For Toni Dole and her daughter, Birdie, Hope WINS began with Linsey and MAC Camp.
What started there grew into something much bigger. Over time, Toni and Birdie have participated in nearly every part of Hope WINS, from MAC Camp and Family Days to R.I.S.E. Family Connections, Parent Support Group, and the Parent-to-Parent Partner (P²P) program.
But when Toni talks about what Hope WINS has meant to her family, she doesn’t start by listing programs.
She talks about what those experiences gave them: people, understanding, and a place to belong.
“Hope WINS has given me and Birdie both friends we wouldn’t have known otherwise and a sense of belonging we did not have anywhere else.”
MAC Camp has been an especially important part of Birdie’s experience.
Toni has watched her daughter build relationships, try new things, and have experiences that have added something meaningful to her life. What began as a connection through Linsey and camp became a place where Birdie could be part of something and build relationships of her own.
Toni put it simply:
“Birdie’s life has been so enriched by the people and experiences offered there, and I could not be more grateful for that.”
And while Birdie was finding her people, Toni was beginning to find hers.
Parent Support Group became one of those places.
At the beginning and end of meetings, parents check in with a number and a feeling. Toni began noticing that people often weren’t leaving with the same number or feeling they walked in with.
She wasn’t either.
Listening to other parents also gave Toni an unexpected opportunity to understand her own family differently. As parents talked about their children and the things they were navigating, pieces of their stories began sounding familiar.
Those conversations contributed to a greater understanding of autism and ADHD within Toni’s own household and helped her make sense of things she hadn’t fully recognized before.
But sometimes support looks different than sitting in a room with other parents.
Sometimes you need one person.
The Parent-to-Parent Partner (P²P) program connects parents one-on-one with a peer who can listen, encourage, understand, and provide a consistent relationship as families navigate the ups, downs, questions, and everyday realities of raising their children.
For Toni, having that individual relationship has meant having someone she can simply be herself with. She described feeling comfortable enough to “cry, laugh, or be however I am in the moment.”
And then Toni summed up that relationship in a way only Toni could:
“Get you a Janelle.”
It’s funny, but the meaning underneath it isn’t complicated.
Find your person.
Someone you don’t have to perform for. Someone you can reach out to on the messy days as well as the good ones. Someone who can listen without requiring you to explain every piece of your life first.
Looking back at Toni and Birdie’s journey through Hope WINS, that same idea seems to run through all of it.
A camp gave Birdie experiences and relationships.
A support group helped Toni hear pieces of her own story in other parents.
P²P gave her an individual person to walk beside her.
And somewhere along the way, a collection of programs became a community where their family belonged.
When we asked Toni to finish one sentence about what Hope WINS has meant to her family, she captured it better than we could:
“Hope WINS has helped my family realize that we don’t have to walk alone when we have a whole village walking with us.”
The road doesn’t disappear when you find your village.
You just don’t have to walk it alone anymore.
FROM OUR VILLAGE TO YOURS
As we step into a new season of programming, space, and possibility, we’re grateful to everyone who walks with us.
Together is how we R.I.S.E.