When we say “Back to School” you might think of an exciting shopping trip with your kiddos for new clothes and supplies. When families who have kiddos with differing needs hear “Back to School” they may find themselves immediately anxious and stressed dreading the shopping trip that will throw their kiddo into sensory overload.

Volunteers are the core of Pause. And when we say core - we mean it. They are the foundation of everything we do and give Pause the capacity to support hundreds of families each year. Because volunteers (and interns) gift their time, they allow us to keep our staff size small. This means we can focus our funding less on payroll and more on Pause events, support and resources for families. Sustainable programming is essential because schedules and predictability are everything to kiddos who thrive on routine. Long standing programming also allows us time to build trust and relationships with parents - and that means they have someone in their corner for the long haul.

Did you know that the four pillars of Pause - rest, support, connection, and fun are intentional strategies based on national data and over 7500 hours of our Pause team talking to caregivers? We provide different resources and events that fit into each of these categories because we know a family can move from surviving to thriving and have better overall outcomes if they are getting a balance of each of these. If you’ve checked out the Resource Hub on our website, you already know this is a priority for us!

What does it mean to really belong? To feel accepted? To feel valued? To feel loved? For special needs families, finding this sense of belonging can be an uphill climb. After the extra 35-40 hours per week in care for a child with complex needs, finding different clubs, groups, and sports who understand your child can feel overwhelming and exhausting. When you find that niche, that sweet spot, it’s like the pieces all into place.

Something Pause doesn’t often talk about are the stories we hear from families about their journey to find a faith community. They have shared past experiences and what keeps them from their neighborhood churches, synagogues or mosques. They have shared the list of questions they often have like...

“Do they have an environment that’s safe for my child?”

“Do they have trained staff to help my child learn?”

“Do they have a ministry dedicated to special needs?”

“Will they ask my family to not return because they can’t handle my child?”

Isolation. Many special needs families find themselves isolated in their communities. Why? While in some ways it feels super complicated, it really boils down to something super simple. It’s difficult to find people who understand - who get the special needs life - because it really does take living it to fully grasp it. While most of us have 7-8 natural supports we can call on in times of need, that number falls in half almost immediately for special needs parents with most of those supports diminishing over time. Sitters are hard to find, schedules are full of appointments and sometimes just pure exhaustion after a long day makes maintaining relationships difficult.

This is a BIG week in Pause world! As most of you know, we are in the process of launching out on our own and have filed to become our own 501c3. On Thursday, July 1 Pause will officially become Pause for Parents, Play for Kids, Inc!

This exciting news brings SO many different ways to serve special needs families in creative and innovative ways. One of the large projects that Pause has been working on in the background is a NEW Pause website! We are excited to announce that pauseforparents.org will launch on Thursday, July 1 as well!

You could say that along with our kiddos, Pause is a little neurodiverse too! Pause has been fortunate enough to have the flexibility to do things a little bit differently to help fill in gaps that might be more difficult for typical programs to meet. We love our differences (see a theme here?) and use them to create change. With the launch of our own 501c3, we are gaining even more freedom to bring out the character of who we are.

Okay, okay. We know the risk of a statement like “when you volunteer with Pause you alter the course of a person’s life forever” is that it could resemble a corny Hallmark movie line. #DontComeAtUs The truth is, we have real life stories hitting our inbox every single week. Sometimes we see a family change in tremendous ways and sometimes the volunteers themselves change.

One thing Pause can promise is growth! Daily we watch families reach goals, learn new things and change the trajectory of their lives. Monthly we witness our volunteers expanding their understanding of the community in which they live and the impact they have in it. And yearly, our annual data shows the advancement of the program overall. Since the inception of Pause, we have grown over 2000%. A number that doesn’t make sense for a grassroots initiative that started with one conversation in a local Panera, but one that we are grateful for.

All kiddos learn differently - whether they have differing needs or not. Some kids would prefer to learn their spelling words by jumping on a trampoline, while others may prefer a quiet and calm place. Some kids would prefer to learn about measurement and weight in a textbook, while others would rather learn by doing a hands-on activity.

The CAN DO Directory is all about making connections. But, how do we make connections and what difference do they actually make? These weekly emails are distributed through several platforms and hundreds of people (aka YOU) read about Pause every week. Why? Because YOU want to find ways to give back and meet the needs of Pause families. Because you share and forward these emails along - YOU have made an intentional connection that brings BIG change. Recently, one CAN DO member shared one post that one neighborhood saw. The benefit? Lives will be changed.

Did you know that one of the staples of the Pause program is feedback? Pause values feedback SO much that we gather it every chance we get - after every event or opportunity we will send a survey to capture highs, lows, and opportunities for growth. We believe that the only way to truly meet families where they are is to give them voice and choice to what Pause provides. Pause continually adapts to meet the needs of all our Pause members - including families, volunteers, and community members.

Family Fun. What does it really mean? Why is it important and one of the Pause core values? Family fun creates happy memories, builds self-esteem and strengthens family bonds. Spending so much time in isolation can cause families to feel alone and disconnected from their communities. That’s why we have created events to bring families together in a safe, exciting way!

Kiddos with disabilities are statistically more supported by professionals and agencies when they are young. Why? It might not be what you think!

As you know, Pause supports all families who have kiddos with differing needs - including those with chronic medical conditions. Any caregiver who has spent time in the hospital with their child will understand the constant stress, anxiety and lack of sleep that comes with an extended hospital stay.

Have you ever used a professional service where they gave you a cookie-cutter list of ways they support families? Did you ever find that the services they provided didn’t actually help or support your family? We get it. Life circumstances don’t always fit into a neat box where you can fill out a form and get relief. At Pause, we have ditched the list of options for the simple question, “How can we help?” Fortunately, Pause has the ability to be creative and innovative about how to help families and meet them where they are because of our CAN DO Network!

At Pause, we highly value family and creating meaningful relationships. Once you are a part of the Pause community, you’re family. Several years ago, our team of interns coined the hashtag #OnceAPauserAlwaysAPauser to describe our tribe of families, volunteers and community partners.

We can all probably relate to the struggle of finding fun and safe things to do over the past year. For Pause families, finding safe environments for runners, places accessible to wheelchairs or places to go that are sensory friendly can be difficult to access - Covid times or not. At Pause, we’re all about fun - it’s one of our core values! Family and traditions are also important to us because we believe they nurture family connections, give us a sense of belonging and help us create memories. That’s why we created our annual Easter Eggstravaganza event for families to look forward to each year!

Word on the street is that Pause is getting an office upgrade! Woohoo! As you know, moving comes with exciting anticipation and also the stress of having a space for all. the. things. in the meantime! Pause quickly found itself in desperate need of a moving or storage pod to have a space for all of our event supplies, office supplies, and furniture. Enter: our incredibly generous CAN DO Network!