We had the good fortune of connecting with Jessica Escorza and Tim Smith and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jessica, Tim, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Well, we honestly were very unsure of what this was going to become or what we were heading into! Our thought process was simply provide a place, an environment where adults with special needs can come to be together and build their village within Santa Clarita Valley. We wanted Agape to be a place our clients could come to during the week and have a variety of activities to do that keeps them working on different skills leading towards independence. We provide opportunities to learn job skills, social skills, volunteer work, running our weekly coffee stand, weekly workouts at our local gym, health/wellness lessons, and more! Our program continues to grow because the need to serve our community of adults with special needs is a big one. These special friends of ours need a place to go, a place that gives them purpose, and allows them to remain included and involved in our community. That is our thought process now behind our non-profit. We are now brainstorming and working on ways to grow this program so we can continue to meet the needs of these men and women. When you walk through the doors at Agape Village, there is a feeling that takes over everyone who comes in. You are filled with joy and happiness because that is what our special friends do, they are our daily reminder of WHY we started this program. There is so much potential for this valley and what we are wanting to achieve. We will keep moving forward and walking through doors that continue to open for us!

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Tim and I started and run Agape Village together. Our day program is located in Valencia, CA and we are a day program for adults with special needs. We both come from teaching backgrounds in the area of Special Education and found ourselves with this opportunity to go beyond the classroom and step into the world of “what comes next” for this community. We have great schools in our area, with a large population of special needs. As this population gets older and completes high school, there are not a ton of options for families, siblings, or caregivers to look into for their now adult who has a disability. Agape Village is working to fill that void. There is a big need for programs like ours because our special friends not only need a place to go, but they desire a place they can go and find their sense of purpose and belonging. We are so excited of how far our non-profit has come in just 4 years and how many clients we are already serving! Are we proud? Of course, because everyday we get the privilege to come to our facility and work with the most amazing humans. We get to help them be the best version of themselves and teach them ways to navigate life more independently. Are we where we want to be? No way. Not…YET! We know there is so much work to be done, and it has not been easy, but God continues to open doors for our program and we know the vision we have is going to happen. Tim and I know we were called to go this route for a reason and our staff and families have been nothing but supportive in what Agape Village is becoming. We want the world to know that we are here. We want the world to know that there is a big need for what we are doing and that our adults with special needs are capable of SO much. We want the world to know that their disability does not define their capabilities and they need to simply be given a chance. We want the world to know that we are here to give them those chances and opportunities to be included. We want the world to know that we need their help to make this the best program we possibly can because after all…it takes a village!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Great question! If we had one of our best friends visiting there are a few spots we would take them! You can never go wrong with a fan favorite out here and that is The Local Pub & Grill. Great atmosphere, people, food, drinks, and the owners are good friends of ours at Agape Village. If you are looking to go somewhere fun on a Saturday night, you might wander along Main Street in Newhall where you can find a great Irish Pub, Laemmlle Theatres, some fun breweries and wineries, and a great BBQ place. You might find yourself needing a good workout and hitting up Central Park to conquer the stairs and then heading over to MB2 for some arcade games, go karts, ax throwing and more! For the thrill seekers you can always hit up Six Flags or find a hiking trail to kill some time! There are a ton of little dive bars, bowling alleys, and coffee shops to go check out! Of course we will make our friends stop by Agape Village at the Valencia Town Center Mall because on Fridays our clients run a coffee stand. They set everything up, brew the coffee, prep the menu items, and we serve coffee for free! It is a part of our job training program and steps forward of one day having a coffee shop with our clients as employees! The coffee is great, and the company even greater! We have a saying here, that Fridays and Coffee at Agape just feel RIGHT. So if you are in town, make a pit stop for a free cup of coffee at our coffee stand we set up right outside our facility called JustBrewIt. You won’t be disappointed!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Absolutely, we named our programed Agape Village for that exact reason in knowing that it takes a “village” to make success happen! We would love to recognize our partnership and friendship with Valencia Hills Community Church. Pastor Dennis Stoneman and Liz Bonaventura have been a huge part of helping our program with volunteer opportunities and making us “Agape Partners” at VHCC. Our dear friends, Nancy and John Pantellas who run Younglife SCV and a club for special needs men and women on Friday nights called “Funlife”. We have made great connections through both of these organizations and we are so thankful for them and what they have done for us at Agape Village. We have many local businesses within Santa Clarita that have supported our program and we look forward to continue working alongside them to help Agape in the future!

Website: https://www.agape-village.org

Instagram: @agapevillage_

Image Credits
Not Applicable, all photos are from Agape Village and include our clients, staff, families, summer camp program, and us!

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