SPECIAL PEOPLE IN NORTHEAST INC SPIN CENTER

Notes from the nonprofit

Hope is about expecting life to get better. Hopeful people have a vision for a positive future, are courageous and are mobilized to do things others may not believe is possible. Rather than simply being an idealistic view of how things will turn out, hope demands energy and an action plan to arrive at the positive result that is envisioned. There are legendary survival stores about how hope is the difference between the people that survive terrifying calamities or horrendous life situations and those that do not. Researchers tell us that hope may lead to a longer life. Families and people come to SPIN because they want tomorrow to be better than today., They see a better future for themselves and ask us to be hopeful with and for them and to put hope into action leading to A Life of Possibilities. Last year, we reached out to families and individuals in the Lehigh Valley community and asked them to believe that SPIN could provide people first services and supports in their community that would enable them to learn new things, have new opportunities, live in a beautiful new home, be healthier, get a job and be full members of their communities. We also asked many who had previously worked with those individuals and many new employment candidates from the area to see the positive opportunities in working for SPIN. SPIN is now providing people first services and supports for 72 adolescents and adults through the performance excellence of 70 employees in the Lehigh Valley. Without the energy and enthusiasm that hope brings, it is doubtful any of this could have taken place. Everywhere you look at SPIN you can see evidence of hope. It is in the face of a four-year-old with autism who has just used his first three word phrase to communicate and in the faces of his parents when the teacher tells them the story of how it happened. Hope is present at the job interview a young woman with Intellectual Disability just nailed, and is definitely present when her Employment Specialist "high fives" her in the parking lot when the interview is over. Hope is there when a Direct Support Professional supports a person who is pre-diabetic to exercise and eat more healthfully and his Nurse informs him his lab work is so good he no longer requires medication. Hope is so present throughout SPIN, that we have identified it as one of SPIN's three inspirational values. Love, Hope, Grow. Together, as a community, we love, we hope and we grow and believe the future is brighter because of it. Thank you for your support of SPIN. Kathleen McHale President and CEO