ANOTHERWORD SERIES

September 15th, 2021

Thirteen years ago today, we taped a handmade sign to the backdoor of a small building in the middle of a strip mall parking lot, and waited anxiously for our four clients to arrive. We were thrilled to have a space that we could start our new adventure. Shilpa and I had been planning and preparing for this moment for over a year. We were raising kids, working, and dreaming about a place where we could offer intense speech and language therapy to all stroke survivors. A place where clients could continue to find their words after their insurance ran out.

That was September 15th, 2008. We didn’t know what was ahead, but we believed that stroke survivors were getting the short end of the stick with their speech therapy visits. Many had so much potential, but they were only getting a few hours of speech therapy a week. There was no way they were going to be able to make significant progress with such limited intervention. We were intrigued by the constraint induced therapy that the PT’s and OT’s were using at the hospital, and believed that intense therapy was the way to go. So, we called up four clients that were previously discharged. We told them we wanted to try an intensive speech therapy model, and we charged them $10/hr. That first boot camp we had incredible outcomes, and our clients were thrilled to be able to get back to the work of stroke recovery.

Over the past 13 years we have grown in more ways than one:

1) We have grown from 2 employees to a staff of 11.

2) We started with one volunteer and now have utilized over 1,186 volunteers.

3) We have provided over 160,000 hours of speech therapy.

4)We have increased from four clients a bootcamp to approximately 100 clients every bootcamp.

5) We have added music therapy

The journey has not always been easy. We have made mistakes. We’ve made bad decisions. We’ve had clients pass away. We’ve been overworked and stressed. We’ve questioned ourselves constantly. We’ve wondered if we were doing the right thing.

But, when you walk in this space, when you hear the laughter, the cheers, the HOPE -when you see clients connect with each other -when a caregiver shares a small victory- when a client gives a “WHOOP WHOOP” or a “BABOOM” because they got it right. When a student sends you an email sharing how this organization impacted their life - when a client goes back to work -when the team brainstorms new ideas- when a client cheers on another client -…. All of these things remind me that we are doing what matters- we are changing lives and it’s so worth fighting for.

To anyone that has been a part of our journey, we thank you. You have shaped and modeled this organization into what it is today. You have helped us grow as an organization, as clinicians, as people, You all deserve a piece of our birthday cake. You all are changing lives… One Word At A Time.

-Shelley