John breaks barriers with help from Heart of Iowa Community Services.

Sometimes a little help can go a long way to bring someone out of their shell. Jordan Tarin is a service coordinator for Heart of Iowa Community Services (HICS).

“When I first met John, we had a meeting at our office, and John, at the time, had lived with his grandma and grandpa. He had just graduated from high school, and they were trying to figure out next steps for John,” said Jordan. “John was very quiet. He did not interact with me very much. So, a lot of information I was getting was from grandpa.”

John’s grandparents died within a year of each other. He then moved in with his aunt and uncle.

“John has an intellectual disability, so the concept of going to work Monday through Friday, eight to five; he wasn’t able to do that,” said Jordan. “John is capable, and we realized that, but he needed support wrapped around him to be successful in doing that.”

John then stayed at Safe Harbor Crisis Center in Woodward, Iowa, through HICS. There, he started to come out of his shell and learned new skills. He now lives at New Hope Village, a group home that provides the support John needs.

“Jordan showed me Safe Harbor and then I started staying there,” said John. “Safe Harbor, there’s staff there that go to your room and checks on you and talks about your favorite thing to do, where you can make your day better and what your future will be.”

The staff at Heart of Iowa never gave up on John and kept working on ways to bring out his best.

“I just know that he’s really successful at where he’s at now,” said Jordan. “There are a lot of people rallying around him to see him do his best. We just kept going, and we just kept figuring out ways to get around the barriers that we were having, and, you know, I think we just never gave up on John and where we knew that he needed to be.”

“Jordan came and helped me get a job, and it’s actually really good working with other people and get to know them; it’s pretty fun,” said John. “Thank you, Heart of Iowa, and thank you, Jordan.”

John continues to break barriers with a little help from his friends at HICS.