Exploring Life & Business with Chrissy Schubert of Ady’s Big Army

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chrissy Schubert.

Hi Chrissy, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Our daughter, Ady was diagnosed with autism at 2 in 2011. After we walked through a series of regressions after being heartbroken because she had gone backward and not forwards. These regressions resulted in a tremendous amount of self-harm and dysregulation, lack of sleep, eloping in her environment, and aggression.

Our family was completely distraught scared and broken. It was during this season that we pressed into our faith and began to seek prayer for Ady to have peace. In 2015, my husband and I launched Ady’s Army with the mission to Serve God by serving special needs families. We knew that our why would always stay the same but our what would change as we experienced difficulty or victory. Regardless of what it was we would reach out and help give other families hope.

We have done things like building fences for families, bringing in a swim instructor to teach swimming, despite nights in which we pay for dinner and send families home a sitter check to strengthen marriages, music lessons, and much more. In 2018, our Ady began to communicate for the first time through a spelling method and we had a huge paradigm shift. She began to express herself and her need for purpose and community which shocked us because we could only see what we could see. We underestimated her and so did the world. So we began searching for communities that were God-centered and purposeful.

We found Brookwood in Georgetown (BiG) just outside of Austin Texas. It was everything and more than we could have ever imagined. We started the process for replication. On February 14th, 2023, we launched Ady’s Big Army. We are a God-centered vocational community for adults with special needs. Our mission is to create an educational environment with meaningful work, a sense of belonging, and a culture of honor. And secondly to change the way the world views adults with special needs. We make amazing products like fudge, dog treats, resin art-poured charcuterie boards, soaps, cards, jewelry, and more!

Our citizens come to work every day and work on vocational skills while also cultivating friendships. We start our day with worship and devotional and pray for one another. We will be building our forever space including a coffee shop/bakery, gift shop, and vocational training center and then we will be building our residential piece.

Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Our struggles have included learning to navigate helping others when our difficulty has been so intense.

We have found that as hard as it is, it always helps our family when we continue to say “yes” and be an instrument of hope when we want to shut the door and cry. God has been faithful to us as we say yes.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Ady’s Big Army is an out-of-the-box and innovative vocational community for adults with special needs. We exist to to create a space for our citizens to come to work every day and work on job skills with very meaningful work, a sense of belonging cultivate a culture of honor, and also change the way the world views adults with special needs.

We are a creative community and believe that we are created to create. Our Citizens are capable of so much world than the world has believed of them and we are different in that we see things that others don’t and we give them a space to be who they are created to be. The products that our Citizens make are delicious, beautiful, and one-of-a-kind pieces of art!

Who else deserves credit for your story?
We wouldn’t be where we are without the support of Brookwood in Georgetown. They have come alongside us and given us the tools and resources to replicate their beautiful community.

They have even us the blueprint and mentored and guided every step along the way. They share every step with us and have helped us get to where we are and mentored us to get to where they are.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.adysbigarmy.org
• Instagram: @Adys_big_army
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/adysbigarmy
• Youtube: @adysbigarmy