LUFKIN, Texas (KTRE) – An afternoon of basketball and volleyball may look like your typical Sunday afternoon with friends. In this case it’s actually a way that Beyond the Diagnosis Foundation is raising money for single moms who have one or more children with disability.
“Each dollar that they put into the tournament goes directly into the organization to be able to provide financial grants and emergency grants and scholarships to these moms,” Shalyn Cofer, the founder.
Cofer says their goal is to provide financial, emotional, and physical support for families.
“There are services for single moms and there are services for kids with disabilities. My mission is to bridge that gap and be that middleman for both,” Cofer said.
She started Beyond the Diagnosis because of her personal experience. She has a four-year-old autistic son who was diagnosed after the age of one.
“It was severe autism. He was nonverbal, he was stimming, he was harming himself and others,” Cofer said.
After the diagnosis, Cofer became a behavioral technician and continued to work on getting a degree in business. She said it wasn’t easy.
“Since I gave birth to him, I dropped out of school about eight different times,” Cofer said.
Despite her challenges, Cofer graduated with an associate degree in business from Angelina College in May.
“I’ve been working eight years to get to this moment and now that it’s here what’s next,” Cofer said.
What’s next was helping other single moms and women who are the sole caretaker of a child with a disability. Cofer said children can have any type of disability including physical and intellectual. They give scholarships to help those women finish school.
“Somebody needs to step in and if I’m that person with no money, nothing just a vision then I’ll be that person,” Cofer said.
They are working on starting a respite care program so parents can drop off their children to finish tasks like school work or grocery shopping.
Learn more on their website.
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