THE HOPE SOURCE

Celebrates its 15th Anniversary

By: Julie Gordon, LCSW - President/Owner

As The Hope Source celebrates its 15th anniversary, I am honored to be featured in this issue to highlight our success, spotlight our services, and tell our story. As I reflect on all these years, deciding what I want to say, I find myself overwhelmed not knowing where to begin. However, there is one glaring feeling in every memory – gratitude.

The Hope Source has enriched the lives of so many people, but most significantly, my own.

With that, I write this open letter to all of those who have been a part of the last 15 years:

While in college, 20 years ago, my roommate was graduating and asked me to take over her job helping a little boy with autism. I had never met anyone with autism, so I accepted reluctantly. I did not know it then, but that little boy would change the trajectory of my life. I am grateful for this angel who patiently introduced me to what it meant to have special needs.

A few years later, a little girl who was struggling with progress in her ABA programs was placed in my path. This family sought alternative interventions that opened my eyes to a more holistic approach that not only better fit my values and temperament but gave me the opportunity to witness this little girl take leaps and begin smiling. I am grateful for this family who trusted me to go on a new journey with them and ignited a passion I did not know I had.

After graduate school, I tried to follow my original career path as a school social worker. However, I was not allowed to counsel students with autism because they were in the hands of special education. I am grateful for the opportunity to work in schools, but also for them telling me “no.” Without that “no,” The Hope Source may never have come to be.

The Hope Source opened in January 2007 as a private consulting practice focused on a more developmental, parent-based intervention. If I had learned anything over the last six years, working with families of children with autism and getting involved in the autism community, it was that the whole family needed support. Marriages were strained, siblings struggled to find their place, grandparents were heartbroken not knowing how to interact with their grandchildren. I am grateful for the first two families who put their trust in me to lead them on a very difficult and rewarding journey of parent-based intervention. I was not yet a parent and looked like I was twelve, but they trusted me when I assured them that I was not going to teach them how to parent - they already were experts at that. My job was to help them empower themselves to be parents again. They needed someone to listen, encourage and bring out the strengths in their parent-child relationship and family unit.

I am grateful for each and every family across three states that videotaped themselves in their pajamas to implement the homework I asked them to do. They let me have a window to their world, vulnerable and open to change and challenge. I remember each and every client and family that walked through our doors. I am grateful for everything that I learned from them and that I now can teach to others.

In 2009, because of grassroots demand from families, I started our in-clinic services program and hired my first five employees. I didn’t intend to have a center and I was learning to run a business as I went. I am grateful for those humble beginnings of second-hand furniture. It may not have been a state-of-the-art clinic, but our therapy model was the best and our clients were thriving.

I am grateful for all the memories of spirit weeks, field trips, talent and Christmas shows, staff development days, Best Buddies, parent workshops, benefits, and high school graduations.

In 2013, after years of amazing outcomes, The Hope Source developed its hybrid model of therapy and education. Partnering with a charter school, our clients could have IEPs and the education that they are entitled to. I am grateful for the charter schools who believed in our clients and that a hybrid model could work. I am grateful for those who helped me navigate the charter school world for the founding of Dynamic Minds Academy, which aims to capture the successful model that The Hope Source created over six years.

we moved to our current location on Craig Street, I could finally do everything that I had envisioned for years. One dream was the Hope Source Café. It is not only a place, but a vocational program to provide our clients with real-world, authentic opportunities to apply the executive functioning skills they were acquiring in therapy. I am grateful to everyone who had a hand making this massive facility our home.

I am grateful for the behavior analysts who took a chance and pushed outside their comfort zone to learn a new and different way of implementing ABA. Without them, we would not be able to provide this ground-breaking intervention, which I know is the future of ABA.

I am grateful to our clinical team for working so collaboratively for continuity of care and better outcomes. I am grateful to our specialty therapists for bringing music, art, and physical recreation group therapy to our clients. I am grateful for our team supervisors who run around all day making sure their team is supported in every way. I am grateful for all the staff that shows up every day for their team, for their clients, and for the mission.

In 2020, my vision for a therapy curriculum was finally accomplished. Purpose Project captured over a decade of program development. It provides a meaningful backdrop for natural, project-based, collaborative opportunities to work on social, emotional, cognitive, and executive functioning treatment goals. It provides families an opportunity to see their children present a culmination of eight weeks of hard work--whether performing, speaking publicly, or through a creative medium like THS500, HopeTube and HopeTank. I am grateful for those team members who took the vision from my brain and brought it to life. Your work has enriched the lives of our clients and increased their self-confidence.

I am grateful for my directors. It is not easy to work under a passionate, type B, creative, opinionated, business owner and social worker. I am grateful for your loyalty, your faith, and the heart you put into every aspect of The Hope Source as if it were your own.

This year, we have expanded our services to reach those seeking outpatient mental health services, family consultation (ABA), and speech and occupational therapy in Indianapolis and Terre Haute. I am grateful for the Heart of the Spectrum Outpatient Services (Heart SOS) team for launching so successfully and bringing The Hope Source back to its roots of parent-based intervention.

I am grateful for the good days. The thankful emails from parents, the letters in my mailbox from clients – some complaining about no soda or Wi-Fi; others telling me that I saved their life.

I am grateful for all the really trying times, but even more for those who believed in me and stayed with me through them. I am stronger than I ever thought I could be, but only because of them.

I am grateful for my family. For those who lent me the funds to pursue this mission and those who hold down the fort and keep me grounded.

I am grateful that God showed me my purpose in life at such an early age. He put so many people in my path that kept me on the mission to bring hope to those who need it.

Happy Birthday to The Hope Source! Three logos, four buildings, 400 clients and 900 employees later - I am grateful to have found my people and my purpose.

Hope Always, Julie

To learn more about all the services provided by The Hope Source, visit us at asdhopesource.com or follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/asdhopesource

Or check our our website at www.asdhopesource.com and Heart SOS at www.asdheartsos.com.

The Hope Source, Inc. 8350 Craig Street Indianapolis, IN 46250

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