June 2023 Special Needs Living Akron/Canton

IMPACTING PEOPLE EACH & EVERY DAY! PREMIER APPROACH

Premier Approach opened in April 2019 and has grown to six employees. Josh has more than 19 years of experience in this field and Christian has over 10 years of experience.

WRITTEN BY SARAH SMITH

Premier Approach provides adult day support, vocational habilitation, homemaker/ personal care services, and nonmedical transportation to adults with intellectual disabilities and developmental disabilities. In addition to meeting each month with all the clients and creating a calendar of events, Premier Approach offers many impromptu activities on a daily basis that the clients enjoy.

“Most of the individuals that we serve come to our day program because of the experiences that we offer on a daily basis,” said Christian Manns, Premier Approach vice president. “We have learned how important it is for the individuals that you serve to have a say on how they spend their days. We pride ourselves on encouraging our individuals to select activities that not only include them in their community but also bring a sense of joy and purpose to each of them. We do this by offering self-advocacy training to assist the expression of personal preferences, asserting rights, and making increasingly responsible choices.”

Premier Approach provides adult day support which involves discovering and developing skills, interests, and talents and finding ways to connect to the community based on discoveries. The organization also offers vocational habilitation. This includes learning and work experiences, including volunteer work, that helps to develop general skills. Those skills then lead to integrated community employment in a job that matches the person’s interests, strengths, priorities, and abilities. Premier Approach gives non-medical transportation to and from a place of employment, adult day support/vocational habilitation locations, and volunteer activities. The company also provides HPC services to individuals, allowing for more independence to explore community services and activities so the individual is integrated in and has more access to the community.

Co-owners, Christian Manns and Josh Croston worked together for an agency provider in Stark County for several years. They respected each other’s work ethic and the approach each took in providing support to the individuals they served. They discussed what they loved most about the field and that was engaging with individuals and getting them out to explore their communities.

Christian and Josh took that passion and started Premier Approach as a way to continue to beneficially impact individuals.

While at the previous agency, Christian and Josh became very close to a number of individuals and many of those relationships remain intact today. Neither of them planned on making a career for themselves in this field. However, each of them grew to love this field and can’t imagine doing anything else.

Premier Approach is located at 2056 Wales Road NE in Massillon. More information can be found at https://www.facebook.com/ PremierAppoachLLC or by calling 330-546-4400.