1 of 5

Photo by Erin Nelson.
Lindy Cleveland, executive director of Unless U, talks about the “word of the day” with her students during the group’s daily message on March 12.
2 of 5

Photo by Erin Nelson.
Jose Digorgio smiles as he dances the cha-cha-slide at Unless U.
3 of 5

Photo by Erin Nelson.
Lindy Cleveland, executive director of Unless U, interacts with her students during the group’s daily message.
4 of 5

Photo by Erin Nelson.
Cathy Bearden leads the book club with students at Unless U.
5 of 5

Photo by Erin Nelson.
Tiffany Wells listens to the book “Green Eggs and Ham” by Dr. Seuss at Unless U.
Lindy Cleveland was determined to help her brother, Jordan, have a better life after high school.
Most programs for adults with special needs are work-based or recreational-based, but because her brother has hypertension and is on oxygen, he couldn’t find anywhere to go. So after high school, his life started to diminish, she said.
“There’s got to be more to life than this for him,” Cleveland said she thought at the time.
When she was a student at Samford University, Cleveland studied special education and was in a class focused on nonprofits and the grant-writing process. At the same time, her family was trying to determine what to do for her brother.
Then, Cleveland had an idea to not only help her brother, but to create a program that would help others as well.
After obtaining help from her professor, Cleveland filed paperwork to start Unless U, a Vestavia Hills nonprofit that provides education, recreational activities, Bible teaching and other learning opportunities for adults with disabilities.
The inaugural class met in the basement of her parents’ home in August 2014.
“If we don’t step out in faith and do this, then who will?” she said at the time.
Three months later, Cleveland, with the help of her father, asked Shades Mountain Baptist Church to lease some space for the organization, and the church got behind the effort.
Unless U has now been in that space for six years and has grown from 10 students in November 2014 to more than 60 enrolled students today and a waiting list. The organization is hoping to move into a new building being constructed near Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church sometime this year.
“It’s grown so fast; I’ve tried to stay on top of it,” Cleveland said. “It’s pretty overwhelming.I feel like we could have multiple campuses.”
DAY BY DAY
Each day is different for Cleveland, who stepped out of a teaching role a few years ago to focus on developing the program.
On any given morning, Cleveland comes in and checks with her staff of 14 people to see how they’re doing, before answering emails, working on fundraising and logging donations. She responds to each donation with a handwritten thank-you note.
The donations have not been in short supply in recent months. Unless U has received generous donations from many people, helping relieve some of Cleveland’s stress.
“Raising $1.6 million makes me want to throw up just thinking about it,” Cleveland said.
She’s had help in her efforts to lead the capital campaign. Aaron Bishop with Bright Street Solutions in Birmingham helped develop the campaign and started the fundraising, helping bring in $1 million in four months, she said. As of mid-April, Unless U was just $30,000 away from meeting their fundraising goal.
“That’s been a huge part of our story,” Cleveland said.
The new home will be much bigger and will allow for more students, but Cleveland said she expects there will still be a waiting list because spots will be taken quickly and usually are reserved anywhere from five to 15 years.
Telling people there’s a waiting list — another part of her almost daily obligations — is hard, Cleveland said. With such a high demand, Cleveland is already considering extending to other campuses.
“I do think we will have multiple campuses [one day],” she said.
Cleveland now is receiving calls from people across the country asking how to start their own version of Unless U, which she is glad to help them do.
“I know we can’t do it all, but we need to empower people so they can,” Cleveland said.
When she isn’t on her computer, on the phone or meeting with potential families, Cleveland can be found with her students, by far the greatest part of her day.
‘WE GO WAY BACK’
Cleveland grew up in Vestavia and attended the city schools. During her time at Pizitz Middle School, she began volunteering in special education classrooms, where she met Nick Lanzi.
Lanzi, one of the founding fathers at Unless U, is scared of storms. When a storm would hit and Cleveland wasn’t already with him, teachers would call for her over the intercom and she would come help him get through the storm.
Lanzi’s mother, Carolyn Lanzi, said she was on board in 2014 when Cleveland asked her about her son joining the program.
“I knew he’d have something going forward,” she said. “Whatever they do at Unless U ... he reinforces at home.”
Unless U has helped Lanzi expand his friendships and learn life skills, his mom said.
“I can’t imagine not having Unless U,” she said.
Cleveland said growing up with her brother helped her gain an appreciation for those with special needs.
“Jordan gave me understanding and patience and grace for our friends,” Cleveland said.
Having grown up with a handful of her students also enhances those relationships, she said.
“We Rebels, we go way back,” Cleveland said.
During a daily 12:30 p.m. meeting with the students in mid-March, Cleveland gets to meet with all of her friends at once.
Students clap for each other as they correctly tell Cleveland what day it is, how to spell certain words and especially as their leader hands out awards from a recent talent show.
Cleveland then teaches them the “big idea” for the month, forgiveness. She talks about how they should forgive others because God forgives them when they make mistakes.
‘THE LORD’S STILL WRITING THE STORY’
Faith plays a big role in the life of Unless U, beginning with its director.
“I felt the Lord was calling me to do something with special needs,” Cleveland said.
The Lord is “still writing the story,” she said, but it’s been an incredible, albeit difficult, journey so far.
“I felt that strain early on,” Cleveland said.“I had to be reminded the Lord does not call us and not provide.”
Cleveland said she’s had to rely on God to lead her, from starting the organization to building a staff.
The staff at Unless U has more than 100 years of experience in special education combined, and it is God who has brought them to Unless U, Cleveland said.
One teacher with more than 30 years of experience began volunteering but was initially adamant that she would not join the staff full-time.
That didn’t stop Cleveland from trying, over and over again, to convince her to join the team.
One year, a job was opening up Jan. 1, and after a Christmas program put on by the students, the teacher approached Cleveland with tears in her eyes and realized how much she would miss the students over the break. The attachment to the students led her to take the job to which she had long said no, Cleveland said.
Cleveland said she and her staff share their Christian faith with the students.
“They understand it, sometimes I think, better than we do,” she said. “That’s something we’re never going to stray from.”
One night, while Cleveland was working late in the classroom, she noticed a student was crying. She asked her why, and the girl said that her brother’s girlfriend “doesn’t know Jesus.”
“When was the last time I was sad for the lost?” Cleveland said she asked herself.
Her faith also keeps her going through all the hard days and the hard work.
“I need Jesus for that strength,” Cleveland said.
‘IT’S AN UNLESS U DAY’
Toward the end of the daily meeting, Cleveland called on a student — Daniel Sturdivant — to pray.
Sturdivant prayed for his friends and all of the staff at Unless U, before praying for his family, who recently lost his grandfather.
Cleveland and Sturdivant were in the same grade at Vestavia, and his family has been heavily involved in Unless U from the beginning.
Daniel’s dad, Jim, is on the organization’s board, while Robert, Daniel’s older brother, is on the junior board. His mom, Susan, is a speech pathologist who helps, and Brittany Sturdivant, Daniel’s sister-in-law and Robert’s wife, takes photos for Unless U.
“We try to pour into our families, too,” Cleveland said. “The special needs community is tight-knit, so a good reputation spreads like wildfire.”
Jim Sturdivant said because of Unless U, there was never really a concern about what the family would do with Daniel when he left Vestavia Hills High School.
“It worked out really well for Daniel,” he said.
While he enjoys his other program that he attends two days a week, there’s something special about the days he goes down to Shades Mountain Baptist Church to see his friends at Unless U, Jim said.
“I usually tuck Daniel in,” Jim said. “On Monday, Wednesday and Thursday night, it’s a little bit extra pizazz. He knows, when he wakes up, it’s an Unless U day.”
Susan Sturdivant said the phone call from Cleveland to bring Daniel to Unless U was a “godsend.”
LEARNING GRACE
Cleveland said her students are what motivate her to get up in the morning.
“Knowing that we’re creating better opportunities for our students,” she said. “Sometimes they just pop into my office and say, ‘Thank you,’ to me.”
But the effort it takes to provide those opportunities is monumental, she said. Burnout is real, and both she and her staff have experienced it.
“Making time for rest is hard,” Cleveland said. “I’m an achiever. I want to conquer ...[and] at some point, it will come crashing down.”
Two weeks before the inaugural Unless U Got Talent show, Cleveland got the flu and recovered, only to get bronchitis two days before the event.
“I’ve learned to give myself grace,” she said. “Every day doesn’t have to be this ‘conquer the world’ day.”
That grace is especially helpful now that Cleveland is raising her 2-year-old son.
Each day, she leaves at 3 p.m., turns her phone off and spends time with her son and her husband, Mitch, who teaches special education at Liberty Park Middle School.
“I want to be the face that he [her son] sees after school,” Cleveland said. “It’s a constant self-reflection for me.”
Mitch provided strong encouragement when Unless U was first getting started, Cleveland said.
That encouragement was especially helpful as he proposed one month before the organization moved into the church, she said.
Mitch got involved with the All-Star League, a baseball league for people with special needs, when he was at Vestavia Hills High School. That’s where his wife said he “caught the bug.”
Jordan was part of that league, allowing Mitch and Lindy to meet. After an event partnering Mitch’s All-Star League and the Bulldog Buddies group Lindy had formed at Samford, she wasn’t sure what the future held for them.
Soon after the event, Mitch called and asked her to come to dinner with him to “discuss how to partner our organizations,” Cleveland said.
Mitch is “really, really good with parents and staff,” and understands people, Cleveland said, and her dream one day is to hire him to serve on staff.
GROWING UP
In the last six years, Cleveland has started Unless U, overseen its massive growth, gotten married and had a child, and now Unless U is moving into a new building. It has been an eventful, challenging and fruitful time, she said.
“I think it’s grown my patience,” Cleveland said. “I’ve always felt it was decent, but there’s a special kind of patience.”
Her faith has also grown “a ton” as she’s seen God build and grow Unless U.
“It’s been really, really cool to be a part of the story He [God] is writing,” Cleveland said. It makes it easier to trust God in other things,” she said.
Before dismissing her students from their afternoon meeting for their recreational time, Cleveland has them recite the Unless U pledge.
The pledge, taken from The Lorax, written by Dr. Seuss, was chosen by Cleveland. It serves as a reminder of what drives her and her staff at Unless U each day: a desire to help their friends with special needs have a better life.
“Unless someone like you cares a whole lot, nothing’s going to get better; it’s not.”
View our photo gallery for this story here.