The All-Ages, All-Abilities Part
The Rage Room-York is an All-Ages, All-Abilities rage space.
I designed the various features of The Rage Room-York to play up my strengths. When I am MY best self, I can best help you. Here’s some of what that looks like:
As an Autistic person, I'm not a fan of phone calls. Text (email or text message) allows me to read and send information quickly and then have a record of what I communicated and the communication I received. People tend to call me while they are driving AND eating and those noises are absolutely appalling to me. And I don’t have a visual when someone calls to alert me to be prepared, so when the phone rings, my entire body tenses up automatically. This makes it harder for me to listen and understand what is being said. I don’t have a hearing problem — quite the opposite. I hear lots of background noise and white noise — things that are calming to other people make me quite uncomfortable. Rage noise, on the other hand, does not bother me one bit.
If people have general questions about the space, I encourage them to meet me at The Rage Room-York so they may tour the space to give them the best visual of what my space may offer and what it can't offer. I do have a 5 minute YT video which repeats most of the general building info below, but has accompanying visuals. Check it out via this link: https://youtu.be/jHuYn_mMwk0
Let me tell you a little bit about the rooms in our space, because The Rage Room-York is unique among rage rooms.
First of all, The Rage Room-York has four rooms where nothing is purposefully broken. Let’s talk about them first.
We have a brightly lit multi-purpose room with 2 tables that typically seats 10 around the tables, or we can have standing room for about 30. With notice, we can move things around a little bit to fit more people in (like school groups who come in and sit on the floor to hear announcements and instructions before forming smaller groups that go to the different rooms). We do have a fridge and a microwave in this room if either are needed for refreshments. We allow responsible BYOB, and wouldn’t hesitate to take someone’s keys if we felt they weren’t safe to drive.
We have a stuffie room. This is a small room filled with cushions and soft toys and pool noodles. We want to ensure that all ages and abilities can play safely somewhere in our space. This room was designed with kids under 5 or folks with special needs to get away from breaking noise. However, this room is used the most by middle schoolers who make plenty of noise while in the space. We charge for this space when someone makes an appointment to use this space exclusively for certain periods of time. We don’t charge anyone to use this space who have paid for an event elsewhere in our building that day, and the room is free to use during Ladies Nights or when someone is paying to use the multi-purpose room for a meeting, class, or other event. We don’t want lack of child care to be the reason people can’t visit us. Even if someone just needs to talk or vent, we want them to be able to bring their kids and have a safe place for the kids (or anyone they are caring for) to be.
We have a Tinker Space. This is a medium-sized room that could be used for a breakout session. In this room, we have items that can be taken apart. We also have kids toys and games (train tracks, toy cars, dolls with hard limbs, dinosaurs, wooden blocks, LEGO, playing cards, pre-school games, family board games). This is a great space for anyone who needs to fidget or keep their hands occupied, but either isn't going to break stuff or mess with paint, or has finished those activities and needs to be occupied so other people in their group can finished without feeling rushed. We don’t charge people to use this room to play with the toys if we feel it is in the best interest of the ragers who paid to break/paint to get the most out of their experience. We charge for this space when people are taking things apart as a distinct activity, when they are taking things home that might have been inventory, or when they are needing our help and focus to use the space to the best of their ability. We also use this room for small groups to play Dungeon-and Dragon-style games (RPGs), oftentimes with therapeutic elements of gameplay. People do not need to be NeuroDivergent to play these games with us, but we’ve found that the majority of our players are NeuroDivergent or learn about their NeuroDivergence while playing. Autism at Face Value, a NFP group where I am honored to serve as VP, gets grants to host these pay-what-you-can games at The Rage Room-York.
Finally, we have a paint room that can fit 10 kids or 6 active adults. The walls are covered in paint-covered plastic sheeting. We have soft puff balls that soak up paint. Ideally, painters will hold the ball in one hand, squeeze, shake, and splatter paint on the canvas (at basic level, one of 2 provided pieces of 5x7 watercolor paper, which they can tag home in a small carry-bag. But many painters complete their art and then turn the balls on each other, which is permitted as long as everyone in the room consents. (Those that don't consent to being pelted with sponges are given time to complete their art and leave the room before chaos ensues.) Basic paint sessions are 30 minutes, include 8 paint colors, two rinse cups, two pieces of watercolor paper per person (usually doled out consecutively, not both at once) poncho, optional shower cap, and grocery bags for shoe covers. Super paint sessions run an hour, include more colors, and include paint-soaker-blasters. Basic paint sessions are $25 per person. Super Paint sessions are $45 per person. (Prices subject to change.) Participants may choose to upgrade their paper targets to 12x12 canvas panels, cloth aprons, or cloth tote bags (each $10) or a large canvas drop cloth (each $50).
So a rage room that has FOUR rooms dedicated to not breaking stuff. Pretty unusual, right? Now, let’s discuss the three rooms where breaking stuff happens.
Two break rooms will accommodate 10 (15 if they must). The third will hold 2-3 breakers. Each room has a general function, but we can shift things around as needed with notice. For example, we have used one room for a performance by a musical guest and the 10 winners and their guests of an iHeart radio music contest. We destroyed 2 pianos for a TAFE fundraiser (We removed the strings for safety before the event, deconstructed the keys educationally, then smashed the carcasses. We still have many keys which might be used by a group wanting someone to "change their tune" or "hit better notes."). We've had influencers smash live, musicians recording music videos, and large groups (over 70 people) utilizing all the rooms of our space at the same time. In warmer weather, we can also set up tents in the back to expand our space (our fire safety limit is 75. We've been able to rotate groups to keep everyone safe during these larger events.). We've hosted team-building events for Sheetz, WalMart, Wellspan, Goodwill, and Hershey Park.
When we say our entire facility is all ages, all abilities, we stand behind it. Kids as young as 9 MONTHS have broken stuff in a breaking room. We ask that people not crawl on the break room floor so they don’t get hurt. But I have provided booties for support dogs and will put a thick blanket down so they can lay on the floor. Kids who aren’t fully walking yet are normally carried by their big people. And I smile as I write that, because I just think about Bruno carrying Oscar the Grouch in his trash can. I hope Oscar the Grouch would highly approve of my rage room.
Other things I have so that I can proudly serve all ages and abilities —stepstools to reach standard breaking tables
short breaking tables (I do need some notice to get these out, because they are in the way when they aren’t needed)
earplugs and headphones
different choices of face shields, eye protection, and gloves — different sizes and materials and textures
two extra pairs of crutches — until someone needs them for more than just raging — to steady the unsteady
various tools — including lighter-weight tools for any who can’t wield a two pound hammer or a baseball bat.
I can push, pull, and turn heavy carts around the public spaces of my rage room, so your wheelchair can roll down the halls and into the various rooms. There are still some places large electronic chairs don’t fit well at some times — just like 2 people can’t pass down the hallway at a narrow point — but we have alternative paths and we can get people where they need to go.
clothes and drapes for people who come in shorts and short shirts or kilts — I strongly prefer people come in their own clothing. And I can’t guarantee that I will have every size that people need — especially if a large homogeneously-sized group comes in unprepared.
I’m sure there are more, but if your accommodation isn’t listed, please just ask.
Please take some time to absorb all this information and then tell me if you have a specific activity in mind or would like me to create one for you. If the latter, giving me an idea of your proposed budget would be helpful. Whether you want to break stuff, paint, meet, tinker, or play, we can accommodate you at The Rage Room-York.