nonprofit spotlight By Sarah Smith
THE GOLDEN KEY CENTER FOR EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN
Striving to unlock the future for their students The mission of The Golden Key Center is to provide quality education and intervention services for students with developmental disabilities. That sounds like a simple statement but involves a complex course of action. The center is not a “cookiecutter” service provider; it serves the individual needs of each family and client at their own pace. The Golden Key Center offers educational services to students from five counties and 23 school districts under the Ohio Department of Education. It is a non-public charter school, providing Autism or Jon Peterson Scholarships for eligible students. As a non-tuition school, Golden Key provides all educational services with no additional fees to all families. Services provided include education, intervention, speechlanguage therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, music and
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arts services, tech and library science, social skills intervention, food therapy, relational and behavioral support, and nursing services through Akron Children’s Hospital. As Golden Key has added students and services, the center requires more classroom and restroom space, increased office and therapy space, a functional gym for increased physical activity programs, and a functional living space to teach independent living skills. Golden Key’s building expansion project will allow a 50% increase in student capacity as well as a 20% increase in trained staff in the field of autism and cognitive disabilities. This space will also provide an area for family meetings. Gross motor skill development will be assessed using a functional gym to learn and practice those skills. “The Golden Key Center came into my life when my son was three and a half years old,” Gina Bannevich, operations director at Golden Key, said. “He was having difficulty at a childcare center and was about to be released due to his behavior. A friend told me about Terry Frank and The Golden Key. I went for a tour, and Terry told us to see a neurologist at Akron Children’s Hospital to consider an autism diagnosis. Dominick, my son, started at The Key in January 2010 and later that year received a diagnosis of autism. He spent six years at The Golden Key. Dominick graduated from the Key and is now a fully integrated student in the public schools and doing wonderfully. I attributed his success, my family’s support, and the knowledge we gained about autism to Terry and the staff of The Golden Key. The list of things that Golden Key gave to Dominick would
fill this magazine. They supported him in learning to make life transitions. They supported him from only wearing white shoes to being able to wear any color shoes. They supported him in developing the ability to express his emotions versus outward behavior. They helped him create new techniques to overcome food aversions. Dominick’s quality of life expanded because of what The Golden Key taught him,” Bannevich said. “I was so devoted to the organization and saw the benefits it offered to the Stark County community that I had to find ways to support it personally,” she continued. “I helped create the annual fundraiser, served on their board, and four years ago decided to follow my passion for Golden Key and work as the Operations Director.”
