Visit the center on North 30th Street in Paducah and But the dream has finally come true with the announcement of the Easterseals West Kentucky Autism Center opening in 2022. “This is probably my proudest moment,” Kim says. “Easterseals has a lot of wonderful programs and a lot of things we do to serve very specific populations in our community. This center fills a void in our autism community that I think Easterseals is the best organization to fill.” Sarah, who was brought on as the vice president of autism services in 2022 to spearhead the center’s development, is well aware of the void. She deals with it every single day. “The need for an autism center in Western Kentucky is huge,” she says. “We have families already calling wanting to make sure their child is on our wait list even though our wait list doesn’t start until August. However, every ABA (applied behavioral analysis) facility in this area, most likely in the state, are unable to provide immediate services and families stay on wait lists for months or years. There just aren’t enough providers to meet the needs.” “Families seeking services right now are being told that they have to wait and that’s awful, because if your child is engaging in self-injurious behavior, if they are banging their heads, if they are hurting themselves or others, you just can’t wait, you need services now.” “I can’t wait for the day when we’ll start making calls to parents to let them know that we’re ready and excited to start providing their child with ABA therapy,” she says. “I wish we could open the doors tomorrow but it takes time to ensure that our clients will get the center they deserve. And they will!” When the center is fully complete, Sarah anticipates that they will be able to serve 25 clients, making a huge dent in the huge need for these services. Right now, Sarah and the Easterseals staff is busy making sure that every detail of the new center’s renovation is perfect. you’ll see one side already taken down to its studs to facilitate a new layout. You’ll see Sarah’s post-it note reminders to the construction crew. And, more days than not, you might bump into Sarah herself there, making notes and taking a look. For her, it’s the project of a lifetime. “The opportunity to build a center from the ground up and help a population that is really underserved was just an excellent opportunity,” she says. “It’s almost too good to be true.” “It’s just an awesome experience to be able to take a building and completely renovate it and make the layout that’s going to work best for children with autism—everything from the lighting being sensory-friendly to the flooring reducing noise, yet also being able to be cleaned easily; being able to decide each little factor that’s going to make it a friendly environment for kids with autism.” “It’s just amazing.” More than the building, however, the new Easterseals Autism Center will increase the region’s availability of ABA services, an integral component of autism therapies. Sarah is planning to offer three different treatment models at the center, from full-time, half-day, and even a social model aimed at improving social skills. Combined with this, clients will still be able to access their regular therapy services (physical, speech, occupational) in the same center, reducing the number of different therapy appointments that families are juggling. INTHEVUE.COM | PROMOTING EVENTS THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE | APRIL 2022 59
