Project Amor was founded about 40 years ago, by the father of a child with Down Syndrome. He was inspired after he realized what a struggle it was to find care and services for his kid, because no agency spoke Spanish.
The organization now only hires bilingual people, and according to Program Directly Shea-Lynn Tourney, out of the current 147 families involved in Project Amor, 53 percent are Spanish-speaking.
That's what makes the program unique, Tourney said.
Project Amor reaches out to children with developmental and often times cognitive disabilities, and provides services about once a week for an hour over a course of three to six months, or in some cases years until the child is ready to be discharged from the program. One child has been with the organization for nine years already.
Some of these services include coordinating case management duties, such as speech therapy, physical therapy and nutritional consulting. The staff members at Project Amor provide the early intervention services directly. The staff members are highly-trained in child development, and show parents strategies to help their children develop where needed, such as in muscle tone. All of this is done in the child's, "natural environment," whether it be their home or their day-care center.
"But it's not what happens when we're there that hour," Tourney said, "It's the hours in between." The staffers figure out what the parent's lifestyles are like, and create a plan for them to help their children without it interrupting their lives.
Project Amor holds events throughout the year to reward their families for active involvement in the program and with their children. This Saturday will be the United Way Days of Caring event, where volunteering companies will give bags of food to the families.
A lot of the parents like to come to the events to see the older children there as well.
"They like to see older kids and think, 'will mine be like that someday?'" said Tourney.
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