The mission of Bluegrass Center for Autism is to prepare children with autism and other related disorders academically and personally to successfully transition into the adult world.
The earlier children with autism spectrum disorders get help, the greater their chances of treatment success. Early intervention is the most effective way to speed up a child's development, reduce adverse symptoms, and increase the chances that they can join their communities in a meaningful, independent way. Bluegrass Center for Autism is a nonprofit organization founded in 2010 to help children and young adults with autism do just that.
BCA provides an intensive, highly structured, and entirely individualized program for our learners. Our integrated educational model blends Applied Behavior Analysis, speech and occupational therapy, life skill development, academic achievement and vocational training, all under one roof.
Bluegrass Center for Autism
Bluegrass Center for Autism
Bluegrass Center for Autism recently created a vocational training program to help our older learners develop job skills. We set up a vocational room at our MidCity Campus to teach job related practices one might encounter in the workforce, like punching a timecard. The vocational room is also stocked with several vocational task boxes designed to help our kids master a basic skill, such as sorting or assembling.
In addition to our daily vocational room activities, we assist our young adults with volunteer job placements outside of BCA which they attend with our full-time job coach. Our job placement sites include the Highlands branch of the Louisville Public Library, Nearly New Consignment Shop, Jim Cain’s Fitness, Movies and More Swap Shop, and Eco-Cell.
Bluegrass Center for Autism
Founded in 2010 as the Academy at St. Andrews, what began as a small but dedicated group providing services to five children in the basement of a church has blossomed into a cutting-edge learning and therapy center. Today, Bluegrass Center for Autism has 48 children and young adults enrolled on two campuses—the Lower Campus in Jeffersontown, KY works with children aged 4-13, the Upper Campus in Louisville’s Highlands neighborhood covers ages 14-21. While most reside in Jefferson County, several of our learners travel everyday from surrounding counties for our services. We continue to offer a 1:1 child-instructor ratio in most of our classes, resulting in the most intensely individualized instruction available.
Bluegrass Center for Autism
Bluegrass Center for Autism needs your help! Because of our highly structured and individualized program, we generally cannot accept volunteer offers to work directly with our kids on their behavior plans. However, we have a number of other ways in which you can help them:
- Serve on a committee
- Work a fundraiser or host your own
- Set up a BCA tour with friends or co-workers
- Participate in our events
- Donate to our silent auction
- Have an idea to help? Let us know!
Bluegrass Center for Autism
Suggested Donations
Equipment & Supplies ($25.00)
Vocational Training Support ($50.00)
Speech Therapy Support ($100.00)
Funding Needs
The following are just a few of BCA's funding needs you can support:
Salary support for our Campus to Home program, which provides regularly scheduled in-home therapy visits by one of our Board Certified Behavior Analysts to ensure consistency of behavior and learning between a child's BCA and home environments.
Salary support for our Speech Therapy program to continue providing each child at least three sessions a week with a Speech Language Pathologist. BCA kids range from non-verbal to completely verbal, yet all benefit from speech therapy to develop their communications skills.
Misc. Equipment & Supplies
- Two classroom smart boards
- Additional desks and chairs
- Recombinant bike for fitness area
- Body swing for sensory stimulation
- Locking file cabinets for child records
- iPads to assist learning and communication
