At MHP, our mission is clear: to stabilize children with special needs and their families and guide them in achieving their best, particularly as their needs change throughout childhood, adolescence, and transitioning into adulthood. In 2024, we engaged with families a whopping 90 times through our newest programs added this year: Transition Planning + Kindergarten Readiness. We were only able to add these two new programs to our already successful cadre of services thanks to steadfast community support, enabling us to maintain the highest bar of a responsive and proactive organization. Your generosity ensured that an astounding 259 educational communities throughout the Commonwealth received life changing services provided by MHP in the last year.
We are particularly proud of our Transition Planning Program within these communities, ensuring that these children with special needs and their families have a plan for when services and supports drop off as they reach adulthood, many of them unaware they have even hit a milestone birthday disqualifying them from the services they depend on. These are children of single moms who are at risk of losing their jobs to manage their child’s extra needs. These are children with disabilities unjustly facing expulsion due to behaviors resulting from a lack of proper support in their environment. These are children and families who do not understand or feel confident in how to take the first steps of their Special Education journey without MHP’s support. In fact, historically, families have reported a 228% increase in educational satisfaction after receiving MHP’s services.
Your partnership guarantees that MHP never has to turn a family away. We say that “your child is our mission” and this will remain; each individual family and child receives comprehensive services from MHP, handled with the same care we would want our own children to receive. Thank you for guaranteeing that no family in Virginia has to face these challenges alone.
Sincerely,
Emily Jiancristoforo, MHP Executive Director
Megan Newman, MHP Board President
A NOTE FROM LEADERSHIP
MHP’S STORY
More often than not, families of children with special health care needs feel overwhelmed and are not sure how to enter into the process of obtaining a network of supports and resources. MHP serves as a hub for families and professionals alike who are seeking information and support for these special children. From MHP’s beginning, our motto has been to hire parents of children with special needs to interface with our families in a peer to peer support model.
2001 2003
MHP became incorporated as its own entity, founded on the principle that every child deserves a medical home
2011
Our Transition Planning Program was created in response to family feedback and advisor experience, thanks to generous support from the Truist Foundation.
2024
Medical Home Plus was created as an extension to Richmond Pediatric Associates, Inc.
Our IEP Advisory service was created in response to the community need.
2023
Our Kindergarten Readiness program was created thanks to generous support from The Robins Foundation.
NOW
• RESOURCE COORDINATION
We work directly with parents (and caregivers) to identify what community services and supports are needed and how families can access them.
• EDUCATIONAL PLAN ADVISORY SERVICE
Our Advisors provide direct, one-on-one guidance in helping navigate your child’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) or 504 Plan.
• TRANSITION PLANNING SERVICE
This unique program provides connections to resources and lifelong development and practice of foundational skills needed to successfully navigate life in the community as an adult.
• KINDERGARTEN READINESS PROGRAM
Our Kindergarten Readiness Program addresses the unmet need for specialized early intervention support and resources for families of children with special needs as they enter the school system.
PROGRAM UPDATES
TRANSITION PLANNING
MHP has a rich history of providing a community of support to families of children with disabilities. Our families have consistently shared their questions for when their children inevitably age out of the public school system. They face losing access to supports or accommodations and parents worry what their child’s future will be like. Therefore, MHP launched a Transition Planning Program to provide services to address these concerns. Quality Transition Planning includes connections to resources and lifelong development and practice of foundational skills needed to successfully navigate life in the community as an adult. This can include post-secondary education, career paths, independent living, and daily living skills. Better preparing our young adults and their families will lower the risk of experiencing poverty, homelessness, abuse, the criminal justice system, and more. Because we are taking a unique, individualized, and proactive approach, our hope is for MHP’s Transition Planning to have positive ripple effects throughout the state to enrich the lives of our students, our families, AND our communities.
Scan to watch our Transition Planning video
OUTCOMES: KINDERGARTEN READINESS
• MHP assisted families through the Eligibility process.
• MHP assisted families in finding and securing the most appropriate educational placements.
• MHP assisted in adding appropriate services to existing IEPs.
• MHP helped families find community resources.
• MHP assisted in drafting and finalizing a robust 504 plan for children.
• MHP guided families and school teams in creating initial IEPs.
• MHP ensured IEPs included supports, goals, and services for children as they transition to an inclusive Kindergarten classroom.
• MHP ensured IEPs included baseline data, visual supports and regulation strategy accomodations.
42 FAMILIES SERVED IN 2024
OUTCOMES:
• MHP connected families to community resources and organizations to help their child enter adulthood successfully.
• MHP assisted families and school staff to establish individualized and measurable goals for students after graduation.
• MHP provides direct, expert guidance and education for families about transition planning services and diploma track options.
*Thank you to Truist for supporting our mission!
48
FAMILIES SERVED IN 2024
DIPLOMA TRACKS
“MHP is doing a great service! My advisor was amazing and stopped during IEP meetings to ask if my husband and I understood what was being discussed. If not, she would break it down for us. She knew so much.”
*Thank you to the Robins Foundation for supporting our mission!
COUNTIES
Families working with MHP are asked survey questions before our work starts, and again after our work is concluded, rating each statement on a 1-10 scale. The impact of our services is clear with a staggering
increase in educational satisfaction!
NUMBER OF FAMILY ENGAGEMENTS IN 2024
Breakdown of Our Services by Percentage:
At MHP, we pride ourselves in serving families experiencing any and all circumstances, including all abilities, languages, ages, diagnoses, and socioeconomic statuses. Being a place for Virginia families of children with special needs to turn to for resources, advice, and assistance is our core mission. We never turn a family away.
Child’s behavior has escalated to suspensions and/or assault.
CHALLENGE:
Child has difficulty completing schoolwork.
OUTCOME PROVIDED BY MHP:
MHP provided guidance to the family and school team to include a Behavior Intervention Plan, additional services to address needs, and accomodations for when getting overstimulated to the child’s current education plan. This resulted in suspensions stopping and behaviors decreasing.
OUTCOME PROVIDED BY MHP:
MHP provided guidance to improve the child’s educational plan by including curriculum modifications, testing accommodations, and modified assistive technology. This resulted in the schoolwork being appropriately accessible to the child.
CHALLENGE:
Educational Plan does not meet the needs of the student.
OUTCOME PROVIDED BY MHP:
MHP provided guidance to improve the child’s educational plan by updating baseline data, ensuring goals are measurable, and strengthening communication between school and home.
CHALLENGE:
Family needs assistance with review of educational placement.
OUTCOME PROVIDED BY MHP:
MHP helped understand options, secure appropriate educational placement and prepared family and student for transition from one school to another, including confirmation of transportation details.
TOTAL RAISED: $250K+
Our last three Uncork Hope fundraisers have had a flower theme as a nod to the tremendous growth and success MHP has experienced. The past year’s theme was ‘Hope Flourishes’; as an established non-profit serving children with disabilities and their families throughout Virginia, we are focused on helping those that we serve to ‘flourish’. This was our first year including a live auction element to our evening as our guests eagerly bid for the priceless artwork of five-year-old Lily, a special friend of MHP’s. Her one-of-a-kind masterpiece titled Waffle City was featured as a highlight of the night. Thank you to all that supported this year and we look forward to Uncork Hope 2025!
Scan to hear from our 2024 Hostess, Tricia Rhodes
UNCORK HOPE
CAROLYN HAYDON
NEW IN 2024 NEW ADVISORS
NEW BOARD MEMBERS
MICHELE GARDNER
LATONYA SLADE
MEG FLANAGAN
MADI BIEDERMANN
LORRAINE MCQUEEN
KATIE DURHAM SAM ANDERSON
MHP STAFF
EMILY JIANCRISTOFORO
Executive Director
GAIL AUSTIN
Director of Operations
HOPE KINKEL WALTON
Program Manager
HALEY BARBER
Knowledge Systems Manager
MARY PETERS
Family Support Manager
KATE OLENYIK
Al’s Pals Program Manager
CATHERINE KEIPER Bookkeeper
VICKI BEATTY
Family Support Advisor
DONNA SABEL
Family Support Advisor
KATE OPPE
Family Support Advisor
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
MEGAN NEWMAN
President
RYAN GLASER
Vice President
KENDALL VON MICHALOFSKI Secretary
JOHN NEWTON Treasurer
SUSANNAH CLARKE
Family Support Advisor
CAROLYN HAYDON
Family Support Advisor
MICHELE GARDNER
Family Support Advisor
LATONYA SLADE
Family Support Advisor
MEG FLANAGAN
Family Support Advisor
CINDY ACKERMANN
Family Support Coordinator & Program Support
KENDRA NAGLIERI Program Support
LAUREN SHERWOOD Coordinator - Special Families Roanoke
SATYA RANGARAJAN
HALLIE HOVEY-MURRAY
ELLE JOYNER
LORRAINE MCQUEEN
COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT
MADI BIEDERMANN
DIANA HUDGINS
SAM ANDERSON
KATIE DURHAM
Driven Behavioral Support has been collaborating with Medical Home Plus for quite some time and the help and support that your agency has provided to the families that we work with is absolutely fantastic. Moreover, several of the families that we work with do not speak English and their primary language is Spanish. This could have been a hindering factor for many people, but MHP has taken this challenge and found a way to help and support those families regardless of the language barriers. I believe the impact that Medical Home Plus is having on every family that we work with is truly important to provide a better quality of life. We have worked with several MHP advisors, who advocated for our families and provided support to ensure benefits are provided and implemented by the school to the families. Furthermore, the support that is being provided to those families who are struggling financially is truly amazing. Some families that are learning English are scared of advocating for their needs, and often they just stay quiet. However, thanks to everyone at Medical Home Plus, those families are seeing a different perspective and they are not so scared anymore. Thanks to professionals like you who continue to be so passionate and compassionate, these families have a chance to at least be heard.
- Juan M Mondillo BCBA, LBA, MS. Co-founder of Driven Behavioral Support
