contributed by Abby Dreith

Happy Autism Acceptance Month!

Every year on April 2, we celebrate autistic people all over the world and recognize them for their achievements. It was only three years ago when I began to understand autism and started the journey to my diagnosis. Although the month of April and the day of April 2 are known as Autism Awareness Month/Day, I am pretty sure by now that most folks are aware of autism, and I think we should go further and value people with autism for what they contribute.

The idea of autism acceptance is not only self-education, but also self-(un)education. A lot of people don’t understand that autism doesn’t go away when you’re an adult. When it comes to learning about a different neurotype, there is systemic ableism that hinders autistic people from achieving success thus placing a negative value on our mannerisms and interests. Although autism research is still relatively new, autistic people have always been a part of society. It is imperative we listen to autistic voices; adapt the world we know and love to suit them; and provide those of us with autism equal opportunity for success and happiness.

Autism acceptance can be achievable from big things (such as educating peers about the harm of the r-word and protecting autistic rights) to the little things (like combatting microaggressions and understanding autism symptoms).

People with autism represent a wide array of strengths and challenges. I have had people say to me “You can’t be autistic. You’re actually intelligent.” Many of my friends have asked me to learn more about autism and how it is a part of making me who I am. I’m thankful for people who choose to work with people with autism, and I encourage everyone to keep listening to us and making sure we have a voice.

More information about autism services at Easterseals Crossroads

Easterseals Crossroads is a First Steps provider of early intervention services for families with babies and young children with developmental delays or disabilities. Services may include speech therapy, ​developmental therapy, physical therapy or occupational therapy based on the needs of the child. Early intervention services can have a significant, positive outcome for babies and young children in their ability to learn new skills and overcome challenges.

Meet Leann Faust – Manager, Early Intervention Services at Easterseals Crossroads

Leann began providing early intervention services through First Steps the  first year after graduating with her master’s degree in speech language pathology.  She was contracted by a local hospital to provide speech language therapy services for First Steps clients in their homes.  Throughout the last two decades, she has been involved with First Steps Early Intervention services mostly as an ongoing provider, but she also had a few years where she served PRN (as needed) on the First Steps ED Team (Eligibility Determination), helping to complete evaluations for the birth-2 population First Steps serves.  

“The four most frequently needed services that we provide as an agency are physical therapy, speech therapy (this is the same as language therapy or speech/language therapy), occupational therapy and developmental therapy. Easterseals Crossroads also has the only augmentative communication (assistive technology) specialist enrolled in First Steps on staff. There’s actually a much longer list of services that First Steps can provide as well, including audiology, family education, diagnostic medical services, nursing services, psychological services, social work services, nutrition services and vision services,” said Leann.

According to Leann, the benefits of early intervention are tremendous. Decades of research show that children’s earliest experiences play a critical role in brain development. Brains develop at the most rapid rate from birth to age three, and are also the most “plastic” or changeable in these first few years. Providing high quality early intervention can often reduce the amount of intervention a child will need later in life.  

First Steps services typically take place in the child’s natural environment, which is generally at home and sometimes at daycare. The services provided are to help educate and empower the parents with strategies they can use to help their child advance throughout their daily routines and ways they interact on a daily basis.  

Accessing First Steps

First Steps is Indiana’s state wide system providing early intervention services for children from birth through their third birthday. Families are often referred by their doctor, social service professionals or other medical professionals due to concerns. However, families can also self-refer if they have concerns about delays.

In Marion, Hamilton and Tipton County, families can call 317.257.baby or visit www.cibaby.org  where they will be connected with an intake coordinator who will help schedule an initial assessment. This service is paid for by First Steps. If the evaluation determines that there is a need for ongoing services, the family will be assigned a service coordinator, who is their contact to help them with coordinating all of the services they may need. This person takes care of the paperwork side of things, writing a plan with goals for the child/family based on information from the assessment and also transitioning them to other services after age 3.   

After a child is assessed and if services are recommended, the families are presented with agencies to choose from. The providers who will come to provide ongoing services all have to be connected through an agency. Easterseals Crossroads provides physical therapists, speech therapists, occupational therapists and/or developmental therapists to provide these services. Our staff at Easterseals Crossroads have experience serving children with diverse diagnoses including autism/ASD, tracheotomies, torticollis, sensory integration disorders, Down syndrome, feeding difficulties, developmental delays, cerebral palsy, high and low muscle tone, Erb’s Palsy, chromosomal abnormalities, premature births and prenatal drug exposure.

“Home based early intervention is often helping families identify their strengths and then coming up with manageable ideas and strategies that can be easily implemented throughout their days and routines to help their child progress and grow. Early intervention providers are a support to the family, and can make such a big difference in empowering parents to realize they have the tools to help their child. It can also help with getting families additional resources that may be available at no cost but that the families may not even realize are options,” said Leann.

What Happens when a Child Turns Three

In Indiana, a child’s local school system will provide services after a child turns three if they still are eligible for services. When a child is enrolled in First Steps, this is one of the biggest helps that the service coordinator provides. They make sure the family has filled out any required paperwork, the child is re-evaluated by the local school system and then if the child is still in need of services, all of the required paperwork will be completed with the family prior to the child turning three so they can begin receiving those services as soon as First Steps services have ended.  

Due to our comprehensive approach, Easterseals Crossroads is able to provide a smooth and easy transition from First Steps to continued outpatient therapies in our clinical settings. Our agency is advised by our medical director, Charles Dietzen, M.D., a board-certified physiatrist specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation. We can offer continued services in our outpatient clinical settings after the child turns three.  Easterseals is an agency that also has access to nutrition, social work and psychology services when needed.  We have an Autism Family Resource Center, which is available for information and support with necessary services, challenging behaviors, navigating finding medical professionals who may have experience with autism or challenging behaviors, and more. We also offer respite services through Parents’ Night Out.  

Ages and Stages Questionnaires

The Ages and Stages Questionnaires, or ASQ for short, is a simple online tool that parents can use if they are concerned about their child being delayed in any of their developmental areas, including gross motor, fine motor, speech and/or language, self-care (e.g., feeding, dressing), cognitive or social skills from birth through age 5. Often doctors will use this tool at visits to help answer questions about what a child may or may not be doing. At Easterseals Crossroads, we are able to give parents free access to use this tool any time they want. If the parent fills this out, they will be emailed recommendations about following up with an evaluation if necessary, as well as information that may help families to work on advancing their child’s skills across developmental areas.

Lucas was diagnosed with autism before his second birthday and has been working with autism specialists for three years. Now six, he is learning to communicate and make friends in addition to learning his colors, numbers and letters – all amazing things according to his mom Mary.

At Easterseals Crossroads, our autism and behavior specialists work with families to create effective treatment plans tailored to meet individual needs. Lucas has been involved in our early childhood classes where he learns to connect with his peers, socialize, communicate, play with others, learn with classmates and develop.

Together with our clinicians, families learn how to incorporate beneficial behavior plans that will prove helpful at school, at home and in later life.

“I feel like Lucas is a new kid. When we started here, he was in his own world – he would rock back and forth and not make eye contact. Now he has learned to be in the world with other people,” said Mary.

Mary is a social worker, but still learns more about autism and available services every day since both of her children have autism. “Reading the books about autism is one thing, but having someone with experience guide you is best. Easterseals Crossroads helps our family every step of the way,” said Mary.

Mary spoke about her experiences with Easterseals Crossroads on March 24 with Nikki DeMentri from WRTV – watch the clip below.

Easterseals Crossroads provided 8,658 autism services to 740 children and young adults last year.

Learn about autism services for children and young adults at Easterseals Crossroads.

Recreational Therapy, also known as therapeutic recreation, is a systematic process that utilizes recreation and other activity-based interventions to address the assessed needs of individuals with illnesses and/or disabling conditions as a means to psychological and physical health, recovery and well-being. The purpose of the recreational therapy process is to improve or maintain physical, cognitive, social, emotional and spiritual functioning in order to facilitate full participation in life.

Services are provided or directly supervised by a Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist (CTRS). Recreational therapy includes, but is not limited to, providing treatment services and recreation activities to children, teens and adults by using a variety of techniques, including arts and crafts, animals, sports, games, dance and movement, drama, music and community outings.

At Easterseals Crossroads, we have the best recreation therapists! Thanks to Kaylee Banco, Payton Chelmella, Michaele Gambrall, Gina Schulz and Jennifer Weber for providing such a vital service for our consumers.

Learn more about recreation therapy at Easterseals Crossroads.

contributed by Michael Ferron, Easterseals Crossroads Board Member

In 1921, a white supremacist mob violently attacked the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Greenwood—popularly called Black Wall Street—was a prosperous community replete with Black business owners, restaurateurs, lawyers, doctors, and other professionals.

The Tulsa Race Massacre left ten thousand people homeless, eight hundred injured, and at least three dozen dead—though many researchers estimate the death toll to be as high as three thousand. Additionally, the two-day race riot decimated decades of Black socioeconomic progress. It destroyed more than thirty city blocks in the Greenwood community, including more than two million dollars (approximately $33 million in 2020 dollars) in property damage.

John (The Baptist) Stradford

Among the wreckage and ruin was the Stradford Hotel, one of several Greenwood hotels J. B. Stradford and his wife Bertie Eleanor Wiley Stradford owned. At the time, Mr. Stradford was one of the wealthiest and most prominent Black entrepreneurs in the United States. He graduated from the Indianapolis College of Law, a predecessor to the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis. Mr. Stradford practiced law here and opened his first hotel in Alexandria, Indiana, in 1899. Later that year, he and his wife moved to Tulsa and began developing hotels and real estate. (portrait of JB Stadford at right by Jay Parnell).

The Stadfords purchased large tracts of land, developed them, and sold some of the properties exclusively to Black people for housing and the opportunity to start their own businesses. They believed that combining resources would give other Black people the same economic opportunities as white people. This ethos inspired other Black business owners to do the same and created immeasurable wealth during a period of pervasive racial segregation and discrimination.

During his first two decades in Tulsa, Mr. Stradford became a prolific business magnate: his home was worth $125,000 ($1.95M in 2020 dollars), and he owned two dozen rental houses, a 16-room brick apartment building, pool halls, shoeshine parlors, and spas. By the mid-1910s, Mr. Stradford earned over $8,500 (2020) per month in revenue. Then, in 1918, he purchased the crown jewel of his real estate portfolio at 301 North Greenwood Avenue.

The Stradford Hotel

Mr. Stradford founded his namesake hotel to give Black Tulsans access to the same amenities as segregated hotels. “The Stradford would be a monument to the thrift, energy, and business tact of the race in Tulsa [and] to the race in the state of Oklahoma,” he remarked during the hotel’s grand opening. At the time, the Stradford Hotel was the largest Black-owned and operated hotel in the country. It had 54 rooms, a casino, pool hall, bar, and restaurant. Along with the Commodore Cotton Club across the street, the hotel filled Greenwood Avenue with jazz music, giving Black residents the freedom to dance and commune without fear.

Civil Rights Activist

In addition to his business acumen, Mr. Stradford was a fervent advocate for racial and economic equality and a follower of W. E. B. Dubois, co-founder of the NAACP. He sponsored Mr. Dubois’s March 1921 visit to Tulsa as part of Dubois’s nationwide book tour.

Mr. Stradford’s activism included refusing to move to the back of a segregated train car resulting in his expulsion—he would later sue the rail company for discriminating against Black riders. He also fought against police brutality and corruption, championed women’s reproductive rights, and used his legal training to represent numerous Black men who would have faced certain death whether convicted or not. Moreover, Mr. Stradford often organized large groups to protest the lynchings of Black people.

On several occasions, Mr. Stradford’s army of protesters outnumbered the lynch mob saving many Black Tulsans from a horrific death. He collaborated with the editor of the Tulsa Star to write articles about his advocacy, including one entitled “Near Lynch Victim Proved to be an Innocent Man.” Following back-to-back lynchings and the arrest of a Black man—who surely would have been lynched—after winning a bar fight against a white man, Mr. Stradford became even more passionate about police accountability and the scourge of racial violence.

When the City of Tulsa enacted a law mandating housing segregation, Mr. Stradford unsuccessfully lobbied the mayor to veto it and Tulsa’s district attorney to condemn it to the ire of local segregationists. The Oklahoma Supreme Court later invalidated the ordinance, and the United States Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional. But the law remained on the books until the 1960s with police enforcement. Some historians believe Mr. Stradford’s remonstration precipitated the deadly attack a few years later.

“The single worst incident of racial violence in American history.”

On May 31, 1921, police arrested a young Black man who became at risk of being lynched by a white mob. Mr. Stradford had no confidence that the police chief would protect the young man, so he a group and went to the courthouse. Violence broke out, and Mr. Stradford fled to his hotel to protect it. Machine gun fire destroyed the hotel’s windows and façade, and Mr. Stradford fought to fend off the rabid crowd throughout the night. Eventually, the National Guard arrived and attempted to evacuate the Greenwood District. However, Mr. Stradford and other hotel owners refused to abandon their property. The National Guard promised them that their properties would not sustain further damage if they surrendered.

Mr. Stradford and the others sheltering at the Stradford Hotel agreed, but the National Guard confiscated all the money in his hotel and burned it to the ground. A few days later, Mr. Stradford was the first person charged with inciting a riot, for which the penalty was life in prison or death. Well aware of his fate, Mr. Stradford gathered his remaining cash and escaped on a train to his brother’s home in Independence, Kansas.

Shortly after his arrival, the local police showed up at Mr. Stradford’s brother’s house. They asked him to turn himself in, to which Mr. Stradford replied, “Hell no!” Nevertheless, police arrested and booked him in the local jail. While out on bail, the police told Mr. Stradford to appear for court about a week later. Instead, Mr. Stradford and his son Cornelius Francis Stradford, also an attorney, fled to Chicago. He fought extradition to Tulsa and settled in the Windy City, where he remained branded a fugitive from justice for the rest of his life.

Resilience and Remembrance

Mr. Stradford was born into a formerly enslaved family in Kentucky on September 10, 1861. After a lifetime of building the kind of wealth and social status that Black people in that era could only dream of, Mr. Stradford lost everything during those two days in Tulsa. Like all the other Black property owners in Greenwood, insurance companies refused to pay any claims. In the end, Mr. Stradford lost his hard-earned fortune and reputation.

Always a shrewd businessman, Mr. Stradford rebuilt his life and started new businesses in Chicago. While he never regained his former affluence, Mr. Stradford opened a candy store, barbershop, and a small pool hall. His descendants said the injustice Mr. Stradford endured during the Tulsa Massacre always affected him. Mr. Stradford died in Chicago on December 22, 1935.

In 1996, with the help of an Oklahoma legislator, Mr. Stradford’s great-grandson fought to clear his name. The Tulsa district attorney re-examined the case, determined that Mr. Stradford and several other Black were wrongly charged with rioting, and exonerated all of them 75 years after the infamous bloodbath.

Last year, the I.U. McKinney School of Law held a ceremony to honor Mr. Stradford’s legacy. His family members attended the event, where the law school unveiled a portrait of Mr. Stradford that commissioned Indianapolis artist Jay Parnell to paint. Students and visitors can see the portrait on display on the second floor of the law school.

—

Michael Ferron joined the Easterseals Crossroads board of directors in 2016 and has served as ESC’s development committee chair for the past three years. In addition to being a disability advocate, Mr. Ferron is a real estate broker and instructor. His professional and research interests focus on the intersection of race, housing, and poverty. In May 2022, Mr. Ferron will earn a law degree and graduate certificate in civil and human rights law from the Indiana University McKinney School of Law—Mr. Stradford’s alma mater.

No Label at the Table is a gluten and dairy free food company located in Carmel’s Arts and Design District on Main Street. In their dedicated gluten and dairy free facility, employees make everything from wedding cakes to casseroles. Shelly Henley, owner and founder, started the company five years ago when her son who has autism was transitioning to adulthood. When looking to hire, Shelly has focused on employing individuals who have autism.

When Rhonda Wood, an internship development specialist at Easterseals Crossroads, saw the bakery highlighted on the local news one morning, she contacted Shelly. Rhonda has been involved with the College InternXperience program at Easterseals Crossroads since its creation in 2016. The program relies on partnerships with participating area colleges and universities to provide paid internship opportunities for college students who have been diagnosed with autism. The program is designed to provide hands-on experiences for students within their chosen fields of studies.

After the success of her first placement from the program, Shelly has since been a huge supporter and has hosted many culinary interns through the years from Ivy Tech and Ball State.

The employees gain valuable work experience in the kitchen and front of house. The most popular item they make is an oatmeal dream sandwich, but they are busy gearing up for the holidays. They offer allergen free pies and sides for holiday meals that allow everyone to be included at the table.

“Working at No Label at The Table has been a great learning experience for me! I’m getting an associate degree in baking and pastry arts from Ivy Tech and I have been able to get real world experience on how to bake different types of pastries and work around the kitchen. I have also learned about greeting and serving our customers with the delicious pastries we make,” said intern Jose (photo at right).

Rhonda Wood and Suzanne McVey are both college intern development specialists for the College InternXperience progam. Since the program began in 2016, it has provided 93 intern experiences for individuals who attend Ball State, IUPUI, IvyTech, Purdue or UIndy.

Contact us to learn more about our College InternXperience program.