Joel's Place Autism Center

     Over the course of this next month, we will be hosting two events primarily for youth on the Autism Spectrum:  Camp Yes! and an A.skate clinic.  Camp Yes! is a two-week morning experience for 15 kids on the spectrum to have a summer camp experience.  They will meet here for 4 hours per day and learn about cooking, pets, music, art, skating, acting and social skills as they interact with the leaders, councilors and other campers.  The A.skate clinic is August 17th.  Over the course of a few hours, kids will receive a personal skating lesson that introduces them to skating and gives them the opportunity to learn a new skill and grow in self-esteem and confidence.  These are not our traditional members nor our traditional activities and so they could raise some questions.

• How did we get involved with these events?  That's pretty easy...I went out and found them.  When I took over at Joel's Place, I looked at expanding the number of youth and groups who were utilizing our facility.  I looked up who might be interested in skateboarding and stumbled across a growing movement of skating as a therapeutic activity for autism.  So I attended a couple of local meetings to help plan Camp Yes! and I wrote a grant in order to bring the A.skate clinic to Fairbanks.
• How is skating "therapeutic" for kids with autism?  What is autism anyway?  Autism is a sensory developmental disorder.  It effects kids in lots of different ways with varying intensity, but there tend to be some generalities that apply.  Some physical senses tend to be more sensitive while others are more muted.  The brain has a challenging time knowing which sense to prioritize.  For example the rush of the wind, the smell of fresh cut grass, the fluttering of a butterfly's wings and mom's voice yelling at you to stay out of the street could all register as equally important in an autistic brain.  As a result, many of the social cues and social skills that people would instinctively pick up as small children have to be learned by young people with autism.  Youth on the spectrum tend to be socially awkward in conversation and convention, have little sense of personal space, speak whatever script is playing in their head, be especially sensitive to noise/light/taste, be hyperactive and refuse to make eye-contact.  They may be exceptionally smart and have a few subjects that they have an encyclopedic knowledge of.  They may regularly inflict harm upon themselves as they have a hard time feeling where their body ends and the rest of the world begins.  

                      Skating offers a few central pieces.  First is the motion and sense of movement.  Rocking and swinging tend to be popular for toddlers with autism.  The extra pressure of movement reinforces their boundaries...same with skating.  There is a lot of physical exertion of the large muscle groups as they drop in for their runs, jump, flip and work to maintain their balance.  Second is parallel play.  Group sports like soccer or basketball have the challenging physical elements in addition to seemingly arbitrary rules and tons of social dynamics that require both verbal and nonverbal communication.  Skating gives the opportunity to participate in a group while being an individual athlete which is so much less taxing for the kids.  Third, skating often centers around perfecting a series of tricks which works perfectly with the desire to focus on a few certain things. Fourth, skating culture is a subculture of those on the margins...those who don't quite fit in with the mainstream.  Friendships grow out of a shared love of skating and appreciation of skills...it is less about fashion, style, socio-economic background or popularity.  It is a wonderful introduction into community for those who struggle to fit in.

• Why focus on autism instead of another developmental delay group?  My son is on the spectrum.  I have a lot of familiarity with the issues that autistic families face.  As I look around at the Joel's Place members, it is pretty easy to see that a number of our regulars sit squarely on the spectrum also.  They gravitate here whether we are prepared for them or not.  I want my staff to be well equipped to serve this demographic well.  Also, awareness of autism and diagnoses are rapidly increasing around the world.  It will not be going away anytime soon and we have one of the best facilities in Alaska to provide what these kids, and their families, desperately need.
• What does this mean for the future of Joel's Place?  My hope is that we will become entrenched in the autistic community.  I would love to see Joel's Place filled with kids on the spectrum during school hours when we would normally be closed.  Joel's Place was established to give young people the resources to thrive in the outside world when no one else would help them.  This group is not homeless, but they are at-risk.  Of course we would give what we have in order to help young people build self-esteem and community and confidence and relational skills and hope.  

We take our first steps into this endeavor this month.  If you have questions or comments or even would like to come alongside us and help out, feel free to contact me. I am excited to see where we go from here.

James

We're poor...but happy

     "How is stuff going at Joel's Place?"

I am asked that question a lot.  I am often not sure what to say.  Do I tell them about:

• The hundreds of kids that we are feeding every week?
• The amazing community garden that is being maintained by volunteers and harvested to supply our cafe?
• The grants we are receiving in order to improve our facility and insulate our walls for the winter?
• How we've seen more kids so far this summer than the previous 2 summers combined?
• The autism day camps and skate clinics that we will be putting on?
• The great community training that we hosted?
• The new programs I am dreaming of?
• The ache of transition as we say goodbye to long-time leaders?
• The constant inability to pay staff on time?
• The frustration of cash flow which is only trumped by...
• The frustration of youth?  They regularly make horrible decisions and are the cruelest to those who are helping them the most.
• The excitement of seeing lives transformed before our very eyes?
• The building balloon payment that we are trying to figure out for 15 months from now?

     There is more bouncing around in my head and my heart about the state and direction of Joel's Place than anyone wants to hear about in one conversation.  I usually respond by saying, "We're poor...but we're happy."  Finances are a struggle, not nearly to the pit of despair level that they were last year, but still a struggle.  I probably spend 75% of my time dealing with money in some way, shape or form: grant applications/reporting, fundraising, figuring out what to pay when, increasing earned income, etc.  We are this close to being financially stable...I just need a little more help and another score or two of monthly donors.  Fortunately, we have just enough money that comes in just in time to continue offering amazing programing and opportunities to the youth of our community.

     This is where the happy comes in.  We know who we are.  We know what we do well and, probably more importantly, why we do it.  My staff are free to love kids elaborately without looking over their shoulders and wondering if we will have different programs and priorities next month.  We are learning where we fit within our Community's Continuum of Care.  We don't have to be able to do everything for any youth that is in crisis.  We simply need to excel in our niche and then have the relationships and trust to be able to connect youth in need with organizations eager to help.

     Our staff love the work that we do.  They love being able to see young people laugh and grow and discover new things about themselves.  They love knowing that they are helping teens navigate some of the roughest parts of their lives.  They just wish that I would be more available for them and that their paychecks would be given out on time.

     Happy...but poor...but making great progress in rectifying that.
     

Been kinda busy

So...remember when I wrote that we had a busy summer coming up?  I just looked up and realized that June is gone, without so much as a single post from me during the month.  Here's a glimpse at what we've been up to: 

• Two skate camps
• We provided concessions for two local auctions
• Sponsored a week-long community training conference
•  Installed a new sound system 
• Passed out over 500 meals and 300 food boxes to kids
•  Organized an eight band/ten hour/crazy fun show

All this was in addition to our regular business hours of operation.  And I celebrated my one year anniversary with Joel's Place.  And I had my 20 year high school reunion.  And there was writing grants and staff turnover and coalition meetings and...the list goes on.  Suffice it to say I and my staff have been working really hard and investing a lot of great resources into the community.

     So what's the takeaway?  When I look back at the month, what themes and threads do I see?

     First:  Everyone really likes Joel's Place and wants us to succeed.  The Borough Mayor's office found us a small grant and are working on a VISTA in order to help Safe Place survive this year.  I am regularly sent ideas from the community about how we can raise funds to keep our doors open.  We have a ton of volunteers and contractors routinely give us more than we pay for out of support for our cause.  We receive food donations and bike donations and game donations and gardening donations.  There are new kids who come through our doors all the time because they want see if we are as good as they have heard.

     Second: Find What you do well and excel in it within a community.   There is an entire continuum of care that high-risk youth need in order to find the resources that they need.  Resources for exiting crisis and immediate survival.  Resources for discovery, training and development. The most successful communities have organizations that are excellent at a couple of things that work in partnership with other organizations that excel in a couple of things.  Organizations get in trouble when they lose their core and try to become everything to everyone.  Kids, especially those who are homeless or at-risk, do not need a community full of redundant mediocrity.  

     Third:  Kids leave the streets when they see potential instead of failure.  One of the strongest points that I heard in our training was this one.  Youth will generally not commit to change in order to fix a flaw.  Challenging them to quit smoking, quit drinking, quit skipping class, leave an abusive relationship often will fall on deaf ears.  The hard life that they know is preferable to the unknown so asking them to give up a negative component does very little to compel them.  However, show them a glimpse of their potential...of something they are good at or something they could become and prepare to be amazed at how quickly their vices fall to the wayside.  Informed hope is a powerful thing.

Fourth:  Vision is central  In the midst of endless need and endless opportunity to interact with that need, the vision of an organization must be the filter through which we decide everything: who we hire, what programs we provide, what fundraisers we pursue, what grants we apply for...everything.  The vision must be clear and focused, yet with large enough ideas that growth and maturation is possible.

May this summer be one filled with blessings, joy and prosperity for you.

James