“The Spot” Special Place For Others To Thrive

MERIDIAN, Miss. (WTOK) -

To a lot of parents a playground may seem like a wonderful place for kids to run off energy and have fun. Unfortunately, to families of children with special needs, this type of environment can be very overwhelming.

“When your child is on the spectrum, it’s very overwhelming for you as a parent because you have this fear of judgment or embarrassment from trying to navigate a child’s meltdown. And it really doesn’t leave a lot of space to feel supported.” Said Ashlee Porter, Secretary for “The Spot.”

That is why this group of parents came together to form “The Spot - Special Place For Others To Thrive.”

Their goal? To create a sustainable, reliable community for special needs families and to provide families with information on local, state, and national resources, so they can spend more time connecting with their loved ones and less time researching.

“We give to all families, but special needs families specifically.” said Porter.

One thing this group of parents’ share is they all have special needs children. It was through this shared life experience that they realized a gap in our area. Our community needed a common resource that would help take families with special needs children from just survival to quality, abundant life.

They’ve already hosted several events that provide places for special needs children to feel safe and understood.

Moving forward into 2023 ”The Spot” hopes to host more events, including community training on how to increase inclusion of individuals with special needs and more social activities. In meridian. Cara shirley. WTOK news 11.

If you’d like to learn more about “The Spot” you can visit www.TheSpotFamily.com.

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