AUTISM CONNECTIONS BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CHILD & FAMILY SERVICES DISABILITY SERVICES HEALTH BECAUSE OF YOU 2019 ANNUAL REPORT elpn toe n nee uee Judson Center 2019 Annual Report 1 AUTISM CONNECTIONS BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CHILD & FAMILY SERVICES DISABILITY SERVICES HEALTH Mission Core Values To provide expert, comprehensive services that strengthen Passion children, adults and families impacted by abuse and • Passion for serving neglect, autism, developmental, behavioral and physical • Passion for excellence • Passion for improving lives health challenges so they can achieve whole health, • Passion for inclusion well-being and maximum potential. Service • Serve our clients Vision • Serve each other • Serve all clients and employees by providing We dream of a day when all children and adults equitable practices are safe and have loving, strong families with Celebration the community support they need to make a • Celebrate each other unique contribution to the world. • Celebrate our diversity • Celebrate clients’ improvements • Celebrate everything big and small 2 Judson Center 2019 Annual Report AUTISM CONNECTIONS BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CHILD & FAMILY SERVICES DISABILITY SERVICES HEALTH Because of You 2019 marked Judson Center’s 95th year of helping those in need succeed. We are proud of all that we have achieved since 1924 and celebrate the dedicated men and women on our staff who work tirelessly to bring hope and healing to those impacted by mental, physical, and/or family challenges. Every day, our 500-strong team of therapists, counselors, social workers, health professionals, and human services specialists: • Teach children with autism how to communicate, play, and learn so they can transition successfully to school • Coordinate loving, supportive foster/adoptive homes and mentors for children affected by abuse or neglect • Give families the tools and resources they need to stay intact and prevail • Offer healing to individuals wrestling with mental and/or physical health concerns • Secure fulfilling career opportunities for adults with disabilities On the following pages, you will meet some of the outstanding members of our Autism Connections, Child & Family Services, Child Safe Michigan, Behavioral Health, Judson Center Health, and Disability Services teams who championed over 12,000 children, adults and families in 2019. Our accomplishments would not be possible without assistance from you, our Community of Caring. We are grateful for your investment of time, talent, and treasure, and ask you to continue supporting our team’s inspirational work. Together, with your help, we are changing lives. With much gratitude, Lenora Hardy-Foster Tricia Ruby Keith Pomeroy President & CEO Board Chair Board Chair Child Safe Michigan Judson Center 2019 Annual Report 3 AUTISM CONNECTIONS BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CHILD & FAMILY SERVICES DISABILITY SERVICES HEALTH Autism Connections Shelley Liquia, BCBA & Supervisor, Autism Connections Shelley started at Judson Center in 2013 fresh out of college as a her mother, Jamila, saw huge improvements. Jamila’s professional Behavior Technician, providing Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) background is in autism therapy, but before she came to Judson services to children with autism. Today, she supervises the Autism Center, “as a mother, I felt lost. I immediately felt supported, and Connections programs in Ann Arbor and Livingston County. Lauren felt cared for and accepted. Shelley and her team asked Shelley and her team help children with autism develop their questions, developed an individual plan for Lauren, and explained communications, motor, and social capabilities so they can function everything to me.” independently at home, in school, and in the community. “The best Throughout her therapy, Lauren’s bubbly, energetic personality part of my job is watching a parent see a new skill emerge in their shined through. Lauren especially liked to perform a routine she had child for the first time,” says Shelley. learned in dance class for her therapists. Not surprisingly, Lauren Shelley’s clinicians spend a lot of time training parents to apply ABA stole the show at the dance recital. lessons. “Most children in ABA spend anywhere from 15 to 40 hours By the time Lauren reached first grade, her social, learning, and a week with us. The rest of the time they’re with their family or at verbal skills had improved so much that the Autism Connections school, so our BCBAs show parents and teachers how they can use ABA team said she was ready to “graduate” and go to school full-time. strategies to help them in other settings. Our families are incredible! She competes on a cheer team and does gymnastics. She’s still As much as we may impact them, they leave an impact on us.” dancing and is always teaching her friends new moves. One child who had a particular impact on Shelley was Lauren Stevens. As soon as Lauren began working with Autism Connections, Lauren is now in fifth grade and excelling. Though she still requires some learning supports, she is no longer in Special Education. She sings, has friends, and is very social. If not for Judson Center, Lauren “ “ would not be where she is today. Jamila ~ Autsim Connections Parent SHELLEY LIQUIA 4 Judson Center 2019 Annual Report AUTISM CONNECTIONS BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CHILD & FAMILY SERVICES DISABILITY SERVICES HEALTH Program Details Autism Connections offers intensive, evidence-based, therapeutic interventions to help individuals (ages 18 months to 21 years old) with an autism spectrum disorder improve their academic, language, self-care, coordination, and social skills. As autism affects the entire family, we also provide counseling resources and support groups for parents and siblings. Last year we opened an expanded Autism Connections facility in Warren and introduced in-home therapy in Livingston County. In January 2020, we launched a new center in Farmington Hills. These sites join our Royal Oak and Ann Arbor locations, extending our services reach to even more families in the metro Detroit region. 2019 Impact children with autism developed 237 new social and life skills. Judson Center 2019 Annual Report 5 AUTISM CONNECTIONS BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CHILD & FAMILY SERVICES DISABILITY SERVICES HEALTH Lahser Respite Laura Roehler, Manager of the Lahser Respite Care Home Laura decided to pursue a career in social services after working Laura and her staff make sure the children have fun during their stay with special needs children one summer at a Girl Scouts camp. She while tending to their medical and physical needs. They play games, joined Judson Center as a direct care worker on June 1, 1978 and is do arts & crafts, have pizza and popcorn parties, and go on outings to now our longest-serving employee; 2019 marked her 41st year. parks and the movies. In 1987, she moved to the Lahser Respite Care Home where she Several of the families we serve have used Lahser Respite for years, and her staff give parents of children with a developmental and/or so Laura has become close to them. Blake Bushman has been coming physical disability the opportunity to take a “time-out” from their to Lahser for 15 years. He’s so happy when he arrives that he pushes day-to-day responsibilities. his mother, Nora, out of the way. “He has ‘his’ chair and ‘his’ bed. He The best part of her job is working with the kids. “I enjoy seeing feels at home there. Laura and the staff know him and his routines, a child excited to come and not want to go home. It’s especially his likes and dislikes. They know the kids as well as their parents rewarding when parents who had never entrusted their children to do,” says Nora. anyone else before see how happy their children are here.” Nora takes advantage of Lahser to travel for work and family Lahser Respite’s “secret sauce” is its individualized care. “The key to celebrations. “I know Blake will be well taken care of. Lahser is ‘his working with any child is to recognize they’re all individuals – every- place.’ ” one is different. You need to look at the person, not their disability. My team are pros at making the kids and their families comfortable.” I enjoy seeing a child excited to come and not want to “go home. It’s especially rewarding“ when parents who had never entrusted their children to anyone else before see how happy their children are here. Laura Roehler ~ Manager of the Lahser Respite Care Home LAURA ROEHLER 6 Judson Center 2019 Annual Report AUTISM CONNECTIONS BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CHILD & FAMILY SERVICES DISABILITY SERVICES HEALTH Program Details Lahser Respite Care Home provides temporary relief to families of children and adolescents with disabilities. We enable parents to step away from their caregiving duties for vacations, business trips, family obligations, or just a personal break. Lahser Respite is the only facility of its kind in southeastern Michigan. 2019 Impact families received loving respite care 75 for a family member with a disability. Judson Center 2019 Annual Report 7 AUTISM CONNECTIONS BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CHILD & FAMILY SERVICES DISABILITY SERVICES HEALTH Behavioral Health Kathryn Lowe, Program Manager, Behavioral Health Services Kathryn began her career at Judson Center 14 years ago with the A few years ago, Kathryn worked with “Alice.” She had been severely Family Preservation Program. In 2009, she became the Supervisor abused by her stepmother, and then abandoned by her parents when of In-Home Behavioral Services where she supported children (ages she was just two years old; they had left her on the porch and drove 4–17) experiencing mental health crises and at-risk of placement into away. Alice was placed with a caring foster family, but the trauma a treatment center. In 2010, she was named the Program Manager of had left a lingering toll. Alice began to act out. Kathryn met Alice Behavioral Health Services and helped build and expand Judson when she was eight. She was defiant, doing poorly in school, often Center’s Outpatient Program.