's pre human service professional training. So we tend to attract a lot of pre occupational therapy students or social work, or any kind of, you know, yeah, speech language pathology. And this internship really serves as a hands on experience supporting the disability community, really, I like to say, an immersion in disability culture and a way to really first hand experience how to facilitate inclusive community. So for them, you know, this is a way to build up their resume and to not only that, but also just to mutually benefit from this space of belonging that we have cultivated at at The Chapel Hill Public Library. 

Jayson Davies   

That's awesome. Greg, go ahead, 

Greg Boheler   

yeah, I have a couple notes. Yeah, the internship model at the library mimics what we do with our programming. It mimics what we do with everything, which is we're very much informed by, like a non hierarchy model, people with and without disabilities serve and participate in the same roles. So at the kiosk, our interns are both doing the, you know, the computer, the POS system, and then the drinks. Both of them kind of switch back and forth. So we feel like, especially with our allies, our ally interns, the non disabled ones, or maybe they are disabled, but they're not hired as the disabled interns. They get this preparatory experience before heading into these human services fields of like number one, collaborating with with future clients, right working at the same level. There's no hierarchy. It's removing a lot of the stigma and language that may be used within the disability space, because they're going to go into settings where, where it's just inherently ableist from the assessments we use to the standard procedures and just the words and language that we use on a daily basis. So we feel it's important for all of our allies, whether they're helping with classes, participating in programs or being an intern, to get this neurodiversity like affirming kind of lens as they continue their education. 

Jacqueline Boheler   

Yeah. So we've developed ally ship trainings that all of our allies participate in, covering everything from disability etiquette to the history of the disability rights movement to current systemic issues that disabled people face, really equipping them with how to advance from the stages of and Greg has this like five part model, but like awareness to acceptance, Ally, ship, accomplish. Ship, right? It's a it's a process of learning and unlearning and making mistakes. And we we think that disabled people so often have to adapt to neurotypical norms. Why isn't it? You know, non disabled people more often having to meet in the middle and learn about disability culture and disability etiquette. So that's yeah, the way we see it is that that meeting in the middle 

Jayson Davies   

Awesome, yeah. And for everyone, I know this is an audio only podcast, but I encourage you to go over on Instagram, b3 coffee, or head over to the website and and you'll be able to see some of the visualizations of what Jacqueline and Greg are talking about. So be sure to check them out over there. Greg and Jacqueline. As you know, this podcast is primarily geared towards school based occupational therapy practitioners working in the school system K through 12 or K through 22 even for adult transition programs. Have you both or has b3 with you and all the others that support b3 have you had the opportunity to work with high school and transition age students while still in public education? 

Greg Boheler   

Greg, you can take that one. I have an answer for you. So my nine to five for the past four years have has been working in high schools as a transition facilitator. It's a non traditional ot role. I don't need my license to do it, but what I'm doing every single day is OT. It's occupation everything, and it's, it's essentially writing, working on the IEP to create goals that facilitate the transition into a. Adult life, and then working on those skill areas that individuals will need as they become adults. It's an ongoing process. Whenever I don't feel like I'm fully an adult, 34 years old, but it's just a long journey. But they're skills that are important to develop, and so I've been working in the schools for years. Go ahead with what you're 

Jacqueline Boheler   

well, talk about the b3 student? Org chapter, 

Greg Boheler   

sure. Yeah. So, um, one of the ways that I've kind of married the two is that I've brought B threes into the schools and done like, for lack of a better term, coffee cart weekly for our for our staff, it's something that we offer for free for staff to have an order coffee and treats. So what that entails is, like, there's so many things that we can work on, from an occupational stare therapy standpoint, with our students with disabilities, there's the coffee production, there's the sending out, like the service, survey, there's the baking the treats the day before, there's delivery. There's a process when we're actually making and delivering the coffee, of like following the step by step recipes. So there's so many things going on, and it's been a great way to kind of have a little bit of v3 while I'm at school, and also connect high schoolers with the organization before they have that, that cliff, the drop off services when they graduate. 

Jacqueline Boheler   

And I think it's important to note that this is not just students with disabilities participating, which is what you often see. This is, you know, students who are receiving general education may be neurodivergent, may not be, who are coming into the adapted curriculum classroom and collaborating on the coffee orders week to week. 

Jayson Davies   

So, so how did that facilitation look like? Or was that already kind of in place? Or did you start like a club on the campus? And that's kind of where the v3 cart kind of is part of that club, or how 

Greg Boheler   

that happened. So I began it as a club. But the concept of coffee cart and the concept of, like, treat cart is, at least where I'm from, North Carolina. It's, like, really common in the schools. Like, there's a it's something that happens everywhere. So I was like, this is a perfect avenue for us to kind of bring that b3 mentality in. I think it's something that can be done without the b3 branding anywhere like you write a grant, you create the processes and you create opportunities, once again, facilitate those opportunities for engagement with the disability and the non disabled populations working together. Yeah, 

Jacqueline Boheler   

and it was actually a sibling of a student with a disability, that was our first approach to Greg. Actually, I don't even know if it came from us, but about starting A, b3, chapter, 

Jayson Davies   

awesome. So this is actually, when you say chapter, it is a club on campus that is a its own entity, but kind of is associated with y'all affiliated. Yeah, it's a student Gotcha. Yeah, that's very cool. And Greg, you say that, like, it's so simple to get a grant and put some processes in place and find some people that want to do this. Like, I think grants are super scary, especially for someone who's hasn't gone over through a grant. Had to do research where they had to get a grant. But I know in the school based ot world, I very rarely hear from people who have ever done a grant. I mean, I've never done a grant for you. Was that scary? I mean, how did you even find out about like, where to go for this? 

Greg Boheler   

So I found out where to go. Through it, from our from our, like, finance and HR person at the school, whoever pays gives me my paychecks, that that person and so, but I, yeah, going into it. You know, I'm coming right out of school. I had never done a grant, I will say, being a part of this nonprofit in the role that that Jacqueline I have, we're filling out grants all the time. But when I first started in the schools, I hadn't really done any grant work. And so my first one that I did in the schools, I was intimidated by it, and I think that first time, I was like, Oh, I put so much effort into, I tried so hard, got it. I probably put way too much effort into because what I've learned is that a school grant, in comparison to the kind of grants that not like MPOs and stuff are getting, the complexity level is it's it's not even close. The School Grant is much, much more relaxed, much more chill than any any kind of big grant that we're that we're getting as an organization. So I would, I would encourage people to not be intimidated, get an idea, come up with a grant, come up with a budget. The budget doesn't need to be perfect, especially for school grants. If you don't use all the funding, they're they're cool with that. And so like last year, we. Did a cooking grant. We bought some cooking equipment. We bought ingredients every week. We did cooking like we learned recipes and used it with both of the the classrooms in our that are serve our disabled population in the school. And then the year before that, we did furniture refurbishment, right so we have students looking on Instagram and Pinterest, looking up how to, like, refurbish old furniture. I go and I pick up $10 piece of whatever side table. We bring it to the school, and we we do something with it. So if you have an idea, and you you like, you're interested in, kind of like, marrying that, that occupation with, with these, like foundational learning areas, I would encourage people to go 

Jacqueline Boheler   

first, yeah. And the other alternative I'll mention is PTA sponsorship is one potential route, because that's kind of a Teacher Appreciation thing, right? Yeah. So that I think we followed that model starting out. And also there's chat GPT now, which is really a game changer when it comes to writing grants and coming up with budgets. Not saying, like, write it for you, but definitely use it as an aid in the grant writing process. 

Jayson Davies   

I highly, yeah. I'll second that one can definitely help you. Help you out there. I just noticed that we've talked, you know, you talked about the four different areas that b3 really helped to support the community. But I want you to, kind of, I want to give you an opportunity to kind of share what the physical location of b3 kind of looks like, and how it is supportive. You talked a little bit about the online zoom community interactions, but And you talked a little bit about the programming as well, but I'd love to just get your sense of what that space looks like and how it facilitates community. 

Jacqueline Boheler   

Yeah. So we are located at the Chapel Hill Public Library that is our main physical location. However, we also have our programming that occurs at a local church, which is conveniently located across the street from UNC Chapel Hill's campus, and that's yeah, engage UNC students and create that integrated atmosphere, but I love being at The Chapel Hill Public Library for a coffee kiosk, because it is a space where people are organically encountering our members and Not necessarily expecting to have their order taken by a disabled person. So, you know, there's all kinds of inclusive coffee shops out there, right? But with being in a Chapel Hill, in a public library, like no one is really going there to support an inclusive coffee shop, they are going there to pick up their books or to go to kids programming. And you know, it is a very organic experience encountering b3 and I think that has provided an incredible amount of visibility to disabled people in our community because they're in such a publicly facing space, and that is the foundation of breaking down stigma when you are randomly encountering a person with a disability, living, working and equally, participating in the community. And that is just normal, right? And we have different ways of kind of facilitating connection between the broader public and our members, or those that are behind the kiosk. One of those ways is we have kind of, like an occupational profile of each person that is working displayed, and it just shares a little bit about this person's hobbies, this person's interest, fun fact. And the customer will see that and be like, Oh, I really like that movie, too. And you know, it'll stimulate a conversation beyond just the transaction of the coffee order. We'll write out a joke of the day, and our members pick that out. And you know, a kid sees it, and, you know, asks, what's the answer to this joke? And, you know, just creating those organic moments of connection is what I think we've really been able to accomplish, particularly being in such a public space where there's a lot going on and people of all ages and abilities come to the library, and, yeah, I'm really proud of what we've been able to create there. 

Jayson Davies   

I really value everything that you just said, like, I mean, the idea that the people that are going to be three are not, I mean, the people familiar with b3 are going to be three because it's b3 but so many people, as you mentioned, they're not seeking out b3 they're just happening to find it like the Starbucks that are in every Barnes and Noble then the. Like, you know, you just go and you want a coffee while just checking out Barton double. So, yeah, Greg, go ahead. I know you wanted to add, 

Greg Boheler   

yeah, that's a beautiful way of putting it. I was just going to talk about the other space that we use. So our primarily, we have our programming. We use a local church. We they have a great space right on campus. It's super it's on the transit line. There's student engagement. It's great. But I feel like for us, it's kind of weird, because really where b3 is, is where stuff's going on, like it's in the community. And that really builds. It echoes what Jacqueline was saying about like, that community integration, that visibility, the random encounters. So we we use, we build off, a lot of existing platforms. If there's a jazz festival going on, we're there. If there's a Pride Parade, we're there. If there's some like, arts event, or what it's something that the town is doing, we're going to try to be there, whether it's just a small group of people going, or we're formally there in, like, a catering capacity, yeah, yeah, capacity, exactly. Perfect work. We like to be out in the community. And I feel like that community integration, that community space, is really one of the primary spaces of b3 

Jacqueline Boheler   

Yeah, like we started out just doing our own social events, like Valentine's Day party, New Year's party, you know, and it just being a b3 event. And gradually, we've been expanding beyond that. Our members definitely won't allow for us to let go of any of our signature holiday events. However, we've expanded beyond that now, and you know, whatever free public event is happening in the community, we're going to make it accessible for our members to attend, and we're going to create an event page for it and facilitate our members access to it. 

Jayson Davies   

That's awesome. I love how you're coming at this from not just let's support our members, but let's support the entire society at large to better understand our members and the DIS the disabled community, that that's awesome, like, because you could easily be doing b3 but only be focusing on the neurodivergent community and, like, kind of putting that focus there. But obviously you kind of have thought about this from so many different ways that ot practitioners are so good at doing. So I'm not surprised you've done this, but I love that you're kind of trying to figure out, and you already have, how you can support this from from many different angles that that is awesome. Jacqueline, behind the scenes, off, off audio, you mentioned the clubhouse model, which was awesome because I actually did a level one in a clubhouse down here in Southern California, you know, level one being there for what, one or two weeks or whatever. And so I got to experience that, and very unique, very different from what you think of ever as occupational therapy. Like it's exactly what occupational therapy should be, without all the bureaucracy and money and all that. And so it sounds like that to a degree. B3 is maybe not directly modeled, but influenced by the clubhouse model. So I'd love to let you talk about that. 

Greg Boheler   

Yeah, we got the idea fieldwork level one. We were in a mental health clubhouse, and we were like, Oh, this is really cool. And kind of backlogged, that idea as something that maybe down the line we could create for the IDD space. It's not something that we've seen anywhere. There may be something on the West Coast, you guys are so progressive and ahead, but, but, but it's something that we kind of logged away as this would be really cool if there was this space for adults with disabilities to come and and kind of just be a part of the day, right? Jacqueline, 

Jacqueline Boheler   

yeah. So historically, the clubhouse model was made by and for people with severe and persistent mental illness, so it does have pretty rigid eligibility criteria, like you have to have schizophrenia or severe bipolar, and so a lot of our members would not qualify for the clubhouse that is local to our area. And like Greg said, We've never really seen the clubhouse model trialed for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, despite having a very similar set of quality of life needs as the severe and persistent mental mental illness community, yeah, and so that is b3 future. So that is the vision that we are actively pursuing and actually piloting starting this fall. So in addition to our more structured educational programs, we are going to have drop in hours. So this will be kind of a more flexible time that members can come and go as they please, and there will be different activity stations, maybe a craft station or a Game Station, and or you can just go and hang out and listen to music on your phone like it's really going to be very. Member led, and we will encourage members to start clubs based around their special interests, if they want. You know, we're definitely doing D and D club and book club or, you know, whatever our members are interested in. We want the clubhouse space or drop in hours to reflect that. So we are, yeah, really excited to see how this goes. Stay tuned, but because we've really broadened our offering so much beyond coffee, at this point, we will be rebranding to be three rather than be three coffee. So be the coffee is not going anywhere, but will be like a branch of the broader organization three, and then we'll have the b3 clubhouse as the other branch. So, 

Jayson Davies   

so the clubhouse will be a completely separate, independent location. You guys, are you doing that at a different location? 

Greg Boheler   

It'll be, it's eventually, yep, it'll be its own location. Got to be on the bus line. Got to be right in the community, where there's lots of things to walk to, the thing that excites us, I think the most about the clubhouse is this organization is it's complex, but it's not complex. It's not complex for us to figure out how to run it and to have these, you know, four prongs. We've got the social and then the catering, and then the kiosk and in the programming, like for me, it makes sense in my mind, it's good, but I can't hand this off to anybody else. This is not like a replicable model, right? We have two neurodivergent OTs running it. We have so many, so much support from the local universities, whether it be our ally interns, or just even even assistance from different programs at the local universities. It's not something that could occur everywhere. Whereas the clubhouse, if we have this happen, and we prove it works, that's something that could occur elsewhere. That's something that in a large urban area would be very beneficial for a lot of people. So that's one of the things that really excites us about it, is we've we finally kind of keyed in onto one of the things that can be replicated from our model. 

Jayson Davies   

That's fantastic, that's exciting. That's really exciting, I'm sure, for you, for the entire community that you're surrounded by there in Chapel Hill and and in the area that that's got to be exciting. Is this something that members are already actively a part of? 

Jacqueline Boheler   

Yeah. I mean, they've been involved in every stage of the planning process so far. So we had a social work student do a needs assessment for us and go around interviewing members and their families about, you know, what kinds of activities should we have? And people want a pool table and certain bean bags, and, you know, we'll see how much we've gotten the budget for them. Yeah, and we're hoping to get funding, I'll say, from our local managed care organization. Things are a little iffy right now with Medicaid being under threat. But regardless, we're going forward, and we're going to pilot this at a very small scale, just using the church we already have access to in the fall, and kind of see where it goes from there with with the ultimate aim of being open nine to five one day, and having our own standalone building for all of the community building to take place. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, yeah, wow. I have so many follow up questions. I do want to go back to you, Greg, because I did miss one earlier, and I think this is an important one for the school based ot practitioners, listening and kind of your experience, I think will really help with this. Is, what are some of the skills, especially that in high school, you know, we often focus on academics and school based OT, but what are some of those skills that you have seen are so important to work on, because you've seen it both in the school but also after the cliff. What are some of those things that you really advocate for school based ot practitioners to help their students with? 

Greg Boheler   

So for me, I'm a big proponent of and I hope, I think this is something we're already doing, but I think it's important to highlight it is, is the idea, like the idea of foundational skills, like the roots to the tree, those types of skills, the things that come they're precursors to participating in everything else. So things like self advocacy, self regulation, executive functioning, things initiation and like problem solving, skills working on like like identity development, that's such a fun thing to do with, especially if you're talking about middle through high school. There's so much going on. These foundational skills, I think, are so important to get, like, get the work underway before individuals leave the school system. And these skills. Are great because they can be worked on while you're working on other things. They can be it should be very occupation focused in how you're doing it. So if you're going to be working on, like, I mean, executive functioning is kind of low hanging fruit here, but executive functioning cooking, boom, done. We're cooking all day, but you're actually undercover, incognito, working on things like attention and focus, and like time management and like following multi step directions and stuff like that. So I'm a big proponent of focusing on those foundational skills, and those are the things that are really going to prepare a lot of people for for accessing those tasks and big mile markers and things that you have to do as an adult that 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah. And then kind of another follow up to that, more from not necessarily the OT side, but in your role as a transition coordinator, yep. What are some resources that you think every OT or every person dealing with transition in high school? What are some resources that maybe they should obviously, every community is different, but what should they kind of put together, maybe in a folder of resources for our people that are community that are transitioning? 

Greg Boheler   

Okay, so for emerging emerging adults, some of the resources and services that it's important to get connected with are, I mean, depending on what we're talking about, like what their diagnosis is, what their level of support that is, getting connected with supported employment agencies, getting connected with Medicaid providers, if that's something that They're able to pursue and and get their SSI local organizations and nonprofits is something that we definitely leverage. I've definitely leveraged a lot around here. So we have an amazing database of resources in in North Carolina that I'm able to go on and I'm able to see, oh, I can I connect, connect this family with this resource, because they can get benefits counseling, right, and they have Spanish speaking advisors. It's perfect, you know? So leveraging the already existing organizations and and businesses that kind of do this work is is something that I place a high priority on as far as like, the actual like, tools and stuff that I'm using. I'm not a huge I don't use a lot of standardized assessments. I think you had Bryden on recently, and he's not. He doesn't use a bunch of standardized assessments either. Yeah, nope. But I do gather a lot of data through either taking a standardized assessment and piecemealing it, like taking the pieces that I want to use, or like observation based, like occupation based stuff, right? I get a lot of data from that, and then, before we have a student graduate, we've we consolidate this information into a like toolkit that they can use oftentimes. It's called, like, a portfolio before they graduate. And it has things in it that we've worked on. It has things that come from my data. It has things like resumes. It has things, you know, things that they can use and manipulate. 

Jacqueline Boheler   

Videos of the student, videos of them working 

Greg Boheler   

stuff like these are my regulation strategies that I can lean on. These are some of my sensory preferences that I can you know, stuff like that is is great for them to have on hand before graduation. 

Jayson Davies   

Wow, that sounds. Sounds like your your district has really put some effort and yourself obviously, have really put some effort into identifying this role and really making it something meaningful. Because I don't know, I just, I've worked in several districts. I've talked to OTs around the around the country, and it just feels like transitions are so piecemeal together, and they're just kind of being done because it's required on an IEP, not because it's actually beneficial for students when they're transitioning. And it sounds like that's not the case in your in your area. We 

Greg Boheler   

are very fortunate in this district to have one of me at each high school. Wow, which is very rare. It's usually one per, like, the entire district. And like you're saying, there's still that, there's still that energy of like, Oh, we got to do, we got to do this transition part on the IEP. But something that we've emphasized, at least, that my team has emphasized, is that the transition section, especially when you get to that high school like level, should guide a lot of the IEP. The goal should be related to these skill areas, these these things that they're going to have to learn as you adapt and and go into adulthood and potentially lose services and have to figure out employment and post secondary education and all these other things, so 

Jacqueline Boheler   

which is a completely different system, and sadly, a lot of educators aren't informed on how. Exactly adult services work, and you know how early you need to be applying for things like waivers, which give you access to home and community based services. So like here in North Carolina, the it takes 15 years to get off the wait list, at least for services like respite and even in some cases, supported 

Greg Boheler   

employment, yeah, so depending on where you are, connecting, connecting families, with these big agencies, with these like, you know, statewide things early on is better, because even if they're not going to need the services right now, there are things that can be initiated at any age as they continue their education towards graduation. So 

Jayson Davies   

wow, that is such thank you for sharing that, because that is something that I know we all think about, but sometimes it just feels like so big pie in the sky thing that we just don't know where to start or where to address it. So I'm glad that you were able to kind of share a few things about it. So awesome. I think we're going to wrap up here today. Greg Jacqueline, thank you so much. But before I do, I want to give you the opportunity to share with everyone listening, where they can learn more about becoming an ally, learn more about even maybe one day starting a chapter, or even just learning more about b3 in general. Where can they learn more about y'all, 

Jacqueline Boheler   

yeah, so you can visit our website, b3 coffee.org to learn more about the organization. You can find at b3 coffee, actually at the belong, become on Instagram. That is b3 Instagram. And then we have b3 coffee Facebook page. And if you're interested in just general neuro diversity affirming resources and an ally ship framework, then check out. It's neuro diversity underscore. Ot on Instagram, we have this kind of side initiative that, to be honest, like we don't attend to very much, I get that, but you know, all the resources are still there. It's called OTs for Neuro diversity, and we also have a Teachers Pay Teachers storefront with a lot of the materials that we use with transition age youth on there. So 

Jayson Davies   

awesome. Well, thank you so much. Really appreciate having you on and we'll definitely have to keep in touch to see how b3 evolves beyond just coffee. Thanks so much for being here. Thanks for having us all right. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of the OT school house podcast, and a big thank you also to Greg and Jacqueline for sharing your time and energy to share the b3 story. I hope you found our conversation with Jacqueline and Greg as enlightening and as inspiring as I did. What they are doing is just fantastic, and it's actually something that I really want to do, kind of in my home town community, supporting that transition age youth is something that has always been like the top of mind for me, and it goes back all the way, you know, to my pre ot days. But really want to support, you know, those 20 year olds, 30 year olds that are trying to transition, or even, you know, 1819, teenage, teenage year olds, if you want to call them that, that are trying to make that transition from school into life. So Jacqueline and Greg, their work with b3 is a testament to the power that the community can have, especially within the disability community. So again, thank you so much for tuning in. And if you're interested in learning more about b3 coffee, or the larger b3 initiative, be sure to visit their website at b3 coffee.org and follow them on social media as always. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review and sharing it with your friends and colleagues. Or if you'd like to get even more resources related to school based occupational therapy, be sure to check out the OT school house collaborative, where you can get courses, resources, research, reviews and even live mentorship, our calls with myself over at ot schoolhouse.com/collab, Your support helps us to continue bringing you valuable content, and we appreciate it every single day. So until next time, keep making a difference in the lives of those you serve and take care. I'll see you in episode 184 Bye, bye. 

Amazing Narrator   

Thank you for listening to the OT school house podcast for more ways to help you and your students succeed right now, head on over to otschoolhouse.com Until next time class is dismissed.

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OTS 183- Brewing Community with A Neurodiversity-Affirming Model for Transition-Age Youth

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