Swimming against the COVID-19 pandemic’s tide that kept many support service organizations hunkered down or in retreat, downtown Lafayette’s Las Trampas campus for adults with developmental disabilities has buzzed with activity over the last four years.
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A $14 million capital campaign launched in 2013 to bring the facility built in 1968 into the modern era was recently completed. After 10 years of planning, fundraising and construction, the state-of-the-art facility now provides a modern, new building for the services participants have received since Las Trampas was founded in 1958.
Las Trampas offers a weekday program comparable to a junior college, with classes in physical health, life skills, occupational learning, art, music and more. A supported living services program emphasizes independence with intensive training in money management, grocery shopping, cooking, using public transit and tapping into community access.
Two Pleasant Hill properties provide licensed home settings for individuals with acute psychosocial conditions. Because the long-term well-being of adults with disabilities is an ever-present concern, one home has been transitioned to a seniors residential center that lets residents age in place.
In September, the Board of Directors, Executive Director Dan Hogue and staff proudly held an open house to allow everyone in the community an opportunity to tour and celebrate the main campus. The tour emphasized the project’s key highlights: the overall architectural design that complies with the U.S. Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA); multiple innovative and aesthetically pleasing indoor and outdoor spaces and features; and the facility’s substantial technological improvements.
With Hogue on sabbatical until 2025, Katherine Levine-Koller, the facility’s director of philanthropy, spoke for Las Trampas in an interview a few weeks after the open house.
“Our lead architect, Tom Chastain, designed every part with intentionality. He, along with Renee Chow and Chris Lesnett of Studio Urbis, conducted interviews with staff, participants and program directors. (Collectively,) they asked what was needed to best serve our participants and instructors,” she said.
Primary architectural requests such as ADA-compliant ramps, quiet spaces outside of classrooms, changing rooms for adult hygiene, updated kitchen features, a new movement room and additional storage spaces were integrated and elevated with smaller, equally vital elements.
“Tom made sure to include hand rails that are wood, not metal. They’re warm to the touch and offer an ergonomic design suited for the hand and grasp of a person with sight or mobility challenges. Also, there are subliminal color cues in the carpets and walls that indicate room changes like blue for classroom sinks and water areas, green in classrooms and outdoors, and orange at the front entry, our welcoming color.”
Levine-Koller joined Las Trampas in 2022, arriving from Chicago with extensive professional experience in organizational philanthropy.
“What drew me is their person-centered focus,” she said. “In middle school, I was involved with a group called Circle of Friends and had playdates with a girl who had Prader-Willi syndrome.
“I used to say she was the luckiest girl in the world because she had friendship and annual trips to Disneyland. But most people with developmental disabilities don’t have that kind of support. Since then, I’ve always wanted and worked to make that possible for other people.”
That support at Las Trampas is colorful, joyful and delightful but not fanciful like a theme park. Instead, every element is aimed at high function and holds essential purpose.
“We have acoustic walls and floor tiles so individuals diagnosed with autism who have sensory sensitivities are minimally interrupted. If they hear noise coming from hallways or other rooms, they can become distracted. Even in rooms without doors, the sound is controllable,” she said.
Wired and wireless online connections for assistive devices and portable touch-screen monitors provide up-to-date technology learning tools. Visual stimulation is customized with lighting adjustable for brightness, dimming and hue. Lights can shift from a stimulating yellow to soothing blue tones to meet individual preferences.
Push-button and automatic doorways and changing rooms with lifts and benches for adult hygiene support independent mobility, security, privacy and self-care. In the kitchen, lower counter heights and hand-friendly cabinet pulls are just the start.
“There’s an induction stovetop to prevent burns, and both residential and commercial dishwashers so people can learn for both home and workplace settings,” said Levine-Koller. “The oven has French doors so someone in a wheelchair can pull up close, open it with one hand and not be leaning over a hot oven door.”
The kitchen and an outdoor garden are also forums for education. Classes in the kitchen teach students about choosing menus, making grocery lists, shopping, making meals and cleaning up. In the garden, seeds and seedlings bought at a store or nursery are planted, tended and then gleaned for fruits and vegetables used in classes that promote healthy eating.
“One of our goals is to support every participant becoming as independent as possible, which includes being able to express themselves,” Levine-Koller said of the movement and art rooms. “We have wheelchair exercise classes, Zumba, yoga and all with music they request delivered through a new Bluetooth sound system. The art room is extremely popular. Their art hangs on the walls, and it’s incredible.”
She said one of her favorite pleasures is choosing a work to bid on at the annual gala.
“I purchase it for myself or as a gift for someone. The last time I was outbid, but in March (2025) at Blackhawk Country Club, I intend to go home with a wonderful piece of art.”
Levine-Koller said visitors and people actively involved with Las Trampas comment on the immediate sense of joy experienced upon entering.
“We want to be a model for other organizations. It’s light, it’s colorful, and the halls are filled with people who want to give me a fist bump and tell me what they did over the weekend.”
As it has been for more than six decades, she suggested, Las Trampas is a place of choice, where people learn and discover pathways to reach their highest potential.
Lou Fancher is a freelance writer. Reach her at lou@johnsonandfancher.com.