The Hope Mills nonprofit is building an inclusive hub where special needs families can find trusted resources, community and new possibilities.
You ever have that relationship where you share those inside things? The joke only the two of you get. The little thing that may not make sense to anyone else, but between you, it works.
Ryan Cretens has one of those things with his older brother Tyler, who is on the autism spectrum.
Tyler has a habit of calling out, “Yeah, yay,” and somewhere along the way, Ryan started calling it right back. It became their call-and-response, something that might look a little quirky from the outside but, between two brothers, needs no explanation.
“It’s just our thing,” Ryan said.
Ryan grew up watching people notice Tyler’s differences and sometimes stop there. Later, the difference in opportunity became harder to miss.
Ryan went away to college, played collegiate athletics on scholarship and moved into opportunities that continued his growth into adulthood. When he returned home, Tyler was still there, without work and without many of the same opportunities Ryan had experienced.
Ryan began asking: What if Tyler had been given more chances to pursue sports, higher education, employment, relationships or other experiences so many people take for granted?
“There is purpose there,” Ryan said of Tyler and others in the special needs community.
Ryan’s recognition of what Tyler had not been afforded eventually became something bigger than their relationship.
“Everybody has quirks, right? You have quirks, I have quirks, we’re all human at the end of the day,” Ryan said.
And as human beings, we all want connection: the opportunity to participate, belong and access the people and places that help us move forward.
For some families within the special needs community, resources may exist, but finding them can still be difficult. For Ryan, the missing piece
was often connection.
That connection he had learned to build with Tyler became part of something larger: helping special needs individuals and their families connect with people, resources and opportunities around them.
Ryan founded KWIRKZ in 2019, and it became a nonprofit in 2021. Today, the Hope Mills organization describes itself as “an inclusive hub for the special needs community.”
Even the unconventional K is intentional. Ryan wanted something that looked different enough to make people stop and wonder why. The spelling asks for the same thing KWIRKZ asks of the community: recognize what looks different, get curious about the why and look deeper.
KWIRKZ is working toward five pillars: social connection, education, employment, transportation and housing.
That starts with social connection.
“Let’s lead with some fun,” Ryan said.
The Hive of Hope Mills gives those connections a physical place to happen. Located at 3414 Bullard St., near Hope Mills Municipal Park, The Hive combines a food truck park with event and community gathering space.
The partnership grew out of a relationship already there. Kevin Grant, owner of The Hive and a family friend, had watched Ryan developing KWIRKZ and approached him several years ago with an idea of his own.
Grant envisioned a food truck park that would also serve as a place for community to gather, and he saw KWIRKZ as a natural part of that vision.
When The Hive opened, Ryan had a physical space where the mission could happen face to face.
According to Ryan, a Kick It for KWIRKZ event there drew roughly 70 to 75 people. Other events have included Bowling with Friends and Fishing with Friends, where Ryan has watched parents talk, exchange information and find others who understand their challenges.
“This is the mission happening in real time,” Ryan said.
That is where “inclusive hub” stops being website language and becomes a tangible community.
Ryan’s next step is making that same access easier beyond a single event or location.
Think about what most of us do when we need to find something quickly. We reach for our phones. We search. We open an app.
Ryan wants KWIRKZ to become that kind of resource for the special needs community.
KWIRKZ is developing an app designed to connect parents and guardians with resources while allowing organizations, employers, schools and service providers to connect back to families.
Ryan does not envision another static directory. He wants a trusted hub, what he described as a “conduit” for connections, where people can find what they need without piecing information together from scattered sources.
The app is intended to do digitally what KWIRKZ events already do in person: put people who need one another in the same place.
That includes other nonprofits.
Ryan sees organizations serving similar communities sometimes operating in silos, particularly when fundraising and grant funding enter the picture. But he does not see another nonprofit serving the special needs community as competition.
“We’re not trying to recreate the wheel,” Ryan said.
Instead, he wants KWIRKZ to build what he called the “connective tissue” among parents, guardians, nonprofits, businesses and other resources, allowing each organization to maintain its identity while helping families reach services and opportunities already available.
KWIRKZ is not trying to own all the dots. It is trying to connect them.
Beyond social connection, Ryan continues exploring how partnerships could strengthen the employment, transportation and housing pillars.
And this is where that unconventional K comes back into play.
KWIRKZ looks different on purpose. The unexpected spelling makes people pause. It invites the question: Why?
“The first step to growth is recognition,” Ryan said.
At first glance, someone may notice another person’s quirks. KWIRKZ asks them not to stop there: notice, get curious and make the connection.
For Ryan, KWIRKZ begins with getting people to notice what looks different. Its larger purpose is making sure they do not stop looking there. For more information about KWIRKZ, visit https://www.kwirkz.net/

(Photo: KWIRKZ, based out of Hope Mills, is an inclusive hub for the special needs community. Photo courtesy of KWIRKZ's Facebook page)