Do you love Pause, good food and LIVE music? We’ve got the perfect event for you! Hamilton's Urban Backyard presents: A Party for Pause!

Family bonding and connection, lasting memories, predictability and stability, promotion of family unity, and increased resilience and hopefulness - these are all things annual traditions create and why we love being able to provide these opportunities throughout the year for Pause families.

On paper, these events are planned thoughtfully with fun activity stations, visits from special guests, take home resources and a plethora of volunteer names on our rosters. Yet, in person the experience is something our staff has often described as “magical”.

Dreaming big, thinking differently and making the impossible happen - that’s what Pause is all about. Oftentimes, special needs families have filtered through many different programs before they find Pause. They’ve been told her elementary aged child can’t attend special needs camp because they aren’t potty trained. They’ve been asked not to come back to Sunday school because their child causes “disruptions.” They’ve been called to pick their child up at every program they’ve ever tried because the staff/volunteers don’t have the resources and tools to properly care for them. We wish these stories weren’t true, but they are stories we hear just about weekly.

If there’s one word we throw around at Pause quite frequently, it’s growth. It has shown up in the amount of families we serve and the growing number of volunteers partnering with Pause. We’ve seen incredible growth of our donors and community partners who support and sustain programming. Even recently, we have started planning around the expansion of Pause programs as we look to launch in different counties. One area of growth we don’t talk about much is the growth of our Pause Board of Directors. Currently we have 7 Board members (and growing!) - all coming from different backgrounds, experiences and expertise. They all hold one thing in common - their love, passion and dedication to the mission of Pause.

When you volunteer for an organization, you may have some expectations for your experience. Maybe you’re looking for service hours for your school organization, professional development for your future career, or maybe you’re recently retired looking for a way to give back. No matter your expectation, what many people don’t anticipate is how the experience will affect them personally.

As we reflect on 2023, we take a moment to reflect on the incredible journey we've embarked on together to support Pause. With deep gratitude and heartfelt appreciation, we extend our warmest thanks to you for believing in our mission to empower and uplift children with disabilities.

Your generosity has been the driving force behind our ability to make a real difference in the lives of our kiddos. Through your support, we've been able to provide tailored programs, specialized resources, and an intentional environment that fosters rest, support, connection and fun.

Every year in December, our team comes together for an intentional strategic week to talk through the different programs we provide. While the conversations vary from year to year, the consistent theme remains - strategic conversations to move Pause forward all while having fun!

We wish you all a safe holiday season and a happy New Year! Love, Pause

During the interview process, Pause asks the question, “What’s the difference between an event and an experience?” It’s an important question for us because it’s the root of how we design each event we host and helps candidates understand our culture and what we are looking for.

We want parents, kids and volunteers to walk in and feel our extravagant welcome. We want to know the names of everyone attending and intentionally use them to make people feel special, welcomed and included. We want kids to experience our events by using all of their senses to explore and discover the different activities curated just for them. Since our programming year started on July 1, 2023 Pause has hosted 7 Parent’s Day/Night Out Events, Thrive Night Events and Family Fun events.

When you sign up to be a Pause Buddy, you aren’t doing us a favor. You are telling a kiddo, “I see you. I want to spend time with you. I will show up for you.” Our buddies are the reason Pause is able to serve a wide variety of kids!

At events, kids with assigned buddies join in on the fun with a group of peers and their built-in best bud. If they need a break to get some energy out, no problem! Buddies love to visit the Backyard just as much as our kids - it’s our indoor gross motor room equipped with swings, a trampoline, zip line and more! When kids need a quiet space, buddies will join them for a break in one of our Reflections rooms - more commonly known as our “Ocean” and “Nature” rooms. These rooms are relaxing spaces featuring under-the-sea and outdoor nature theming and are calming to little bodies and brains by their design and are available to kids any time they choose!

You hear a lot about what we do and why, but you don’t always get to see the team that is behind the scenes making it all happen! Everyone has a title and a job description, but what do the staff really do at Pause? This month, let’s find out more about our Family Strategy team!

The exponential growth Pause has had over the last two years has been unexpected and has really taken our team by surprise. A typical business or nonprofit growth in its first two years is about 20% (FORA Financial). In our first two years with official nonprofit status, our enrollment growth for new families has reached 200% with 101 families enrolling last fiscal year. Fun fact - 20 new children were enrolled in Pause in one week this month!

Oftentimes when people think of Pause, they think of the kiddos we serve. While they certainly drive our mission and are the reason we exist, the “how” of our program is our volunteer base! In other words, our program is made possible by a group of people who have committed to serving kids and families with disabilities.

Representation in books, movies, careers, advertisements and media matters for all people, especially those with disabilities. Growing up, children with extra needs hear a lot about what they can’t do as those in helping professions spend a lot of time focusing on deficits, missed milestones and gaps in learning or development. In fact, psychiatrist and author William Dodson, MD, estimates that by age 12, children who have ADHD receive 20,000 more negative messages from parents, teachers, and other adults than their friends and siblings who do not have ADHD. This negative messaging can lead to social isolation, poor self-esteem and poor self-image.

As you may know, when Pause first launched out as a nonprofit in July 2021, we did so with a gifted 8,200 sq ft of space inside Center Pointe Christian Church. We officially had a home base and our team was over the moon excited to host in-house events which eliminated all the packing, transporting and unpacking of our activities and supplies for each event we hosted.

Special needs parents can spend an additional 30-40 hours a week in care alone of a child with complex needs. Most can suffer from physical fatigue, emotional stress and/or emotional upset or guilt. They are tired. They need a break.

At Pause, our vision is for each child to be valued, loved and appreciated for their individual gifts and for each family to be given the space to share their family’s joys and hardships. When families link arms with Pause they have opportunity for better outcomes in caregiver stress, family functioning and resilience.

To be the light means in times of darkness you offer hope, encouragement, kindness and compassion. It can also mean taking the weight off - showing up when things feel heavy and simply helping to carry what they hold.

Where others are struggling with self-doubt, self-esteem and self-love, being the light offers a way to help them to regain confidence, joy, connection and worth so they can shine again - and - it’s helping them believe it’s possible in the first place. Light helps us feel safe and secure. It can signify new beginnings, hope, and opportunity. It lights the way, gives direction and exposes new possibilities.

At Pause, we want kids to be and feel safe and loved. We want them to be seen, heard and understood. The Pause Way of interacting with children is rooted in growing resilience. When interacting with kids, Pause staff and volunteers use trauma responsive interactions strategies. Through this approach, we model and teach kids to be present, stay curious and regulate their bodies and emotions.

Some kiddos with special needs have limited opportunities to connect with safe adults outside their families. Clubs and organizations outside of school aren’t always accessible or curate felt safety for kids who are often misunderstood. Sometimes caregivers fear that other adults won’t be able to handle the big emotions that may come up or that there may be physical or communicative limitations that make it difficult. Dropping kids off at Pause events is different. Why? Hands down because of our volunteers.