Purpose of the TASK Capital Campaign

When children with special needs join a TASK sports team or social club, good things happen. They develop new skills. They gain confidence in their abilities. They try harder. They discover what it feels like to win. TASK – Team Activities for Special Kids – offers the St. Louis area’s only year-round, noncompetitive team sports and social programs for youth with special needs. Since 1996, we have grown to welcome more than 800 participants each year to our basketball, kickball, soccer and various other sports, accepting each athlete as he or she is, and adapting our athletic programs to meet their individual needs. Many are also active in our social club and summer camp programs that help build social and life skills in a safe, nurturing, and “bully-free” environment. That’s the good news. The more humbling reality is that for every child with special needs we serve, there are at least five or six more who could benefit equally from our services. There are more than 27,000 children in the Special School District alone. That doesn’t include the thousands of kids with special needs in Missouri’s St. Charles or Jefferson counties, or the three Illinois counties we also serve.

 

Why We Need Your Support

We wish to reach more of these children, who would aim higher and achieve more if they experienced the personal success our programs inspire. We also want to support their families, whose daily challenges are far greater than most of us can imagine and who value the camaraderie and support they share with other TASK families walking a similar path. We want to do these things, and more. But we are limited by space. Since our founding in 1996, TASK has leased fields, basketball courts, office space, classrooms and other facilities around St. Louis, patch working together programs to accommodate the very special needs of the children we serve. To accommodate the growing demand for our services, the time has come to create a home of our own.

What We Need

  • an accessible, safe and wonderful place that will enable us to expand our programs and serve as many as 5,000 of our region’s participants with special needs each year.
  • a positive, welcoming environment where youth with a wide range of abilities can be encouraged to reach their potential.
  • a secure, adaptive facility where St. Louis area parents can feel comfortable leaving their children for sports and social activities.

The Solution

TASK is embarking on a $3.5 million Capital Campaign to fund our own activities center and athletic fields. Whether we build a new building, or purchase and adapt an existing one, our plans call for an accessible, centrally located center that includes:

  • Basketball courts
  • Outdoor fields
  • Fitness room
  • Kitchen facilities
  • Computer facilities
  • Dance studio
  • Multi-purpose/game room
  • Office/storage space

With a home we can call our own, we will be able to:

  1. Increase the number of youth with special needs we serve.
    TASK currently serves approximately 800 participants each year, age five and up, who face a wide range of physical, mental and emotional challenges. That is just a fraction of the children in our area who might benefit from our programs. With the facility we envision, we intend to serve as many as 5,000 youth a year.
  2. Expand the services we offer.
    Today, TASK offers more than a dozen different athletic, recreational and social programs. With your help, we intend to triple the number of programs, expanding further beyond sports to include day camps and a variety of therapy, social and life skill services.
  3. Consolidate our facilities.
    Today, our administrative offices are rented in one building, and we lease activity space in several south and southwest St. Louis County locations. The move will allow us to consolidate our operations in a single location, eliminating our current logistic challenges. It will also allow us to triple our program offerings without tripling our rent, enabling us to maximize the use of our space year round.