Affiliate Connect January 2025: Creating Sensory-Friendly Adoration

Wed, 01/15/2025 - 2:00pm EST to 3:00pm

We meet with NCPD Affiliates every month to address the specific needs of their dioceses. This month's Affiliate Connect will discuss:

"Creating Sensory-Friendly Adoration"

Typically, adoration takes place in a reverent environment with strict limitations on noise and movement, making it difficult for many persons with disabilities to feel welcome. Learn how to create an equally reverent adoration that is sensory-friendly, allowing a wider range of worship.

Diocesan Directors will receive an email on Wednesday, January 8, 2025 with a link to register.

Lisa Wagner-Carollo

Deaf and Disabilities Ministries Coordinator for Catholic Charities, Kansas City-St. Joseph.

She is also the Founder of Chicago’s Still Point Theatre Collective and established Still Point’s outreach program, The Imagination Workshop, for adults with developmental disabilities. She has also worked with L’Arche and was one of the first two live-in assistants for L’Arche Heartland. She is a Spiritual Director and has served on the Spiritual Life Committee for L’Arche Chicago. She is also the author of Above, Along, Inside, and Through: Poems, Prayers, and Reflections, a spiritual memoir. Recently, she co-produced with Still Point Theatre Collective and Rush University Hospital None of Us Want to Stand Still, a film advocating for better health care for individuals living with developmental disabilities.

Josh Ruoff

Lead Consultant, Special Needs Ministry for the Archdiocese of Kansas City in KS

Josh Ruoff was born and raised in Topeka, Kansas, in a strong Catholic family. He graduated with a bachelor’s in social work in 2018 and a master’s in social work in 2019 from Washburn University in Topeka, KS. In August of 2021 became the Lead Consultant for the Special Needs Ministry for the Archdiocese of Kansas City in KS. The mission is to serve and support parishes in facilitating opportunities for a relationship with Christ by ensuring the fullest participation possible in the Catholic faith for all parishioners, regardless of ability. Josh has a unique perspective on being the “front runner” for making sure this mission is fulfilled; he was born with spina bifida and uses a wheelchair for mobility, but he is blessed to be able to stay totally independent; he grew up in the Catholic Church as an individual with a disability, and that gave him the perspective to know where the humanity of the Church thrives and where improvements could be made when it comes to serving individuals with disabilities. Josh is a firm believer that individuals with disabilities have a specific purpose in God’s Divine plan.

Affiliate Connect January 2025: Creating Sensory-Friendly Adoration

Lisa Wagner-Carollo

Josh Ruoff

National Catholic
Partnership on Disability

Advancing the Meaningful Participation
of Persons with Disabilities in Church and Society