Commitment to Connection

Dear PCDA Community,  

I am so excited to share with you our progress since I first introduced myself just a few months ago. I joined the PCDA team as Interim Executive Director in December and have been swept away by the commitment, insights, and authenticity of each member of the Staff and Board of Directors. I was brought on board to provide stability and ensure productive, transformational management as the organization prepares for its next chapter, following a period of numerous changes. A key component of the Interim Experience is conducting an Organizational Assessment of internal systems, culture, and aspirations. The process involved internal interviews, surveys and focus groups, as well as reviews of documents and processes to yield findings that provide an objective shared understanding of current organizational status to drive strategic conversation, invite additional deeper-dive assessment in specific areas, and inform next steps.  

Here is what we learned:  

·        PCDA is committed to teamwork and inclusion at all levels. The organization is overwhelmingly described by its staff as a supportive place to work that cultivates clinical excellence. Supervisors are praised for mentoring, and employees express appreciation for the community environment. 

·        With the changes brought on by new leadership, the recent move and COVID, the need for greater clarity of roles and responsibilities in achieving organizational goals is indicated.  

·        The organization currently functions as highly accountable, with transparent fiscal management and oversight. 

·        The Board of Directors is made up of seven highly dedicated and insightful volunteers, some of whom are parents of PCDA graduates, all of whom are committed to helping the organization thrive and expand its base of volunteers and supporters. 

·        PCDA has a long history of responding effectively to the need in the community of providing collaborative, multi-disciplinary and integrated relationship-based care for children navigating developmental challenges and their families. 

These findings provide a solid foundation from which to grow, but there is another key component still left to explore, YOU. PCDA has always prided itself on being innovative and responsive to the community we serve, and we want your input and involvement. In the upcoming months we will be hosting Focus Groups to gather thoughts related to needs and preferences among the populations we serve, as well as Information Meetings on how to get involved in shaping our future. If you are interested in participating, please complete the survey below, and we will be in touch with you. 

We welcome your partnership in breaking barriers to care and creating a community that builds on strengths and relationships to prepare young people with Autism and developmental disabilities for a future in which they are empowered, fulfilled, and feel the security of belonging.   

Our clinical teams regularly meet to review cases and client needs and to engage staff in shared problem solving, mentorship and reflection all to support their client’s experiences in their sessions. In a case discussion last month in a team meeting, one of our department leads, Jenn presented a unique challenge she was having in a social skills paring, explaining the goal of trying to find mutual shared interests between two pre-teens who had a tendency to prefer very high-impact movement-based play that risked becoming “too much” without the ability to read and respond to the peer’s cues in the heat of the moment. She reflected, it can feel overwhelming to everyone, it feels on the cusp of out of control, it could get aggressive or feel aggressive to the peer. It’s the balance we find ourselves as clinicians, intentionally taking the risk in a high arousal alerting play moment so that the client themselves find their boundaries of “too much” and learn to regulate this experience without an adult stepping in and changing their ideas. Jenn shared the complexity, the possible risk, the measures she was doing to ensure that both children were interested and consenting to the level of play, and the caution in her voice was understood by everyone in the meeting.  



A few days later, Jenn reached out by text, sharing what happened in that week’s session. Her joy and possibly a bit of relief was evident. It worked. They did it! The boys connected. They engaged in the heavy movement play that gave them “a ton” of sensory input and then spent time together creating an entire play world with characters and story. On their own one decided to draw out what the other was suggesting, adding their ideas, expanding on the story. While creating an environment for connection that met their own regulatory needs, the pairing connected, shared together in an idea, and worked together to explore an imaginary world without an adult telling them what they had to do or how to be. Together they found a balance for speaking up for their needs and reading and responding to their peer. We can support the skills of how to be in relationship by supporting the lived experience of being heard, valued, and accepted for your whole self in that relationship.  What joy it is to watch this occur, trusting the process of supporting clients at the just right level, and watching their developmental progress unfold.

PCDA’s mission

is to create a community that builds on strengths and relationships to prepare young people with Autism and developmental disabilities for a future in which they are empowered, fulfilled, and feel the security of belonging.