Little Star Center an Indiana autism center

By Mary Rosswurm

It has been an exciting time of growth and learning at Little Star Center, an Indiana autism center focused on in-home and center-based ABA therapy for children, teens and young adults. As we settle into the New Year, I wanted to share some of the outstanding accomplishments of 2013. Although there were many, many achievements by our learners and staff last year, we are highlighting 10 of the most memorable:

10) Oh the places we went. We were honored to have been invited to take part in the Council on Autism Services Conference, the Autism Speaks to Washington Rally and a week with Dr. Aubrey Daniels to learn about performance management.

9) Autism Awareness Month’s 30 facts over 30 days. We put this on Facebook and it was a lot of fun to see how many people a daily fact reached. We got over 14,000 views on our Facebook page in April!

8) Largest team at Answers for Autism Walk. Once again, Little Star had the largest team at the AAI walk. It was awesome to see over 100 people in LSC shirts at this annual event. Thank you to all of our participants and supporters.

7) Lots of anniversaries. Little Star Carmel celebrated its 11th year, Lafayette center celebrated its third anniversary, our Middle Star building saw its first birthday and our second staff member reached the five-year milestone.

6) ABA Daily on Twitter. We launched ABADaily on Twitter, which posts an ABA fact every day. Follow us.

4) New Bloomington center. We began the process of opening a new center in Bloomington after hearing about the needs in that area of the state. It will open this spring. We are hiring staff and evaluating leaners now.

5) The Melin Fundraiser was a hit. We partnered with the Melin family in honor of their late daughter and raised more than $9,000, which was used to purchase new IT technology to benefit all our centers.

3) Working with team members as they grow and take on more responsibility. Thank you to all our staff who advanced careers at Little Star Center.

2) The new Advisory Board. 2013 marked the formation of our Advisory Board, which brings together nationally known experts in the field of autism and applied behavior analysis. The Little Star Lecture Series also got off the ground. We hosted our second and third talks. The lectures were free and open to all.

Lafayette transition cerermony

1) The success of our learners. By far the most important achievement: watching 13 Little Star learners transition out of our program and go into school. It was priceless.

Thanks to our entire Little Star family for a great 2013.
We look forward to an even better 2014!

Mary Rosswurm is executive director at Little Star Center.

Photos (From top to bottom): Executive Director Mary Rosswurm, board member Michele Trivedi and Research and Training Director Tim Courtney meet with U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana during the Autism Speaks to Washington event – LSC staff attend Michigan Autism Conference – Learners prepare for the LSC Fourth of July parade. – A Lafayette center learner at his transition ceremony.