Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987), The Philosophy of Andy Warhol

We have had the privilege of partnering with special education directors and their colleagues to strengthen the support services they have in their community. Their stories are unique but similar. For example, they share that the speech-language pathologist moved out of the region or is temporarily unavailable; they have been recruiting for three years with little luck; they received funding to help more students; they lost funding and need a financially friendly way to continue services, they need help with supervising their valued speech and language assistants, they would like to build capacity in their schools through training days and consultation; or that they simply want to incorporate more speech and language services into their already strong support team.

Through our circles of care, we offer solutions to all of the above - both through our on-line software and through adding a warm-body to the community itself. It is not uncommon for our partner to say, "Well this sounds exciting, but I will have to find a way to tell the staff." We smile because we know about ‘change'.

Change...to the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse...to the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.

-King Whitney Jr.

Maybe it is hard to explain to the staff that the speech therapist will ‘beam into the school' each afternoon to play animated activities with the kids, run a seminar, or chat with teachers. Maybe it is hard to explain that although they do not see a speech-language pathologist in the region right now, one will appear on the door step next week and stay until the assessments are done. Maybe it is hard to explain that students, teachers, and parents get to open a virtual backpack that contains games, notes, and possibly a video message from the therapist. But - maybe it will be the most invigorating, replenishing moment you have had in a long time.