The Brave Warrior Project hosts 2nd annual resource fair at new building

The Wenatchee World - 4/15/2024

Apr. 15—WENATCHEE — April is National Autism Acceptance Month, and The Brave Warrior Project held its second annual resource fair to connect 32 agencies with services for families with members with special needs on Saturday at its new headquarters.

Erica Moshe, The Brave Warrior Project executive director, said her organization purchased the 5,000-square-foot building at 125 Easy St. from Meyers Enterprises LLC, with a $1.5 million grant from the Dan Thompson Developmental Disabilities Community Services Account on March 29.

Moshe said the building is under renovation to create more space for therapy programs for children and adults with special needs, and for more wheelchair accessibility.

At the event, Moshe handed out surveys to families for input on what other services The Brave Warrior Project could provide with its new building.

The organization rents its current location on 1705 Miller St., Moshe said. She added the organization will move into the new building in October.

Amelia Hernandez, The Brave Warrior Project multicultural family coordinator, was one of the lead organizers of the event. Hernandez has two children, ages 13 and 12, who are autistic, she said. She started working at The Brave Warrior Project four years ago.

She said she previously worked at a fruit packing warehouse and was often denied taking time off work to take her children to therapy. Working at The Brave Warrior Project allows Hernandez the time she needs to take her children to therapy and other appointments with healthcare professionals, she said.

Her role is also fulfilling, she said, because she helps other parents on their journeys of caring for a family member with autism and other disabilities.

"It helps me personally in trying to cope with my own children having disabilities," Hernandez said.

Hernandez, who is fluent in Spanish, said she enjoys helping families who only speak Spanish learn about The Brave Warrior Project, getting them in touch with other agencies that can assist.

"It's been a real blessing for me to be able to help families who are low income and don't have services and don't know where to go," Hernandez said. "It's really nice for me to be able to sit down, help them, and get them from one place to another."

Hernandez said she also enjoys connecting parents for support.

It's not easy to be a parent with a special needs child, Hernandez said, and connecting parents who faces the same struggles "gives them strength."

"When you go to the store because they're (the kids) crying, and it's weird because people are looking at you, and the community doesn't accept you, and your family doesn't accept you; it's really hard," Hernandez said. "But then being in an environment with other parents who have children with special needs gives you strength."

Maria Ruvalcaba said in Spanish she and her husband, Francisco Ruvalcaba, went to the resource fair to learn more about community services, as their 3-year-old son, Sebastian Ruvalcaba, is autistic.

Maria Ruvalcaba said her son's doctor provides them with a lot of resources and she heard about some of the agencies at the fair, but wanted to learn directly from the agencies.

Petra Swidler is a pediatrician with a specialty in developmental delays at Confluence Health. She said some of her patients have disabilities like autism and she was at the event to see the families she helps and to talk to people about getting their children a hearing assessment when there are speech delays to make sure a speech delay is not related to hearing loss.

"I think it is very important to know that they (people with autism) have so much to give, and many people think they are not normal or that something is wrong," Swidler said. "And a lot of the time the families and the children take that on. I always tell them they have so much to give to the community because you have a skill set you can tap into and that is going to make you fly."

___

Visit The Wenatchee World (Wenatchee, Wash.) at www.wenatcheeworld.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.