ALAMOSA — The Alamosa Family Recreation Center was the scene for the annual Gog for Geoffrey. For years the Zaragozas, Larry and Julie, have continued to put on this yearly event and donate the proceeds. This year’s donation was presented to valley native Jenna Taylor as the first donation to her budding organization Independent Identity.

As a high schooler in Alamosa Taylor took part in a Peer Buddy class and became very close to Geoffrey Zaragoza. Zaragoza was a spark in the many lives he touched, and for Taylor it was no different. The passing of Geoffrey happened right at that time while Taylor was trying to make a decision about her future.

Taylor saw a path and decided to take the steps towards her goal. The Alamosa graduate went on to study special education and taught high school life skills for two years. Taylor would collect her Master’s Degree in Autism and Applied Behavior Analysis. With her degree Taylor began making an impact in a field where she felt she belonged, doing one-on-one therapy for individuals with autism for years while also supervising graduate students who wished to follow in her footsteps.

Unfortunately there are still hurdles. “A lot of times when I was teaching I would go to the grocery store and the kid would ask a question like ‘Where are the apples?’ and the employee would respond to me instead of the child” Taylor recounted “..It’s just because these people don’t know, are not aware, (and) have never been around someone with autism.” That is something that Taylor hopes to fix. “I really want to be out in the community as much as possible. Just so other people can get awareness and feel comfortable, and realize these are just people just like us and they deserve to have quality life. They deserve to have fun, and they deserve to feel valued, and feel like they're contributing.” 

Not only is awareness still challenging but so are resources. “As kids grow up they start to age out of programs, services become less and less available and, at least in Texas, the waitlist for waiver programs and benefits is really long” Taylor added. Enter Independent Identity (II). Taylor’s vision for II is an Applied Behavior Analysis day program for adults with autism.  Through using the principals of human behavior, reinforcement and punishment, Taylor and company hope to increase functional behaviors and decrease challenging behaviors. As people with autism have trouble communicating or expressing their wants and needs, using motivation, II hopes to increase their communication.

The end goal would be to give adults with autism a place to learn new skills, utilize the skills that they have in order to as the name says hopefully make them more independent. The benefits of Taylor’s program look to be two-fold as on its face the center would be beneficial for those affected, but at the same time Taylor hopes to fuel her working field, “I’m going to hire board certified behavior analysts (BCBA) and grad students who are pursuing their BCBA, we’ll supervise them, teach them how to do it, they can get their hours while also working for us.”

Starting from the ground up II will set down roots in Taylors current home town the primary location will be in Austin, Texas, but Taylor sees expansion in the program’s future, “Down the road I’d love to expand within Texas, outside of Texas, really across the country.”

Saturday Taylor accepted a $600 donation from the Gog for Geoffrey for II. The first donation that II has accepted. Taylor commented on how things have come full circle, “(Geoffrey) inspired this for me and (the Zaragoza’s) are the first donation.” For those interested in helping to get II off the ground, the program is actively fundraising. Cash or Check donations can be mailed to Independent Identity, Attn: Jenna Taylor at 2212 Marcus Abrams Blvd Austin, TX 78748. All charitable donations will be sent a receipt and will be tax deductible after non-profit status is achieved. Those interested to learn