A Spark of Possibilities

Minnesota first sensory gym and respite center for disabled children! This is a service that is desperately needed due to the lack of social support and inclusive play for children with disabilities and their families. Currently in Minnesota there are very few accessible indoor play areas for children with disabilities. There is only 1 respite center in MN and they only provide hospice/ respite to children with shortened life expectancies. So where do families go for INCLUSIVE play or for needed respite services? A Spark of Possibilities is the place for these needed social supports, inclusive play and respite services for children with disabilities. 

Estimates of children with special health needs in Minnesota range from 160,000 to 200,000.  In Minnesota 1 in 6 children have a disability, and 1 in 5 families have a child with special needs. These children and their  families are more isolated due to lack of social and inclusive community outlets. Parents of children with disabilities and special needs have a higher rate of caregiver burn out, fatigue, stress, insomnia, and mental health symptoms due to the lack of supports and inclusive play area for this population. We want to help bridge the gap in supports for children with disabilities

Our Mission: Our mission is to provide all school aged youth of all abilities with a cornerstone for development. To provide a safe and engaging environment for children to grow socially, emotionally, spiritually, physically, and intellectually.

Children will be able to access several sensory rooms to help with building skills, behavioral supports and support a variety of sensory needs. Children will be supervised and supported at the center as we have specially trained staff. We will provide respite services for families, day camps to help with a variety of skill building across all abilities, specialized services to support all needs (from medically fragile, behavioral, and cognitive supports).  

Our sensory rooms: our gym has a variety of gross motor activities for children to use. This helps support and develop motor coordination, increasing muscle tone, bilateral coordination, cross lateral coordination and balance. The glow room: is for visual stimulation, color recognition and provides a calming environment. The tactile room: provides a variety of textures to explore, sensory bins to interact with, items to build with; this provides support with meeting sensory needs (seeking to avoiding), building fine motor skills, building fine motor strength and imagination. The music room: provides stimulation through music and movement, rhythm and timing, vibroacoustic sensory and can help increase communication abilities. Along with arts and craft room for children to explore the arts, imagination, while meeting sensory needs, building fine motor skills and helping to increase communication abilities. 

Our team: The founder is a Public Health Nurse who has served this vulnerable population within the community for the past 9 years. She has seen and heard the struggles of these families over the past 9 years. These families don't have inclusive play areas for children with needs, they can't find staffing to help provide needed supports for their child, and respite providers (in home or camps) have long waiting lists. This population of children are the most vulnerable and have the most needs to help support them. The founder is expanding the current business to provide These needed supports to this large population. 

Nursing staff: We have a nursing supervisor who has worked in the field for 6 years and has a background with supervision, home care, and rehab. Other nursing staff have worked for in a variety of settings with children with special needs. Nursing staff will be able to provide care to medically fragile children. Nursing staff will be on site during business hours to provide supports to all children. 

Direct care: All staff have a heart for working with children with disabilities. They have additional training to provide supports for children with behavioral and cognitive needs. All staff will have BLS and first aid training. 

Children who need supports will be able to access services based on their level of care. Their level of care will determine staff to child ratio's to ensure that each child's needs are best supported when accessing A Spark of Possibilities. Ratios: 1:1 is for medically fragile, or cognitive delays with significant behaviors; 1:3 is for severely cognitive delayed or cognitive delays with behavioral needs who need  intensive supports; and 1:5 is for children with cognitive and behavioral needs who don't need as intensive supports to meet their needs.