Children and adults needing autism services will soon have a place to go to in Hope.
Pivot Point has taken over the space formerly occupied by the Hope and District Chamber of Commerce at 591-J Wallace Street.
Katrina Crosby, Pivot Point’s regional manager for Kent-Hope, has been hard at work getting the space ready and expects to be open Feb. 1. Led by two in-house staff members and a team of six overall, many services will be provided within the walls, including one-on-one therapy sessions that until now have taken place in the home.
“Therapy works better when you’re not distracted by other people in the house, televisions, pets running around,” Crosby explained.
By September, Crosby hopes to have a learning centre that could accommodate six clients and two staff members.
“It’s kind of like home schooling here, instead of at home, and we don’t just do academics,” Crosby said. “We do behavioural intervention and work on developing social skills and self-soothing techniques. We’re all trained to deal with outbursts and meltdowns. While we don’t have speech-language pathologists (SLPs) or occupational therapists (OCs) in house, we do have the support of SLPs, OCs, counsellors and behaviour consultants, to meet kids where they’re at.”
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For a parent, home schooling can be a massive job, and for a child with autism, going to a brick-and-mortar school to work in a crowded classroom can be a challenge.
“They can come here and interact with just a few other kids who are on the same level as them, and practice skills with trained staff,” Crosby said. “We do tutoring as well. For example, there may be a kiddo who is struggling behaviourally because they’re not learning easily in school, usually high school. So we have an educational consultant who will help them look at their classwork from a new angle.
“Usually teachers will write and talk, or get you to read and write, but that’s not as hands-on as it could be. So we try to do things the teacher can’t do, with so many students and such a short amount of time.”
The Hope office will serve a large area that covers from Lake Errock to Boston Bar and Rosedale to Manning Park.
The closest Pivot Point learning centre up till now has been in Agassiz, adding another hour or so of drive time for someone coming from Boston Bar.
“I lived on a island in Scotland and I know what it’s like to travel an hour-and-a-half just to have simple procedure done, and I can’t imagine what it’s like for someone in Boston Bar to have to go to Chilliwack or Abbotsford for something,” Crosby said.
She added that people she’s talked to are pretty excited about it.
“Having sessions in the home, parents either feel bad that they’re not able to give their kids the best opportunity for learning and growing, or they have a space in their home that they can imagine 12 other uses for. Either way, it’ll be nice for them.”