Starting an ASD Community Home, with Liz Sandoval Kane of Shire House, San Jose
Slides from January 15, 2015 meeting in Palo Alto
Sponsored by Silicon Valley Autism/DD Housing Interest Group
Sponsored by Silicon Valley Autism/DD Housing Interest Group
NOTES:
The purpose of the meeting was for Liz Kane from Shire House to give an overview of the different components in creating a residence or community such as Shire House.
Shire House was and is being created for young adults with Aspergers with challenging behaviors to have a place to live where they can learn and strengthen behaviors that will help them achieve their personal life goals. Shire House also was and is being created as a place for young adults on the spectrum and parents of such establish and have a community and a place where they feel safe to socialize and find assistance in areas related to their diagnosis, they might need help with.
It was decided that Shire House would be established as a non profit. We incorporated as a non profit with the IRS and the State, this was done with the use of an attorney. The same attorney started the application process, which because we had no history of existence took a year as we set up the house and established policies and procedures.
We then went about the search for board members and once we had two board members (it is recommended you have an odd numbers of board members) we set about putting together our Mission Statement.
After researching other Bay Area and surrounding areas for organizations like or similar to Shire House, we put together our Business Plan and budget to support our residence structure.
We then went about the search for board members and once we had two board members (it is recommended you have an odd numbers of board members) we set about putting together our Mission Statement. The Mission Statement set the foundation for the organization. We then set about finding answers to the questions, “how are we going to do this?” and “what do we need to do this?”.
These are our actual October to December 2014 numbers but they have increased as of this presentation and might need to increase in the future. Our starting numbers were much lower since we did not yet know what the actual costs were going to be.
We did know that we might have various avenues of income.
Clients...live at Shire House 24 7 Respite is 24 hour cycles Classes...we offer primarily during the summer school break O S S are when parents have us provide hourly services for their young adults Donations...given by private individuals and are tax deductable...we were approved for non profit status in August of 2014 Grants...non as of yet.
Our PG&E bill was lower when we switched fro residential to business.
We did not renew our Comcast business contract and will have the residential bundle lower price as of January 2015.
Our grocery bill includes food and drinks for our Friday night socials.
Some of our supportive services are provided by outside vendors/professionals. We found that difficult in that we did not have enough cars and the clients schedules were erratic. We now have our services by two providers, PBS and Paula Gallay, who come to Shire House.
Staffing is a huge portion of our budget.
The large Workers Comp. December bill was because we underreported our Employee Payroll Report for the year so we had to pay the difference at the end of the calendar year.
We have 5 part time employees, support staff that come in between 8 am and 10 pm.
The clients in this particular Shire House model need 24/7 supervision. Right now I am the 24/7 house manager, we plan is to have 2, 12 hour, 5 day house managers and a 3rd floating house manager.
Presently, this particular Shire House model is a supervised model with a house manager, supported by social mentors.
Clients are selected after a review of their diagnosis and medication regimen by Dr. Scotton and myself.
Therapeutic services are provided by outside professionals and because our clients are high functioning, they practice self monitoring and regular group meetings.
Socials are provided in house every week and we help and encourage personal social outings.
We invite other young adults in the community with in the spectrum to participate in our socials and we have a parents support group.
Challenges we face on a daily basis are....Mood variances brought on by individual diagnosis and personal challenges.
clients
Anger management Depression Conflicts...personal, family, school and other
Relationship issues...family, romantic and friends Oppositional defiance Sleep disorders Eating and Feeding Management
The purpose of the meeting was for Liz Kane from Shire House to give an overview of the different components in creating a residence or community such as Shire House.
Shire House was and is being created for young adults with Aspergers with challenging behaviors to have a place to live where they can learn and strengthen behaviors that will help them achieve their personal life goals. Shire House also was and is being created as a place for young adults on the spectrum and parents of such establish and have a community and a place where they feel safe to socialize and find assistance in areas related to their diagnosis, they might need help with.
It was decided that Shire House would be established as a non profit. We incorporated as a non profit with the IRS and the State, this was done with the use of an attorney. The same attorney started the application process, which because we had no history of existence took a year as we set up the house and established policies and procedures.
We then went about the search for board members and once we had two board members (it is recommended you have an odd numbers of board members) we set about putting together our Mission Statement.
After researching other Bay Area and surrounding areas for organizations like or similar to Shire House, we put together our Business Plan and budget to support our residence structure.
We then went about the search for board members and once we had two board members (it is recommended you have an odd numbers of board members) we set about putting together our Mission Statement. The Mission Statement set the foundation for the organization. We then set about finding answers to the questions, “how are we going to do this?” and “what do we need to do this?”.
These are our actual October to December 2014 numbers but they have increased as of this presentation and might need to increase in the future. Our starting numbers were much lower since we did not yet know what the actual costs were going to be.
We did know that we might have various avenues of income.
Clients...live at Shire House 24 7 Respite is 24 hour cycles Classes...we offer primarily during the summer school break O S S are when parents have us provide hourly services for their young adults Donations...given by private individuals and are tax deductable...we were approved for non profit status in August of 2014 Grants...non as of yet.
Our PG&E bill was lower when we switched fro residential to business.
We did not renew our Comcast business contract and will have the residential bundle lower price as of January 2015.
Our grocery bill includes food and drinks for our Friday night socials.
Some of our supportive services are provided by outside vendors/professionals. We found that difficult in that we did not have enough cars and the clients schedules were erratic. We now have our services by two providers, PBS and Paula Gallay, who come to Shire House.
Staffing is a huge portion of our budget.
The large Workers Comp. December bill was because we underreported our Employee Payroll Report for the year so we had to pay the difference at the end of the calendar year.
We have 5 part time employees, support staff that come in between 8 am and 10 pm.
The clients in this particular Shire House model need 24/7 supervision. Right now I am the 24/7 house manager, we plan is to have 2, 12 hour, 5 day house managers and a 3rd floating house manager.
Presently, this particular Shire House model is a supervised model with a house manager, supported by social mentors.
Clients are selected after a review of their diagnosis and medication regimen by Dr. Scotton and myself.
Therapeutic services are provided by outside professionals and because our clients are high functioning, they practice self monitoring and regular group meetings.
Socials are provided in house every week and we help and encourage personal social outings.
We invite other young adults in the community with in the spectrum to participate in our socials and we have a parents support group.
Challenges we face on a daily basis are....Mood variances brought on by individual diagnosis and personal challenges.
clients
Anger management Depression Conflicts...personal, family, school and other
Relationship issues...family, romantic and friends Oppositional defiance Sleep disorders Eating and Feeding Management