The H.U.B. @ Solace House was not built in isolation. It was built from decades of relationships — forged through foster care, education advocacy, IDD services, and community partnership — with the organizations and systems that have shaped our founders and informed every aspect of our model. The network we bring to this work is not a list of names. It is a foundation of trust, shared mission, and years of walking alongside the same population we are now building a home for.
Johnson County CDDO — Community Developmental Disability Organization
The Johnson County CDDO is the gateway through which adults with IDD in Johnson County access HCBS waiver services, supports, and residential placement. Julie Geist has worked closely alongside the CDDO for years — first through the foster children and adults supported in the Geist home, and now as a prospective affiliate provider. The H.U.B. @ Solace House has formally submitted an affiliate agreement request and is actively building the partnership that will allow our residents to access the full spectrum of HCBS-funded supports they are entitled to.
Kansas Children’s Service League (KCSL)
Julie has worked in voluntary compact alongside Kansas Children’s Service League for over a decade, serving as an education advocate for children and families navigating the Kansas child welfare system. KCSL’s commitment to strengthening families and protecting children runs parallel to the mission of The H.U.B. — and the relationships, knowledge, and advocacy skills built through that partnership are woven into the DNA of how we work.
Kansas Children’s Service League
The H.U.B. @ Solace House maintains a longstanding relationship with KVC Kansas, one of the state’s largest child welfare and behavioral health organizations. Our founders, Julie and Jeffrey Geist, bring more than fourteen years of shared, hands-on experience within the KVC system — a relationship rooted in the daily work of caring for foster children and supporting their families inside their own home.
Julie’s path with KVC began as an employee and has continued for more than fourteen years as an intensive foster parent caring for autistic children and children with IDD and other neurodivergent diagnoses. Jeffrey has spent the same fourteen years working directly in foster care with KVC, developing deep expertise in trauma-informed care, neurodivergence, and intensive behavioral support. Together, they have lived the full arc of these children’s journeys — the trauma histories, the transition needs, and the aging-out challenges that follow young people from child welfare into adult IDD services.
That history positions The H.U.B. as a trusted landing place for young adults exiting KVC’s child-serving programs who need a stable, person-driven adult residential and day-services home. It also grounds our model in real, on-the-ground experience with the very populations we serve — not in theory, but in fourteen years of showing up for these children and their families. The values KVC instills — trauma sensitivity, relationship-based practice, and unwavering commitment to every individual served — are reflected directly in the culture, training, and daily programming of The H.U.B.
Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS)
The H.U.B. @ Solace House partners with the Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS) program to ensure that transition-age individuals begin building career skills well before adult services begin. Pre-ETS is a federally defined set of five services delivered to students with disabilities ages 14–21:
- Job exploration counseling
- Work-based learning experiences
- Postsecondary education counseling
- Workplace readiness training
- Instruction in self-advocacy
For residents and prospective residents within the Pre-ETS age range, The H.U.B. integrates these services directly into daily programming, ensuring that employment is never an afterthought, but a core service line woven into each individual’s life from the moment they arrive.
U.S. Department of Education — Pre-ETS
Kansas Vocational Rehabilitation (VR)
The H.U.B. @ Solace House partners with Kansas Vocational Rehabilitation to give every eligible resident a clear, supported pathway from learning to earning. Through VR, residents access individualized employment planning, job coaching, assistive technology, and the wraparound supports needed to achieve competitive integrated employment.
Julie and Jeff Geist have worked alongside Vocational Rehabilitation for years through their foster care work, and they understand firsthand how essential pre-job preparation, soft skills, and on-the-job support are to long-term success. They have also seen what too often happens after a placement is made: once a VR counselor’s case closes, the individual is left without the day-to-day scaffolding that made the job possible in the first place, and the position is lost.
The H.U.B. is designed to close exactly that gap. By layering daily-living support, on-site job coaching through the on-site employment programs, and continued mentoring into each resident’s life, The H.U.B. builds the bridge between VR’s time-limited services and the long-term stability needed to keep a job — improving the odds that every placement becomes a lasting one.
Kansas Vocational Rehabilitation
Johnson County Developmental Supports
Through years of supporting foster children and adults in their home, Julie and Jeffrey Geist developed a sustained working relationship with Johnson County Developmental Supports — collaborating on person-centered planning, service coordination, and community integration for individuals with IDD. That collaboration directly helped shape the model The H.U.B. is built on.
KDADS — Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services
The H.U.B. @ Solace House is an active applicant for licensure through KDADS IDD Licensing and is engaged in the full pre-licensure process, including attendance at the KDADS New Applicant Information Session. KDADS is the state agency responsible for licensing, oversight, and waiver administration for IDD residential providers in Kansas — and building a strong, transparent relationship with KDADS from day one is a core commitment of our organization.
The H.U.B. @ Solace House is pursuing CARF accreditation — the gold standard for health and human services organizations worldwide. CARF accreditation signals to residents, families, funders, and referral partners that our programs meet rigorous, internationally recognized standards for quality, outcomes, and person-centered practice. Our policies, procedures, and program design have been built from the ground up with CARF standards as a guiding framework. In the process of CARF accreditation showing our residents and funders that we are committed to providing the best care possible.
The H.U.B. @ Solace House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to building lasting partnerships in service of adults with IDD across the Kansas City region.