Jeddidiah is 11 years old,  loves to play basketball and has Down syndrome. He recently played with the Boys & Girls Club basketball team.

“He was fully included into the general programming,” his mom, Jamie Weitzman, said. “Our coach was fantastic, and they were actually extremely inviting.”

However, not many programs are available for kids like Jeddidiah. Even if a program may be offered for people with disabilities, it may not be suitable for all disabilities. That’s why his mom was excited to hear about the opening of the Grace Fisher Foundation’s Inclusive Arts Clubhouse.

“Here, anyone can come,” Weitzman said. “Come as you are, you are welcome. I think that’s what makes this space unique.”

The clubhouse, at La Cumbre Plaza in Suite F118, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday. 

The space is an interactive space where anyone is welcome to paint, read, dance and be themselves. The clubhouse is free to use for special-needs families. 

Opening the space has been a longtime goal of Grace Fisher. When she was 17, Fisher contracted a virus that spread to her spine and left her paralyzed from the neck down. Fisher was later diagnosed with acute flaccid myelitis. 

In 2016, Fisher founded the Grace Fisher Foundation, whose mission is to “connect children living with disabilities to music, art, dance and other forms of artistic expression in order to provide an accessible space for community inclusion, education, creation and self-discovery.” 

Grace’s mom, Debbie, said that when Grace was first paralyzed, she did not feel like there was a space for someone like her.

“She wasn’t a typical late teen that could go down State Street, or to parties where there were steps going into the doors, she’s not going to go to a gym,” Fisher said. “There are a lot of places she just couldn’t get into. She didn’t feel like she could connect with people with a disability, and so she wanted a space where she could connect.”

The clubhouse is the first of its kind in Santa Barbara, Fisher said, and is intended to be a place for all people of all abilities.

“The average age for what she [Grace Fisher] has is 5,” Debbie Fisher said. “So, she wanted a space for children to be able to connect with one another, and their families and their parents connect with one another about maybe problem solving solutions and ways to make their lives easier or better.”

Fisher was unable to attend the clubhouse’s opening, but members of the community were there to celebrate the ribbon-cutting, including Mayor Randy Rowse, City Councilmen Oscar Guitierrez and Eric Friedman, and Michele Schneider from the Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce.

“Today marks an important milestone for your business,” Schneider said. “This is a time to come together with your colleagues, your friends and employees to celebrate this wonderful new location and grand opening.”

The hours for the Inclusive Arts Clubhouse are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday.

“It’s just nice to have a space where I don’t have to constantly go, ‘Who’s looking at my kid?’ I don’t have to think about it,” Weitzman said. “This space is where my children can be fully themselves and it’ll be OK.”