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Barbara Shelly, columnist for the Kansas City Star, spent
some time last year in Lawrence visiting CLO homes and interviewing
staff members, then wrote about what she learned in two
columns.
In May Shelly wrote about Jim and Sandy Beiter, their Family-Teaching
Model home, and the men who have become members of their
family.
“Sandy Beiter was working as a data entry clerk in
Wamego, Kansas. Her husband, Jim, worked for a mental health
agency. They weren’t crazy about their jobs, and they
hated sending their daughter to day care,” Shelly wrote.
Then Sandy browsed through the newspaper one day and spotted
their dream job in a help wanted ad. An organization called
CLO needed people for a job with an interesting-sounding
title: Family-Teaching Couple. In this job they could work
from home, with rent, utilities and groceries included.
All they had to do was expand their family.
“So it was that the Beiters in 1997 moved to Lawrence.
They now have three children and share their home with three
developmentally disabled men, referred to around the house
as ‘the guys’,” wrote Shelly.
In exchange for a salary and most living expenses, Family-Teaching
Couples assume responsibility for caring for and teaching
three or four people who have disabilities.
“For the Beiters, the arrangement allows for family
time they couldn’t find before. For ‘the guys,’
it provides a sense of belonging and permanence they never
experienced in years of institutional living,” Shelly
wrote.
At the time Shelly visited, the Beiters lived in one side
of a duplex with their children, Ashley, Cameron, and Natalie.
Mike Young, Dave Tuckel, and Brett Wells shared the other
side of the duplex. The door cut into the dividing wall
was open most of the time.
Shelly wrote about a typical day in the household, which
starts at 7 a.m. with a wake-up call from Sandy or Jim through
an intercom. Breakfast is self-serve, then people head off
in different directions - Ashley to elementary school, Cameron
to preschool.
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“The guys” attend day programs at CLO and work
part-time in restaurants. Sandy and Jim develop community
living activities, work on tasks related to managing the
home, and tend to other matters involving “the guys.”
At about 4 p.m. everyone reunites for family time and dinner
for eight. Watching “Jeopardy” on TV is a ritual.
CLO has 22 family-teaching homes, and although a few couples
have found the family-teaching job isn’t for them,
the Beiters and others embrace it as a lifestyle. The Beiters
found it to be a lower-stress alternative to their former
jobs back in Wamego.
“Our kids are happy. We’re happy. The guys are
extremely happy,” Jim Beiter told Shelly. “We
plan on retiring from this job. And even after that, I can’t
imagine telling the guys to leave.”
And so it was that the Beiters decided to buy a big single-family
house so the whole group could become even more of a family.
Now the household the Beiters run is truly their own, their
work and family lives are even more intertwined, and they’re
independent contractors rather than employees of CLO. Living
situations like the Beiter’s are part of CLO’s
Extended Family-Teaching Model.
In the Family-Teaching Model, where the Beiters started
out, CLO asks teaching couples to commit to at least two
years of employment. In Extended Family-Teaching Model situations
like the Beiter’s, the commitment can be much deeper,
much to be benefit of “the guys.”
In 1997, the Beiters thought they had landed the job of
a lifetime. Now they think of it as a job for life.
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