The Stellify Journey: From Words to Action, 19 Years in the Making

While Stellify was born on January 1st, 2023, our journey really started 19 years ago. 

A nice lady’s lips were moving and saying autism. Autism? My beautiful little boy at 17 months has autism. Another lady’s lips told me “It’s kind of like cancer, you just don’t know where the cancer is so it’s hard to cure.”

“What nonsense”, I thought and why did this lady have a job visiting families who had just had a child diagnosed? Many more ladies’ lips through the years said things I refused to accept.

There was the awful LAUSD principal, who must have said, “I sympathize very much,” 17 times during our meeting, only to say that my son couldn’t receive the assistance he so desperately needed. Two years of legal battles later, we finally secured our NPA Aid (Non-Public Agency).

Then, there was the kind principal who explained the LAUSD rule: families were not allowed to communicate directly with their classroom aid. Even she understood that we were not going to follow this rule.

 So here we are…. We Graduated High School, and spent two years at home because of COVID-19 but where were the friends, community, the fun, the laughter, the advancement, the growth…..the future?

I remember with amazement Dr. Freidman at UCLA’s Early Intervention Program asked us: “What would you like us to work on?” That was 16 years ago and the first, only, and last time we have ever been asked.

At Stellify we want to ask all our families; “What would you like us to work on?”  

We want to guide and support a successful journey towards independent living, having a successful job, and feeling happy and healthy through our health and fitness program. 

And OH BOY are we having fun!

I am so grateful for all of you and the support we have received.  Our teams are building and nobody can stop us now. I guess we managed to write a blog too.

Anne