PORT ANGELES — Helping the parents or guardians of autistic children on the North Olympic Peninsula find the resources they need is all in a day’s work for the volunteers of the Capernaum Center for Autism.
And the services are offered free of charge.
The center, a ministry of St. Matthew Lutheran Church, is located at 132 E. 13th St.
It serves about 30 Clallam County families affected by autism and is seeking to help more.
And while no families outside of Clallam County currently seek services through the center, residents of Jefferson County and other Olympic Peninsula communities are welcome as well.
Font of information
Volunteers at the center are available “to help navigate those resources because it is a maze,” said Sarah Lovejoy, acting director of the center.
And “even if we can’t do it, we are able to tell you other places where you can go to get more information,” she said.
The Capernaum Center for Autism invites the public to participate in its second annual Woofstock fundraiser, to be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, at Price Ford Lincoln, 3311 E. U.S. Highway 101. The event is free to the public.
Woofstock will feature a hippy costume contest for dogs, a dog/owner look-alike contest, face painting, police dog demonstrations, refreshments and games.
For more information, visit the Woofstock page on Facebook.
Woofstock will raise money for development of programs at the center, which operates on donations and grants.
Sponsorships and booth space for vendors are now available.
For more information, email woofstockportangeles@gmail.com. To register a booth, go to www.capernaumcenter.com.
Started in 2012
Founded in 2012, the center was developed due to a lack of services available to families on the North Olympic Peninsula impacted by autism spectrum disorders, Lovejoy said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that on average, one in every 88 children has an autism spectrum disorder, which is a group of developmental disabilities that can cause significant challenges in communication, behavior and social interactions.
Statewide, the state Department of Health estimates about 8,000 to 12,000 children have some form of autism. Numbers for Clallam and Jefferson counties were not available.
Typically appearing within the first three years of life, autism affects each individual differently.
Brief screening
Early screening, diagnosis and services are essential to getting the best results for children with autism, said Lovejoy, who is a certified screener.
“The screening itself takes 15 minutes,” she said.
According to the CDC, boys were almost five times more likely to be identified with autism spectrum disorder than girls.
Caucasian children were more likely to be identified than African-American or Hispanic children.
About 44 percent of children identified were evaluated for developmental concerns by the time they were 3 years old.
On average, children identified with autism spectrum disorder were not diagnosed until after age 4, even though children can be diagnosed as early as age 2.
The Capernaum Center also offers a family resource center where families of autistic children of all ages can meet, speak to trained specialists and learn more about autism.
Many resources are available to families, Lovejoy said. They include books and articles, Internet sites, referral to community resources and access to software to develop personalized picture schedules to help autistic children who have difficulty with verbal communications.
Expanding services
The Capernaum Center is in the process of hiring specialists who would meet with families with autistic children at their homes, Lovejoy said.
“The specific home visitors that we would want to hire and bring in are certified in applied behavioral analysis therapy, which is a practice for working with children with autism,” she said.
According to www.AutismSpeaks.org, applied behavioral analysis therapy — known by the acronym ABA — is a scientifically validated approach to understanding behavior and how it is affected by the environment.
In this context, behavior refers to actions and skills, while environment includes any influence — physical or social — that might change or be changed by one’s behavior.
“The home visitor’s role would be to teach the parents how to do [ABA] with their children so that they can do it in everyday situations and not just when a home visitor is able to come,” Lovejoy said.
Such a resource will be useful “especially because we are so rural and a lot of families are driving over to Seattle to get different therapies,” Lovejoy said.
For more information about the services offered at the center, visit www.capernaumcenter.com.
The Capernaum Center also is seeking monetary donations on an ongoing basis.
Donations should be made out to St. Matthew Lutheran Church specifying they be used for the center.
Donations provided through the church are tax-deductible.
For more information about how to donate, phone the church at 360-457-4122.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
