Director, Educational and Behavioral Consultant – Sarah Ashe – Supervises all programs, writes grants, collaborates with providers, works with families and staff to make individualized plans, as well as works directly with many of children, particularly those with autism or related disorders. After leaving the school system in 2005 to establish the Center, she then returned to the school system 2007 to able us to bring on more staff to meet our clients needs. She is currently teaching moderately and severely disabled children in the school system in addition to her responsibilities as director.
Mrs. Ashe is a certified teacher, who holds a Master in Administration, Certificates of Endorsements for Preschool Children with Special Needs, Judevine Autism Program Training, as well as, many other trainings in the field of autism and is a Skilled Credentialed Early Interventionist. Currently she is working on the course work and supervision required to become Board Certified as a Behavior Analysts. The summer of 2008 she and a family from the Center received training from the Carbone Clinic in New York to better equip the Center in providing research based verbal applied behavior techniques with our clients.
In 2007 she was given the Healthy Hero Award, from the Amerigroup Foundation, a Medicaid provider group, for her commitment to the health, education and welfare of the community. In November 2008, the Georgia Chapter of American Academy of Pediatrics presented Mrs. Ashe with the Friend of Children Award, for her dedication to children with special needs and their families.
Licensed Associate Professional Counselor – Faith Edmondson brings a strong background working with children and youth, particularly in the area of children within the autism spectrum. For the last several years she has worked under Augusta psychologist, Dr. Kevin Turner, providing assessments and facilitating Social Skill Groups. She has helped our Center reach a higher level of service towards meeting families’ needs, sharing our dream of providing to families support and resources they need to help their children succeed. She provides individual, small group social skills sessions and family counseling. She has recently begun going into the local public and private schools providing individual counseling, helping to build bridges for communication of home, Center and school. In addition she is assisting a local elementary once a week to establish their own weekly in-school social group for children having behavioral difficulties in school.
Lead Instructor/Tutor (In-home and Center-based) – Janice Dyson has worked with Mrs. Ashe for over 20 years, both in the special educational classroom as a paraprofessional and as a special instructor with the Babies Can’t Wait Early Intervention Program. As a special instructor she goes into the homes of special need children (birth to age three) to work with both the child and the parent to address developmental delays. Currently she works at the CFNB as our center-based services instructor, as well as, providing in-home family services for children with autism. Over the years, she has been committed to staying informed in a variety of educational areas to broaden her knowledge base. She has attended many trainings in the areas of autism, behavior management, disabilities, as well as, courses related to working with parents of special needs children. This includes extensive training in providing in-home services for autistic children through the Judevine ABA Program (Applied Behavior Analysis). Mrs. Dyson traveled to New York this last summer, with our director and one of our families for intensive training on providing Verbal Applied Behavior. In addition to providing direction for our weekly special needs play groups, she is in charge of our three day weekly home school group for children with autism, providing academic and behavioral supports for families.
Shadows, Autism and After School Academic Tutors & Assistants– Currently we have a team of twelve part-time tutors and shadows. Many of those serving as academic tutors are certified teachers. We look to match our clients’ with specific support personnel based on their individual needs. We activity seek to have high school and college students involved to train them in the programs we implement, specifically our after school and autism programs, thereby training future teachers, therapists and counselors to this growing area of need.
All shadows, autism tutors, as well as office staff are trained through in-service trainings conducted by our director, through video trainings, and are required to attend a week long autism training through a Judevine ABA training program held twice yearly at Gracewood State School and Hospital. We believe it is essential that all staff be equipped with up to date researched based trainings to fully understand and the meet the needs of our clients.
Office and Program Coordinator – Debbie Jones has taught in a local private school for 10 years, and substituted for several years in the public school system. She began with the Center as tutor and now weeks 20-24 hours a week to help coordinate the services between providers and families. Her responsibilities include primary contact for new families, overseer of program needs during morning therapy, shadowing program, special needs playgroup, home school group, as well as scheduling our after school tutoring, and also does all jobs that “need to be done today!” In this position she is working directly with families, school teachers and Center tutors. Many times she is our “jack of all trades” filling in to work with clients in whatever position needed to ensure services are being maintained. Having this liaison between program services has helped greatly in keeping communication between providers, parents and tutors maintained and efficient. Mrs. Jones has strong leadership skills, an innate understanding of meeting childrens’ academic needs and a passionate desire for help our families.
Bookkeeping/Records Manager, Heather Crockett – Responsibilities include accounts payable and receivable, client records, tracking of client demographic and staff records. As part of our program we ask parents to complete surveys and questionnaires to document children and program progress. In working with our more involved autistic children keeping records of progress and adjusting accordingly is imperative to success. Ms Crockett has an Associate degree in Accounting and Allied Health and a Diploma in Medical Assisting. She is also the mother of Adan, who has autism. She began as a volunteer in our office and is now on staff helping to meet our clients needs.
the Center for New Beginnings seeks to serve everyone, and doesn’t discriminate against race, gender, ethnic backround, age, physical disabilities or religious backgrounds.