Meet Eldridge Ponder, the new director of Abilities Enrichment Center
For years, Eldridge Ponder has been creating a home for individuals with developmental disabilities at Blossom Hill’s Parma House, where he served as house manager/qualified intellectual disabilities professional (QIDP). Now, he’s taking on a new role as director of Abilities Enrichment Center, Blossom Hill’s day program that focuses on personal fulfillment instead of vocational opportunities.
While caring for individuals wasn’t Ponder’s first career choice, in some ways, he had been preparing for it his entire life.
One of Ponder’s childhood friends had Down syndrome. “I moved into the neighborhood when I was five and he lived across the street. I saw him out playing in the yard and joined him. He was just one of the kids; we all played together.”
Ponder earned a degree in communications from PennWest Clarion, but when jobs in the field were hard to come by, he found himself working with kids. He discovered that he liked working with people.
Also at Clarion, he learned valuable lessons on the gridiron as a cornerback for the university’s football team. “Football taught me discipline, how to work as a team, how to put in the work in the off-season—which no one is going to see—so you’re ready to go on game day,” said Ponder. Perhaps most importantly, Ponder learned that the collective is more important than any one person. “We can achieve more together than we can separately.”
This philosophy is mirrored in one of Ponder’s favorite things about Abilities Enrichment Center, “The opportunities for our individuals to be visible out in their community.” Each day, abilities offers a mix of in-center activities held on site at the Middleburg Heights location, and also an excursion out into the surrounding community. It might be a trip to a bowling alley, a museum, a park, or elsewhere. Individuals and their guardians get to choose who participates.
Ponder believes community excursions are valuable for individuals who are able to participate. “It underscores the true meaning of ‘community,’” said Ponder. “Our individuals are members of the community, with just as much right and need to take advantage of every opportunity available to them. Our individuals being visible helps others in the community to see that we all are bonded by what makes us the same more than we are divided by what makes us different.”
Ponder’s work with individuals with development disabilities was a natural outgrowth of the work with young people that started his professional life. “Looking back, my life has always been about forming relationships and looking out for others.” He credits his father, who retired as a security guard with Cleveland Public Schools and always saw his job as setting an example for kids who might lack positive influences at home. “He could tell which kids needed a little help and was happy to lend it,” said Ponder.
The legacy of service that Ponder inherited from his dad now lives on in another generation, as Ponder’s daughter works as Support Administrator for the Cuyahoga County Board of DD. Just like Ponder’s own journey, she didn’t originally set out on this career path. “Her degree is in sports management,” said Ponder (who has two other daughters, one who works for the Cleveland Cavaliers organization and another in medical school).
Now, as he steps into leadership at Abilities Enrichment Center, Ponder brings with him a lifetime of lessons rooted in teamwork, compassion, and quiet service. What began with a childhood friendship, was strengthened through athletics, and shaped by family example has come full circle in a role that allows him to build community every day. For Ponder, his work is about people, ensuring that every individual is seen, valued, and given the opportunity to belong.
“After more than 24 years in the field, I’m looking forward to helping guide Abilities Enrichment Center to its next chapter,” said Ponder. “We fill a unique need in the community, and my goal is to expand our service and our reach so we can bring fulfilling activities to more individuals and their families.”