Black-owned health care company helps adults with special needs
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- One Black-owned health care company is bridging the gap in services for adults with special needs.
With his packed lunch in hand and his chaperone by his side, Kahlil Parks is ready to take on the day.
Kahlil is 43 years old and was born with microcephaly, a condition that can lead to intellectual disabilities.
"He was a happy baby. He did everything he was supposed to do. He just developed slower than normal," his mother Patricia Scruggs said.
The die-hard Eagles fan went on to graduate high school.
But with his diploma also came a gap in services available to him if he were to go on to college.
"He didn't have no services after he came out of school," Scruggs said. "It took me some years to find the services for him."
Finally, his mother found Advanced Behavior Treatment, a Black-owned company providing free resources to families with adult children with intellectual disabilities.
"There's this term called the 'services cliff' where there's this abundance of services when kids are under 21, but then once they turn 21 it's like, the services fall off a cliff," said Rich Neal, CEO and founder of Advanced Behavior Treatment.
Neal's company gave Kahlil the one-on-one support he needed.
Aside from making his lunch every single day, Kahlil and his direct support professional run through everyday life skills like crossing the road and shopping at a store.
Tariq Farr, the company's president, said services are mostly used by African American families because of a lack of resources in the community.
"You have some families that wouldn't be able to afford any services if they have to pay a copay or have to come out of their pocket with some sort of money," Farr said.
"One of the things we've been doing as a company is educating these families on what's available and what their options are," Neal said.
It's an option that's changed Kahlil's and his mother's lives.
"Advanced Behavior Treatment is a great resource for us in the Black community that a lot of people don't know about," Scruggs said.
It's a new outlook on life for Kahlil, one he doesn't take for granted.
"I did it for ya'll, for nobody else," he said.
