Gordon Hartman Family Foundation

Case Study

One of the main focuses of the Gordon Hartman Family Foundation is to help assist area Non-Profits that serve the Special Needs community. The Foundation provides monetary grants, consulting services, public relations and support services to help deserving Non-Profits succeed in their efforts. Below is a case study about TEAMability, one of the many Non-Profit organizations that has been assisted by the Foundation. TEAMability started with three passionate women who have dedicated their lives to helping the most severely disabled children. The Foundation first filled a consulting role by studying their business practices, and quickly discovered that they needed one location to allow them to more efficiently help a greater number of children. The Foundation worked with TEAMability to find, purchase and remodel a building specifically designed for their very special clientele. This new central location has allowed TEAMability to serve a far greater number of children with special needs and the Gordon Hartman Family Foundation is proud to have assisted them in achieving their dream.

TEAMability Case Study
The founders of TEAMability,Inc., Barbara, Nancy and Mari (“the girls”) met while working in the public school system as a Teacher for the Visually Impaired, a PT and an OT, respectively. Their job duties spread them throughout the school district individually serving children of all ages and levels, but they found themselves working together more closely when they served children with severe multiple disabilities. Barbara, Nancy and Mari saw a frustrating lack of meaningful progress in this group of kids. The unique and challenging combination of issues found in this segment of the disabled pediatric population spurred the group to develop a new service delivery model.

Using Lilli Nielson, Ph.D.’s Active Learning approach together with the Design to Learn communication strategies as the basis for each child’s customized learning plan, the trio began to see meaningful progress made. Children with significant motor, sensory, cognitive and communication impairments were learning to independently seek out movement and activity they enjoyed. Early communication behaviors began to improve and be shaped into meaningful exchanges with caregivers. Long-standing passivity seen in severely disabled children slowly gave way to renewed interest in self-directed play and interaction with others. The idea for TEAMability was born!

In 2003, TEAMability incorporated as a non-profit 501 (c) (3) in order to provide opportunities for children with severe combined disabilities to participate actively in life’s activities at home, school and in the community as well as to convey widespread understanding of the unique needs of this population to teachers, caregivers and the community. For the past 3 years, TEAMability’s unique teaming of a Teacher Specialist, PT and OT has brought its holistic service delivery to children and their families in their private homes and to students and their teachers and support staff at schools. Since February 2008, these services have expanded to the new TEAMability Learning Center (TLC) in San Antonio. In addition to direct evaluation and treatment services, the beautifully renovated 1960’s building offers one-of-a-kind equipment designed specifically with the severely disabled pediatric population in mind.

The realization of the TEAMability Learning Center, conveniently located at the northwest corner of the IH 10 @ Culebra Road just north of downtown San Antonio, was made possible through the generosity of several area charitable foundations and individual donors well as the strong faith in and support of TEAMability’s mission that Gordon Hartman and the Gordon Hartman Family Foundation has offered. Since 2006, Mr. Hartman’s personal interest in assisting TEAMability’s growth and development into a successful non-profit has been instrumental to the trio in taking the next step to bring services to a growing number of families. This relationship began with the production and broadcasting of an eye-catching public service announcement introducing TEAMability to the wider community on local television networks. It continued with business mentoring as TEAMability’s founders learned to hone their ideas into reality, and in the winter of 2007, the Gordon Hartman Family Foundation resolved to purchase, renovate and lease a building to TEAMability,Inc. This plan became reality in February 2008, when Barbara, Nancy and Mari moved into 1711 N. Trinity and their dream of offering center-based services to families began in earnest.

The TLC now provides a base of operations for all of TEAMability’s ongoing services to children as well as special programs “the girls” are preparing to launch. Presently, the “Parent Forum” meets bi-monthly at the TLC to discuss the shared concerns and needs unique to families with children having severe combined disabilities. Together these parents find a public voice needed to affect positive changes for their “special” kids in the community. In the coming months, TEAMability plans to host a series of workshops designed for parents as well as professionals at the Center. Another important “piece of the puzzle” planned for the TLC is the addition of a recreation/leisure program specially designed to give children and their families a place to have fun together. “My Kind of Fun” will be offered semi-monthly on Saturdays at the TEAMability Learning Center. Families will find a variety of fun activities to enjoy with their severely disabled child within a safe and comfortable, fully accessible environment like no other.

TEAMability has an informative website with contact information, workshop descriptions, news and pictures of the happenings at the Center with and for children with severe combined disabilities. Barbara, Nancy and Mari invite you to visit www.teamability.org and register as a visitor.