| Board of Directors | National Advisory Committee | Executive Director
Mission
To start a campaign to shift awareness for children with special needs labels from focus on children’s deficits to focus on children’s assets. This shift in awareness fosters choices for understanding and growth rather than focusing only on problems to be isolated, controlled or fixed. Parents/teachers/professionals can then transform the institutions which treat, educate and care for our labeled children to support their total development: mentally, emotionally, socially, physically, spiritually and morally. Systemic change begins first with this shift in awareness.
Labeling children by their disorder or disability is a double-edged sword. When used properly, labels can sometimes help us understand children’s behaviors and problems. They can also help parents obtain needed services for their children. At the same time, labels can cause pain, isolation, and confusion. They can be misleading and emphasize differences for the purpose of exclusion. Labels can also become self-fulfilling prophecies. We become what we are named. Naming our children by pathology, disease, disorder, or a disability destroys the sacred purpose of being human. When we refer to children by their label we are saying that the label is more important than the child.
It is not about changing or fixing the child, it is about changing our attitudes toward the child and seeing their unique gifts and potential. By embracing the opportunity these children provide for understanding and growth we can heal our own misperceptions and wounds. The CSC, Inc is here for all of us to shift our perceptions from the pain of wondering “Why did this happen” to a sense of gratitude and celebration for the strengths of the whole individual.
Mission | Board of Directors | National Advisory Committee | Executive Director
Robert Broudo, emeritus
Headmaster
Landmark School
Sharon Cerny
Real Estate Developer/Social Worker-Educator
Richard Grenzeback
Project Engineer
Radant Technologies
Jan Plourde
CEO
The Learning Tree Store
Patricia Shepard LICSW
Clinical Social Worker
Lawrence C. Wood, MD, FACP
Chairman of the Board
Thyroid Foundation International
Mission | Board of Directors | National Advisory Committee | Executive Director
The National Advisory Committee includes people of differing faiths and professions with interest and expertise in the treatment, education, ministerial support and parenting of our labeled children. The majority of members also have the additional personal perspective of living with a special needs label.
Dr. Thomas Armstrong
Educator
Author: The Myth of the ADD Child, Seven Kinds of Smart, In Their Own Way, and The Radiant Child
Rev. Mayra Castañeda
Minister –American Baptist
Dr Usha Doshi
Pediatrician
Follower of the Jain religion
Rev. Kaye Edwards
Director of Family and Children Ministries
Disciples Home Missions of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Miriam Greenspan
Psychotherapist
Author: A New Approach to Women and Therapy, and Healing Through the Dark Emotions
Rev. Dr. Devorah Greenstein
Accessibility Coordinator
Unitarian Universalist Association
Author: Backyards and Butterflies: Ways to Include Children with Disabilities in Outdoor Activities
Dr. Edward M. Hallowell
Child and Adult Psychiatrist
Director of The Hallowell Center for Cognitive and Emotional Health
Author: Driven to Distraction, When You Worry About the Child You Love, Dare to Forgive, Connect, and Delivered From Distraction
Thom Hartmann
Psychotherapist
Author: Attention Deficit Disorder: A Different Perception, Beyond ADD, Healing ADD, and The Edison Gene
Barry Neil Kaufman
Co-Founder and Co-Director
The Option Institute & The Autism Treatment Center of America
Author: Happiness is a Choice, and Son-Rise, The Miracle Continues
Joyce King
Retired Educator
Developing Multicultural Communities
Educator
Author: It Is So Difficult to Be Your Friend and The Motivation Breakthrough, 6 Secrets to Turning On the Tuned- Out Child
Garret LoPorto
Entrepreneur, Inventor
Author: The DaVinci Method
Catherine Maresca
Director, Center for Children and Theology (Catholic)
Author: DoubleClose, the Young Child’s Knowledge of God
Jonathan Mooney
Public Speaker, Writer, Activist
Author: The Short Bus, a Journey Beyond Normal and Co-author: Learning Outside the Lines
Deborah Pelletier
Physical Therapy Professor, Springfield College Doctor of Physical Therapy Program
National Lecturer: Welcoming all – welcoming children with disabilities into religious education programs (Catholic)
Area of research: Examining peoples attitudes towards persons with disabilities
Rev. Barbara Ramnaraine
Coordinator Episcopal Disability Network
Author: AccessAbility: A Manual for Churches
Jared Rosen
Founder, Dreamsculpt, Vision Catalyst for Mindful Media
Co-author: The Flip: Turn Your World Around
Nouk Sanchez and Tomas Viera
Spiritual Teachers
Authors: Take Me to Truth, Undoing the Ego
Rev. Jeanette Stokes
Presbyterian Minister
Executive Director, the Resource Center for Women and Ministry in the South
Author: 25 Years in the Garden
Neale Donald Walsch
Spiritual Teacher
Author: Conversation with God Books I-IV, Tomorrow’s God and What God Wants
Rev. Brett Webb-Mitchell
Presbyterian Minister
Author: Dancing with Disabilities: Opening the Church to All God’s Children and God Plays Piano Too: The Spiritual Lives of Disabled Children
Sue Wolf-Fordham
Past Director Yesodot Program
Yesodot builds Jewish community foundations for families challenged by disability.
Dr. Rachael Wooten
Psychologist
Jungian Analyst
Teacher of Tibetan Buddhist meditation
Mission | Board of Directors | National Advisory Committee | Executive Director
Sally Patton is the President/Executive Director of CSC, Inc. She has an Ed.M. in Developmental Psychology and has advocated and worked for children labeled with disabilities for over 35 years. She started by working with children labeled with mental retardation in a state institution and then in other agencies with other types of disabilities. While working for the Department of Manpower Development (DMD) for the state of Massachusetts she specialized in employment and training programs for youth with disabilities. While at DMD Sally was also responsible for overseeing the Governor’s discretionary money for youth employment and training. Next she managed a federally funded employment and training program for youth labeled with learning disabilities and then became Senior Associate at Harold Russell Associates (HRA), a consulting firm concentrating on disability issues. While at HRA, Sally worked primarily in evaluation, research and training in the area of school to work transition for youth with disabilities. Out of HRA, Mr. Russell and Sally started a non-profit agency promoting the employment of people with disabilities. Sally then decided to give the disability field a rest and started working for the Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry in Boston as Development Director. At the Urban Ministry, Sally developed her fundraising skills. In all of Sally’s past work experiences, she has written proposals and planned and developed many large conferences and fundraising events
It was while Sally was working for the Urban Ministry that her five year old son was diagnosed with dyslexia and other multiple learning differences and she began to realize she wanted to go back to working with children with disabilities only this time from a spiritual perspective. Seven years later and after receiving several grants, Sally left the UU Urban Ministry to write the book, Welcoming Children with Special Needs, a Guidebook for Faith Communities published by the Unitarian Universalist Association. For the past several years, Sally has written and conducted workshops nationally on ministering to children with special needs labels in faith communities and on spiritual parenting and caregiving of children who have been labeled. She is the mother of two children; one who has a special needs label.
The Creative Soul of Children, Inc is 501 (C) (3) not-for-profit organization. All contributions are tax-deductible.
Mission | Board of Directors | National Advisory Committee | Executive Director