Shared Goals

Since its establishment in 1988, The Center for the Homeless (CFH) has become a national model. With its vision of "taking the best community resources and making them inclusive of our neediest citizens," it has become a hub of services for its many guests. Memorial was one of CFH's first partners, initially handling all the Center's laundry. The hospital next assisted with the development of CFH Landscaping, a commercial landscape maintenance business that employs homeless and formerly homeless persons, and became its first customer. Memorial's role at CFH has continued to expand in response to the needs articulated by the Center.

It was one such need that attracted Suzanne Makielski, MS, OTR, Clinical Manager of Occupational Therapy Services at Memorial Hospital, and later became the catalyst for the PEDS program. In May 1996 Suzanne participated in one of Memorial's community plunges (www.qualityoflife.org/ich/plunge/plunge.htm). The topic of this particular plunge was "housing." The group spent the morning at The Center for the Homeless where they listened to Center guests speak about their experiences. Lou Nanni, the Center's Director at the time, spoke about their "continuum of care" approach and discussed how the Center worked to best meet the needs of its guests. Suzanne remembered, "I heard Lou speak and I was moved by his presentation. When he talked about the continuum of services I recognized a gap. There was nothing offered to children 0 to 3 years old. After the meeting, I approached Lou about my observations and he was very interested. This set the wheels in motion." Several meetings were held between Memorial and CFH staff to discuss the needs of children 0-3 years old. The results of the meetings encouraged Suzanne, Beth Ann Shoup, R.N., and Victoria Vierling, OTR, to approach Memorial's Community Health Action Group (CHAG) to ask for funding through the Memorial Tithing or Community Benefit Fund (www.qualityoflife.org/learning.htm) program. Beth Ann and Victoria both worked at Memorial's Regional Center for Children's Developmental Progress, and their involvement in the creation of the program was also critical. Memorial agreed to fund training for CFH staff to complete developmental screenings at the Center and for Memorial staff to provide screenings on-site as well.

Once this initial funding was secure, a high period of collaboration began to get PEDS off the ground. Victoria and Carol Graham, a speech therapist at the Regional Center for Children's Developmental Progress, offered extensive training to CFH staff, and Suzanne and other occupational therapists from her department were active in this early mission to prepare people working at the Homeless Center to screen young children for developmental delays, monitoring growth and activity that was age-specific. As the training progressed, however, CFH staff raised the concern that they wouldn't have time to complete enough screenings to feel expert in their application. At a luncheon meeting Suzanne, Beth Ann, and Beth Morlock, Director of Family Services at the Center for the Homeless, met to discuss this issue. Suzanne suggested field placement students as a solution. These students could help with the screenings, working with the children consistently on developmental concerns. Through this idea another valuable partner was brought to the program; Ann Chapleau, MS, OTR, Director of Occupational Therapy Services at Madison Center, placed two full-time student interns at PEDS, sharing some of her own expertise through supervision.

With interns in place the collaborative base of the program broadened even more. Beth Morlock points to this wide partnership as one of the most positive results of the program's inception: "The beauty of it, in my mind originally, was that there was so much cooperation…We had an idea for one project, and as we collaborated on that project the idea for something much better…evolved. And it evolved through conversations, through the sharing of ideas, and a willingness of all involved to really put themselves out…to start something for the children at the Center for the Homeless." Ann brought her experience of psycho-social occupational therapy, while Suzanne came from a clinical background. The Regional Center for Children's Developmental Progress, where Beth Ann, Victoria, and Carol worked, specialized in multi-disciplinary evaluation services for infants and children, important expertise that could be applied to PEDS' target audience. Beth Morlock, in her role at the CFH, remained the in-house liaison for the program there. Everyone seemed to fit a unique need of the program. With this structure in place, PEDS began the real work of helping children learn and grow.