We started offering our services a few years ago working with children and teenagers with different diagnoses… Autism Spectrum, Asperger's Syndrome, Sensory Processing Disorder, ADHD, Developmental Delay, ODD, OCD, behavioral and emotional challenges, early childhood trauma, among others. 

 

It has not always been easy, but every second has been worth it.

 

When we opened our doors, it was not literally like that. ILUME started working more than anything in schools and special education centers, and it wasn't really easy because while we were an external organism and theoretically we should count with all the autonomy and support to realize our projects. Reality was different. Ilume started working inside an already established institution with students that we're already enrolled in, which didn't give us exactly the ability to take all the decisions we would have wanted. As a result, we started using the work plan they already had and, even though we were seeing results in the classroom and academic abilities of our children, we could also notice clearly that we were not making much progress in the behavior and emotional area. It was then when we started making changes in the work plan and including new ideas that we considered could complement the work. 

 

We firmly believed that we should definitely speak with these children's parents so they could be at least a little bit aware of what we were doing and maybe even possibly give them a couple of suggestions so they could be able to continue this work at home and make possible seeing a little bit more results. 

It was one day that we finally decided this kind of communication was fundamental that we decided to speak with the mom of one of our children back then. 

 

This mom had no idea of what we had been working with her little one, but when we started explaining to her a little bit more about what we were doing and our goals she couldn't help smiling as she was just coming to understand everything. Her child was known at the school because of his aggressive behavior, looking for any kind of attention from any adult. Our work plan was focused specifically in changing these behaviors for different, more socially acceptable, ones that would get him another kind of attention from the adults and at the same time reduce the rejection he got from his age group. All of this was having an effect at home with his little sister. 

 

The mom was really surprised because of the changes she was saying in her children's interactions and even in the park with her son and other children. While she used to be always on alert, just waiting for the moment her child was going to hit someone, now she was saying her child played peacefully with the little neighbors… 

 

What impacted her the most and later on she confessed she never imagined living had been the day before at pick up time from school when she heard another child telling his parents 'look, that's my friend' when speaking about her child. 

 

Hearing that was extremely important for us, because we had been noticing that the other children would look for him during class, including him in the activities and dynamics. They would invite this child to sit with them and play during recess… At the same time, our little one was gradually focusing more on that instead of on upsetting the adults. We could see the difference on his face and his smile when given the chance to belong and to be a friend. That's maybe something he had never experienced before and now he was realizing things could be like that constantly. 

Our child had probably not realized this before and considered the negative attention the only one he could aspire to get. 

 

Internalizing that things could improve was changing his life, but also the lives of those around him. 

 

The work with this little one not only was improving his situation, but also opened a world of possibilities to his mom, one that maybe she had never even considered. The situation with her child had not given her much hope before, but seeing the changes and being able to imagine what it could get to be was opening her eyes to a whole new horizon. 

 

Once the communication with the mom got established, a constant cooperation started between the school, the family and us, and we can proudly say that that specific first case set the standard of what we want to achieve on each child and with each of the families we work with. 

 

We can't label a child with the worst possible forecast under the impression that the situation is so hard to improve that it's not even worth trying. We can't judge a parent or family just because when we see them they are always tired and exhausted. We must be willing to provide the school and teachers with our cooperation so we can collectively trace the best future that a child can have, and even then never say 'this is as good as it can get' because we never know how much a case can improve. 

 

Of course that was one of our first cases, but after that one we got so many others that we are just as proud of. This little boy and his family opened our eyes to what we firmly believe ILUME's work must be. 

 

This was only the start. We kept working inside other institutions and continued offering our therapeutic services in the children's homes, until later on we were finally able to have our own space and start working with different groups, programs, and services. Sensory groups, communication skills and emotional intelligence programs, tutoring and language classes, emotional therapy, parent coaching, respite care, etc… 

We can proudly say that we have grown and continued expanding our training.

 

While the essence of the organization will always be the same - being able to support each one of our children, teenagers and their families with all the tools and support they need to thrive - we are happy to confirm that being able to grow, reach more families and touch more hearts has become an important part of this mission. 

We aim to be able to give these people more chances at a happy life. 

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With the proper training and compassion, we can work with these families through the wildest storms.

 

It's an honor being able to say that we have walked a long way, but we are far from the end of our trajectory.