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Amy cooking at home, standing in front of the stove, looking at the camera.

Meet Amy: When Resistance Meets Opportunity

Amy is extremely bright and innovative young lady, diagnoses with autism, a physical disability, and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.

Amy Hufker

Easterseals Midwest has been supporting Amy through Community Living Services since November 2018. Amy is extremely bright and innovative young lady, diagnoses with autism, a physical disability, and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.

Amy used to live with her parents and siblings, but the impact of her disabilities made circumstances at home too difficult. In 2017, she moved through another organization into a more restrictive environment with intensive behavioral support services.

After approximately one year, her family and support team felt that Amy had made a lot of progress and began to seek out a less restrictive, but still supportive and structured environment where Amy could continue on her path to independence. Amy’s team chose Easterseals Midwest’s Community Living Services.

Amy’s transition to Easterseals Midwest took many months and involved a high level of training, frequent visits, and strong communication between both organizations. Amy’s needs required Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and her transition presented many new opportunities to Easterseals Midwest staff. They needed to learn an entirely new therapy model, new teaching methods, and how best to support Amy. And of course, all of this was new for Amy as well. She was agitated and sometimes aggressive, but her team never gave up and continued to try new ways to aid in her success.

Now, it’s been nearly four years since Amy came into our services and into our lives.

“Amy has accomplished so much!" says her staff.

Amy went from needing consistent behavioral interventions, coaching sessions, medical interventions, and emergency response involvement to now being ready to explore employment opportunities, making positive friendships, advocating for others with disabilities like hers, and always seeking to help others.

"We are so proud of what Amy has accomplished and what her future holds!" says her staff.

Amy looking at the camera smiling wearing a tshirt that says "Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome i've got the skin of a newborn and the bones & joints of an 80 year old"

Amy's transition to Community Living required Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, which was new for the Easterseals team. In addition to meeting and learning how to care for a new individual, the team had to learn an entirely new therapy model and teaching methods.

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