A Proud History - 2000's

The Community Services Center changed its name to The Growing Place at Heartspring, continuing to help children with a variety of challenges. Services offered by the Growing Place include developmental delay, learning difference, hearing and speech problems, physical disabilities and behavior disorders.

Gary Singleton, Ph.D. began his tenure as Heartspring President and Chief Executive Officer. His goal for Heartspring is to touch more lives and provide more miracles to more children today and tomorrow, here and around the world

The Heartspring School Workshop was opened in April 2003 offering real life work experiences for students as they gain skill sets necessary for their future employment upon transitioning out of the Heartspring School. Area businesses donate tasks for Heartspring students to complete, giving each student in the Workshop to enhance multiple skills.

 

 

 

 

Heartspring World Reach is established as an initiative to promote excellence, innovation and dedication in serving children with special needs through professional development, outreach to children and building international relationships to provide support and resources to children worldwide.

Three special educators from Slovanski Brod, Croatia spend two weeks at Heartspring learning about Heartspring programs. Their organization, The Association for the Stimulation and Healthy Development of Children and Youth, was also awarded the Shaklee Program Award.

Dr. Gary Singleton, Heartspring President and CEO, traveled to China to participate in the international China-U.S. Conference on Educating Students with Special Needs.

Tian (Hope) Huiping, founder of Xingxingyu (Stars and Rain Education Institute for Autism in Beijing, China traveled to Heartspring as part of the 2004 Shaklee Summer session. Huiping received the Shaklee Program Award for Stars and Rain.

 

Vladimir Benkovic, director of the Center for Autism in Rijeka, Croatia visited Heartspring in January 2005. He successfully petitioned the Croatia Ministry of Education for funding to come to Wichita and see how Heartspring works with children with special needs.

Heartspring entered a sister organization agreement with Stars and Rain Education Institute for Autism in China.  This agreement offers the opportunity for additional support through a cultural and informational exchange between Heartspring staff and the teachers at Stars and Rain. Three teachers from Stars and Rain, including founder Hope Huiping, spend two weeks observing Heartspring programs.

Heartspring staff traveled to Croatia to present on Heartspring programs. Special educators from Croatia, France, Belgium, Romania, Sweden and Austria took part in autism training by Heartspring specialists. Staff also met with representatives from the Ministry of Education, The Center for Autism, Rehabilitation Centers and the Institute of Cerebral Palsy.

The Heartspring logo was updated in 2006 to reflect a more child-friendly appearance and color scheme. The font selected complimented the Heartspring “heart” icon. The colors selected provoke caring and soothing thoughts representative of Heartspring’s work with children with disabilities.

Rodica Comardici, director of Special School No. 11 in Bucharest, Romania, visited Heartspring receiving training and sharing her story with Heartspring staff through Heartspring World Reach. Comardici gave a presentation to Heartspring staff and the Wichita community detailing the state of special education in Romania. While at Heartspring she also received the Shaklee Program Award for her contribution to children with special needs.

Two Heartspring educators presented at the World Congress on Autism in Cape Town, South Africa to an international audience about Heartspring programs focused on improving academic, language, social and fine-motor skills while building life skills for children with special needs.

A new Multi-Sensory Environment Room funded by the KT Wiedemann Foundation was opened in September 2006. The goal of the MSE room is to provide expanded therapeutic and educational experiences for children with autism and other disabilities using lights, textures, smells and sound.

The Heartspring Workshop was renamed The Vocational Training Program.

The Growing Place at Heartspring was renamed Heartspring Pediatric Services.

In January, Heartspring launched its revamped website, www.heartspring.org. This site averages 10,000 hits per month and was named one of 2007s turbo-charged websites in the Non-Profit Times April 1 issue. Other organizations included in this article were the American Cancer Society, New York City Coalition Against Hunger and March of Dimes.

 

Forbes.com featured Heartspring School in a special round up of education facilities for children with autism, What $70,000 a Year Tuition Buys An Autistic Child. Part of a special section on the Rise of Autism, this feature focused on Heartspring’s relationship with the Wichita community and the advantage of students gaining real world experiences in a variety of social settings.

 

The Shaklee Institute and Shaklee Teacher Award was changed to the Heartspring Award for Innovation and Creativity in Special Education.

 

As a result of her positive experience with Heartspring, Merry Baura, founder of Action for Autism and the Open Door school in New Delhi, India agreed to a sister school relationship with Heartspring. This is Heartspring’s second sister school with Stars and Rain Institute for Autism in Beijing, China.

 

Strengthening the new relationship between Heartspring and Action for Autism in India, Heartspring executives traveled to India in November to initiate an education alliance. Hoping to provide better training and support opportunities, the Heartspring International Alliance Program will feature online training seminars.

 

Heartspring was featured in a special issue of the Wichita Business Journal titled Legacies. This publication highlighted 14 Wichita business that are an important part of the community.