{"id":24563,"date":"2019-08-29T16:46:36","date_gmt":"2019-08-29T20:46:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24563"},"modified":"2019-09-05T19:31:57","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T23:31:57","slug":"kerrys-place-marks-45-years-of-helping-families-on-the-autism-spectrum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/kerrys-place-marks-45-years-of-helping-families-on-the-autism-spectrum\/","title":{"rendered":"Kerry\u2019s Place marks 45 years of helping families on the Autism spectrum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Kerry\u2019s Place Autism Services first planted roots, they aimed to give a helping hand to families impacted by autism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the beginning, they had just a few handfuls of client\nfamilies, but from these early days the need has only grown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As they prepare to mark their 45th<\/sup> anniversary\nthis fall, the Aurora-based organization has become one of the nation\u2019s largest\nservice providers for families living with ASD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you hear the number \u201845\u2019 it is quite significant,\u201d says Travis Ambing, Fundraising Manager for Kerry\u2019s Place. \u201cThis is a big year for us. We just finished our twenty-fifth annual golf classic, which was absolutely incredible, and now we\u2019re building up for our Annual General meeting, highlighting supportive individuals and their milestones, what\u2019s going on in their lives, and how Kerry\u2019s Place has been a partner in that growth. For us, it really is about highlighting the services and supports we provide and where we\u2019re going in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kerry\u2019s Place\u2019s 45th<\/sup> anniversary celebration\nand AGM will take place this Thursday, August 29, at the Sheraton Parkway\nToronto North Hotel in Richmond Hill. Free to the public, the event will open\nwith festivities from 6 \u2013 7 p.m., with the business portion of the meeting from\n7 p.m. onward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you think back to 1974, there is such a large need for the services that we provide and that need is only getting larger,\u201d says Mr. Ambing. \u201cFor us at Kerry\u2019s Place, we need to be able to fill that void and what we really want to see is individuals diagnosed with ASD be fully supported and fully participating members of their community. That\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to drive home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLeading up to our fiftieth anniversary, I think we only\nwant to grow from where we are. We want to continue the basics, our programs,\nand we want to be able to build off them and educate the wider community about\nwhat Autism is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to marking their milestone this week, members\nand volunteers at Kerry\u2019s Place are working hard to spread the word about next\nmonth\u2019s Magna Hoedown, which will take place in Aurora September 13 \u2013 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year, Kerry\u2019s Place, in partnership with Autism\nOntario, is one of Hoedown\u2019s 20 partner charities and, as such, will share in\nthe proceeds from York Region\u2019s annual party, which regularly raises more than\nhalf-a-million dollars for community organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Hoedown is one of the largest events in York Region and it is a cornerstone in the community,\u201d says Ambing. \u201cFor Kerry\u2019s place to be able to secure a spot as a beneficiary, it is absolutely beautiful. Proceeds will go to supporting incredible programs, evidence-based clinical practices, family and sibling support groups, educational workshops and things of that nature. For us, we\u2019re able to put the money where it is most needed. We\u2019re teaming up with Autism Ontario in raising funds and awareness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was quite exciting that when I stepped into the role,\nAutism Ontario plays a large role in the realm of Autism within Ontario,\nobviously, but so does Kerry\u2019s Place. We\u2019re a support service organization, so\nit is quite natural for us to team up with them in supporting the community as\na whole. For us, it is much nicer to be able to push one message to the\ncommunity, one event to the community, merging together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All funds allocated through the 2019 Hoedown will go directly to supporting individuals with ASD. One in 68 individuals are diagnosed with ASD and Mr. Ambing says that Kerry\u2019s Place is focusing on making people understand that point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll proceeds are staying within our Central Region,\u201d he\nsays. \u201cSome of the programs that will benefit are evidence-based clinical\ntherapies, educational workshops around ASD, respite care and social groups,\nand even day and employment supports for individuals which, for us at Kerry\u2019s\nPlace, is quite exciting,\u201d he says. \u201cit allows us to direct the money to where\nit is most needed. We have been operating since 1974 and we serve over 8,000\nindividuals, over 250 are in our residential services, so there are two sides\nto it: our residential services and our community supports, which encompass\nlife skills training.  We have over 70\nresidences across Kerry\u2019s Place, in southern Ontario, and we keep on growing.\nIt is quite exciting to be able to serve the community at large the way we do,\nand we\u2019re hoping to continue that growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo receive this recognition [from Magna] in our\nmilestone year is massive for us. Hoedown is going to be incredibly fun, yes,\nand for everyone attending it will be quite exciting, but for Kerry\u2019s Place,\nwith that fun comes a particular outcome and that outcome is to bolster our supports\nand services for our community. Although we are going to have a great time\nbringing volunteers in to help support the event and really drive the community\nto come together and celebrate what Kerry\u2019s Place is doing and what Autism\nOntario is doing and what Hoedown is doing in the area, it comes down to being\nable to provide supports like family and sibling support groups, respite care\nand social groups. We\u2019re incredibly grateful that we have been able to come on\nboard for this second year in a row as a beneficiary of the Hoedown.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Kerry\u2019s Place Autism Services first planted roots, they aimed to give a helping hand to families impacted by autism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2019-08-28-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6ob","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-30 10:38:36","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}