Our Story

Summer of 2016 Shine Tallahassee, Inc. was formed when a group of 22 year olds began aging out of Young Life’s special needs program, Capernaum.

Capernaum parents/caregivers wanted to ensure their adult children would not lose the community of faith so solidly built through Capernaum. The leaders at Mission Road (formerly Genesis) Church saw this too and stepped up to help create a new opportunity --Shine Tallahassee.

Starting that summer, the planning committee created Shine Tallahassee, a 501(c)3 Non-Profit organization. The initial celebratory social program, Friday Night Shine, launched in August for anyone 14+ years and older. No age cap! Everything began with just a handful of friends, then a few years later Friday Night Shine exploded with an average of over 100 Friends.

Shine Tallahassee partnered with Mission Road Church to host the Tim Tebow Night to Shine Prom. The prom grew from 70 guests to over 3,000 people involved. The prom is now hosted by Immanuel Baptist Church, and Shine Tallahassee is still involved financially as well as through volunteering and hosting the Parent Prom respite room.

In February of 2021, the Rise and Shine (R&S) Adult Day Program began. Here again, Mission Road Church stood as our solid partner allowing us to meet in its annex, now called Shine Studio West. The R&S Adult Day Program creates opportunities allowing outward expression to shine forth from each student’s inner beauty by way of art, music, movement, gardening, cooking, drama and more!

After many years of dedicated service, the initial Shine Tallahassee leadership needed to move on for personal and family focus. A new group of leaders guides the organization, ensuring that Shine Tallahassee can continue the mission of serving teens and adults with special needs and helping their parents/caregivers better navigate issues.

We have only just begun...