Race and Special Needs

To our Building Bridges Community,

We have all been saddened to see the pain and suffering as America wrestles with issues of racism. This is something that has had a great impact on us at Building Bridges.

Being a person with special needs intersects in a powerful way with race and brings with it unique risks and challenges. The implications of race are amplified for individuals with communication challenges or behavioral issues. We feel that we have an opportunity and obligation to somehow use what we have—our expertise in children with special needs—to do something tangible in response. As a result, our team has identified specific actions that we will be putting in place.

We will be using our skills and platform by doing the following:

Dedicating specific staff continuing education events to the subject of racism.
Incorporating race into our Safety Saturday program for children with ASD and other special needs. This program involves children, siblings, parents/caregivers, and first responders in our community.
Doing outreach to our local first responders to provide training and education.
Working with BBTC families to identify and target skills of unique importance to their children related to race and special needs.

As an organization, we felt a need to take action. We look forward to this opportunity to learn, teach and grow.

Stephanie and Brad Naberhaus

Owners, Building Bridges Therapy Center

multidisciplinary pediatric therapy