Transition Summer Camp

The Gatesway Foundation is excited to announce the first annual Transition Summer Camp. The Camp will be a full day program meeting in mid town Tulsa.

The camp will teach High School age students employment, life and social skills. The Students will access the community for job training, and social activities.
Registration is each Tuesday in May from 9-2 at the East Side Christian Church located at 1438 S Indianapolis Ave in Tulsa or by appointment. For more information, please contact Dawn Harig Director of Transition Services at 918-845-3344.

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Gatesway Foundation receives OK-APSE Awards

(Broken Arrow, OK) - The Gatesway Foundation was awarded three awards from the Oklahoma Association for Persons in Supported Employment (OK-APSE) on Wednesday March 27, 2013 at their annual conference held in Tulsa.

OK-APSE named the Gatesway Foundation their Supported Employment Agency of the Year, as well as honored Gatesway employee Mike Baker as their Employment Consultant of the Year.  Preston Brown, an individual served by Gatesway, was named Supported Employee of the Year.

OK-APSE was founded in 1989 for the purpose of improving and expanding integrated employment opportunities, services and outcomes for persons with disabilities.  OK-APSE promotes “best practices and ethical standards, in employment services through training, events and award programs, address issues that impede the inclusion of people with severe disabilities, educate communities on the advantages of diversity and hiring workers with disabilities, introduce and support legislation which enhances self sufficiency and full economic participation, and mentor people with disabilities and others as leaders and advocates.

The Gatesway Foundation  is a non-profit Oklahoma agency based in Broken Arrow that has been a pioneer and leader in community based services for people with intellectual  and developmental disabilities since 1963.

Keeping with its pioneering spirit, Gatesway was one of the agencies responsible for starting supported employment services in Oklahoma in 1985.  Gatesway was a partner agency in the Oklahoma Supported Employment Project, a federally funded grant program with the Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation Services and the University of Oklahoma.

Gatesway’s goal is to assure all people served acquire the living, vocational, and social skills necessary to become a vital part of their community. For more information about Gatesway, visit www.gatesway.org.

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Gatesway Foundation and other related organizations celebrate Developmental

Disabilities Awareness Month in March, and invite others to consider the true meaning of this

year’s theme, “Look Beyond.”

Statewide and across the nation, organizations devoted to serving individuals with

developmental disabilities are planning special events in March to raise public awareness of the

many abilities people have, regardless of disability.  “Look Beyond” encourages people to

understand that when people with disabilities are welcomed into local neighborhoods,

workplaces, houses of worship, and schools, everyone wins.

The language of the official Proclamation indicates that before the 1990 Americans with

Disabilities Act, Americans were changing their perceptions about people with disabilities. It

applauded efforts by the government and the private sector to work with advocacy

organizations on measures that would help these people achieve ”their full potential in school,

at work, or at home.”  More than twenty‐five years later, the focus of the month continues to

promote acceptance, independence, and self‐determination.

“This is a time when our organization focuses on encouraging the public to better understand the

individuals we serve,” said Judi Myers, CEO of the Gatesway Foundation.

For more information about the Gatesway Foundation and the people we serve, please visit www.gatesway.org.

The Broken Arrow-based Gatesway Foundation is celebrating 50 years of service to individuals with intellectual disabilities with an array of events, beginning with the introduction of a new visual image.

To mark its semi-centennial year, CEO Judi Myers said Gatesway asked More Branding + Communication of Tulsa to develop a new logo and corporate identity line.

Justin Johnson, principal with the firm, said the visual it created features not one but two elements reflecting the mission of the agency and its ultimate goal.

“The letter ‘G’ is a symbol Gatesway has used in various forms over the years,” Johnson said. “We wanted to keep some of that brand equity intact but make it more iconic and enrich it with a layer of meaning that communicates what the agency does.”

To meet that goal, Gatesway’s new ‘G’ is formed by a series of progressions that continuously get stronger until the final one, fully developed, depicts a human figure ready to take flight.

“This is Gatesway helping people with intellectual disabilities spread their wings and achieve things they or their families never thought were possible,” Johnson said. “It’s what this organization is all about. Over and over again, the employees we interviewed told us the proudest moment of their professional life comes when a client is able to break away from them and live an independent, fulfilling, productive life.”

Johnson said a new corporate theme line, “Opening Up The World,” was conceived to support its new logo and reinforce the agency’s mission.

Also on the 50^th anniversary calendar are revisions to its annual charity golf tournament, the event for which it is best known – the Gatesway Balloon Festival – and a new gala where the organization’s will unveil a hall of fame.

Myers noted that when the agency first opened its doors in 1963, about the only option a family had was to institutionalize a challenged loved one. “There was simply no place for people with developmental disabilities in our society,” she said.

That scenario began to change the day Helen Gates was told her son, Ronnie, who was born with Down syndrome, would have to leave the state-supported school he was in and be placed in a geriatric nursing home. “He was 21 years old. What kind of life could he have in an environment like that?” she often asked friends and associates.

“We do things the Gates way,” quickly became a rally cry that has enabled the agency and its employees to touch the lives of more than 1,000 individuals and their families and, in the process, help write hundreds of success stories, Myers said. The array of services it now offers includes community residential facilities, group homes and intermediate care facilities, and vocational programs ranging from an on-campus vocational training operation to work crews and independent community employment opportunities. Health care delivery is also part of the agency’s operational mix.

Approximately 400 employees meet the needs of a like number of clients on a 24/7 basis every day of the year. Its annual operating budget tops $16 million.

“Fifty years ago, we were viewed by many as a brash newcomer pioneering a set of revolutionary concepts and approaches,” Myers said. “Because of the success we have enjoyed, it’s amazing how many of those concepts and approaches are now accepted as industry standards.”

Without question, the world in which this agency operates has changed dramatically over the past half-century. And while Gatesway continues to change to meet today’s needs, Myers emphasizes one fundamental aspect remains the same as the day 50 years ago when Helen Gates first opened its doors in a rented house in Tulsa.

“Then as now, our goal is to do everything in our power to help the people we serve acquire the living skills, vocational skills, and social skills necessary to become vital parts of their community,” she said. “We don’t always succeed that that doesn’t mean we don’t always try. We want to open up the world for them,” she said.

Editors: For more information, please contact Judi Myers or Barry Maxwell at Gatesway, 918-258-3900 

On December 29^, 2012, Billy Moore’s family, staff and roommate planted a tree on the Gatesway campus in his memory.  Billy passed away on December 26, 2011.  His family wanted to memorialize his passing with a tree planting on the one year anniversary of his death.  Billy was served by Gatesway from 1974 until his passing in December 2011.  Billy was a former resident of the Hissom Memorial Center.  He came to Gatesway when he was 18 years old.  At 39, he moved into the community with a roommate and as his sister said, was one of Gatesway’s success stories. 

 “He lived in a regular home, had a roommate, had a job, earned a paycheck, went to the grocery store and to the movies, went to the bank and the barber shop, went on vacations – he was a regular guy living a regular life.  He thrived in the community.  He loved his life.  In fact, he loved it so much that he didn’t want to come home to our parents’ house – even to visit,” Kathy Sengel – Billy’s sister

 To read the Kathy’s full remarks regarding the tree planting and life of her brother and the remarks of his brother Jim, please follow this link.