Therapeutic Programs

Therapeutic Programs

Bournedale Elementary School’s Integrated Preschool

Music Therapy

Bournedale Elementary Integrated Preschool’s Music Therapy program creates an inclusive classroom for preschoolers ages 3-5, with diagnoses such as autism, cerebral palsy, and emotional difficulties. The program focuses on improving verbal response, language development, social interaction skills, and academic development through dance and movement activities, singing, repetition, and rhyming. Bournedale Elementary has been a grantee of The Genesis Foundation since 2019, and the Foundation is currently the sole funder of the entire program.

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Therapeutic Programs

Adaptive Sports and Kennedy Day School at Franciscan Children’s

Sports and Special Education

Franciscan Children’s Adaptive Sports Program provides a recreational and therapeutic outlet for youth, ages four to 22, in the Boston area. Participants are children with medical complexity who have previously faced barriers to recreational activities due to a lack of accessible facilities, medically-focused staff, and specialized equipment. Physical, occupational, and speech therapists lead various sport sessions, allowing participants to experience basketball, soccer, hockey, biking, skiing (etc.) often for the first time in their lives.

The Genesis Foundation for Children also supports funding for the Kennedy Day School at Franciscan Children’s, which provides special education, therapeutic, and health services to more than 60 students with special needs, ages 3 to 22. In 2023, the Foundation donated funding to cover the cost of a therapy swing set for student use.

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Therapeutic Programs

Horse SenseAbility

Equine Therapy

Horse SenseAbility grew out of founder Polly Kornblith’s passions for working with kids at-risk and for being with animals. Polly decided to combine her love of horses with her interest in the healing power of horses for those who have experienced trauma. In 2018, Polly took this vision to the next level and launched Horse SenseAbility in a brand new facility specifically designed and built for therapeutic riding and horsemanship activities. Horse SenseAbility is proud to be a member center of the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship (PATH). Therapeutic riding and horsemanship lessons are available for children and adults with one or more of the following characteristics: autism spectrum disorder; emotional, behavioral, or mental health issues; experience with violence, abuse or trauma; or are at-risk. When participants can steer or lead a horse independently, lessons may include exploring our outdoor, wooded, interactive Discovery Trail.

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Therapeutic Programs

Lovelane

Equine Therapy

Lovelane is a pediatric, therapeutic horseback riding program that has a dramatic impact on the physical and cognitive development of children with special needs. For 31 years, Lovelane has been committed to providing an individualized program for children with a wide range of special needs that integrates the pure joy and freedom of riding a horse with beneficial and productive therapy to achieve the child’s specific therapeutic goals. Lovelane provides services to 130 students a week with the help of 197 volunteers. Sessions take place seven days a week, year-round for over 4,500 individual therapeutic sessions annually. Lovelane is recognized and regularly recommended by the Boston pediatric medical community for therapy for a wide variety of special needs diagnoses. Lovelane has a waitlist of 263 students (June 2020), demonstrating both the need for this unique therapeutic approach and the value parents and their physicians place in its outcomes. Once in our program, children stay for an average of 10 years. This high rate of re-enrollment each semester demonstrates the significance that this particular therapy has in the lives of our clients and their families.

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Therapeutic Programs

Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Courageous Kids

Medical Care

The Center for Courageous Kids at MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHfC) provides the finest multidisciplinary and compassionate care to children with complex medical needs and life-limiting illnesses. The program’s goal is to improve the quality of life for these children and their families. The Center for Courageous Kids (CCK) is a pilot program within MGHfC that aims to foster close collaboration between its Coordinated Care Clinic (CCC) and Palliative Care Service (PCS), two distinct services that care for approximately 235 children per year. Patients served include children who have serious illnesses resulting from known or undefined genetic problems, those who are unable to breathe without assistance, children with disorders that require feeding tubes, and children impacted by seizure disorders or severe brain injuries.

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Therapeutic Programs

TimberNook Sensational Experiences

Educational Program

Minute Man Arc’s TimberNook Outdoor Classroom provides nature-based play programs for children with disabilities and their typically developing peers that challenge the senses and inspire creativity, independence, and imagination in the great outdoors. It is not a camp but rather an outdoor classroom that runs throughout the year – even in the winter. Founded by occupational therapist Angela Hanscom, TimberNook-style educational programs have been carefully researched and designed by experts in the field of child development and compliment Minute Man Arc’s mission for improving the lives of children with disabilities.

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Therapeutic Programs

The Professional Center for Child Development

Educational Program

The mission of the Professional Center for Child Development (PCCD) is nurturing the growth and potential of EVERY child. PCCD is an agency for children, families, and educators focused on childhood development and well-being. We offer a wide variety of programs to ensure that children of all abilities reach their full potential. For more than 45 years, The Professional Center for Child Development has been committed to serving children with special needs and their families throughout the Merrimack Valley and Northeast Massachusetts. What began in 1973 as a respite program for four children with complex medical conditions, grew into an accredited day school and pediatric therapy program.

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