Tibi's Story

Meet Tibi.
 

Tibi has autism. And when he started kindergarten in 2023, he had low communication skills.
 

Then he entered the world of YMCA School Aged Child Care or SACC.
 

“As you can see, he’s talking now, and a lot of that is thanks to [the staff at the Y],” says Angela, Tibi’s mom.
 

YMCA School Age Child Care (SACC) is a licensed child care program for children 3.8 to 12 years old. Children spend time before and after school making new friends and developing healthy habits.
 

As Angela continues to tell her story, Tibi walks up to a cleaner at the Laurier Brantford YMCA and says “Hi! How are you?”
 

“They taught him [that]. They helped toilet train him. They helped with everything—they helped teach him how to be a kid beyond just a kid with autism,” she says.
 

Angela has her own history with the YMCA.
 

When she was just seven-years-old she was a camper at Camp Chippewa at Christie Conservation Area. As she got older, she came back and worked at ‘Camp Chip’ as a counsellor. She would go on to work at the Les Chater Family YMCA organizing recreational programs until she found herself at the Hamilton Downtown Family YMCA doing inclusion work for children with special needs.
 

“That’s where I learned to find a passion for kids with autism and got into the field that I’m in now. I got that at the Y.”
 

Today, Angela works at the local school board as an educational assistant, but her relationship with the YMCA lives on through her children.
 

“As a mom of a kid with needs, I [was] terrified to send him to school—petrified. But the staff at that program are just amazing and they took him under their wing.”
 

“They made sure all his needs were met. They were totally open and honest, communicating with me when they had incidents. They never made it feel like it was his fault. It was always, ‘we had a struggling moment, but we worked through it, and this is what we did.’”
 

Angela says YMCA staff even took the time to consult with Lansdowne Children’s Centre to learn and understand different strategies that could better help Tibi.
 

“They totally took him on, and they don't just babysit him, they actually help him learn, they help him grow.”
 

Then Tibi started swimming at the YMCA.
 

“He is the kind of kid who will just jump into the water [with no fear], and you would think he’s going to drown. [The staff] handled it with such grace.”
 

With summer on the horizon, Angela was looking for a child care program that could support Tibi’s needs. She was told about Kinder Connections, a summertime YMCA program with play-based activities for children 4-5 years old.
 

Angela says the SACC educators worked with his Kinder Connections counsellors to make sure Tibi had a smooth transition.
 

“They really made sure the program fit for him. They’re on board with creating his visual schedules and doing those adaptive things.”
 

“It's hard to explain the heart that they have with him.”
 

There’s been changes in Tibi since he started attending the YMCA programs.
 

Angela says his speech is improving and he’s becoming more social.
 

“Before school and [Kinder Connections] he had no interest [in other kids]. He didn’t want to play with them, he would do his own thing, he would ignore them.”
 

“Once he started going...he got [more comfortable around others].”
 

And while it can take Tibi a few days to get settled into a new routine, Angela has nothing but positive things to say about the transition from school to summer.
 

“When [school ended] they set him up for complete success. [The staff] made sure that he had all his things that calm him, like his photo albums—they went right from [SACC to Kinder Connections].
 

Angela says they even made sure his ‘shopping cart’ was waiting for him. She says it’s a toy that was purchased specifically for Tibi when he wasn’t showing interest in any of the other toys.
 

“They do all those little, tiny things that make a big difference.”
 

“It’s very holistic, [they see] all the sides of him.
 

“My biggest fear is that people would see the autism first and not the kid and all the staff that he’s been with at the Y have always seen the kid first.”
 

“It takes a village, and he has that village with the people at the Y.”
 

When you’re a part of the YMCA, you have a community for life.
 

Angela’s experiences with the Y as a child and young adult helped her find her path in life, so when her children needed support, she knew she could find it at the Y.
 

No matter where you are in your life, no matter what age or what stage, the Y is with you.
 

#IgnitePotential #TheYSavesLives 

At the YMCA, we support people at every stage of life, helping them overcome any obstacle they may face. When you donate to the YMCA you spark the potential in every young person, adult and senior. 

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