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Quinn's Hope - A chance to learn

Restoring hope is what Mercy Centre does. Just ask Roberta and Michael Antanavica who enrolled their 8 year old son, Quinn, last year after learning about the Mercy Centre school through their parish, St. Pius X. Now thanks to the skill of Mercy Centre's team, when Quinn realizes that he is able to communicate, his face lights up. That wasn't the case two years ago when his mom and dad were given little hope that he could make progress.

In the fall of 2007 when Quinn's mom and dad chose Mercy Centre for his special education they hoped he could participate more fully at both school and in the community. They wanted a school that would support his individual learning style and address his limited ability to communicate which isolated him from his classmates.

From the beginning, Mercy Centre's team worked together with Quinn's family to identify ways to support him both at home and school, addressing his difficulties with transitioning in and out of environments, finding ways to improve his communication with his classmates and ways to improve his ability to be safe. Quinn instantly responded to the routines and structure created to respond to his unique needs. Within months of attending Mercy Centre, Quinn had a marked decrease in behavioral episodes and increased his ability to communicate via sign language with both his classmates and teachers to make known his wants and needs.

Quinn also improved his ability to follow verbal directions to increase his own safety. His mom now sees these improvements at home.

Throughout Quinn's first school year at Mercy Centre, a program of Catholic Charities, he continued to make progress that hadn't seemed possible previously. Quinn's mom credits that to the Mercy Centre team's confidence for his continued growth. Quinn has been given a chance to learn and his smile is reassurance that his hope is restored.