Lillian Hicks Family of The Year

Our Family of the Year truly made an impact at our Inspire Gala this year. We renamed the award in honor of the Hicks family and awarded the Lillian Hicks Family of the Year Award to the Owens family.  Christine Owens, a proud grandmother raising two grandchildren—Angel, age 6, and Kayden, age 7—in a single-family home, says, “It has been challenging.”

Christine is a participant of Project Grand, a program that helps grandparents who are raising children with disabilities.  “They provided me with multiple resources to figure out what was wrong with my grandson.”

Project Grand also introduced her and her family to the opportunity to attend a workshop with Inspiredu to receive digital skills and a laptop. She called and registered for the workshop at Inspiredu’s Volunteer and Training Center; then she and her grandchildren attended. “We sat through a great workshop and were given our first laptop at our home. It was a family bonding experience.”

The laptop is helping her grandson Kayden log on to Zoom for his occupational therapy and speech therapy, and it is helping her granddaughter Angel keep up with her homework assignments like dojo points, science, reading, and art. Christine has also had time to learn on the laptop as she is now enrolled in school and recently received a child development associate certificate. She says, “I’d like to continue to be a positive reinforcement in my grandchildren’s lives.”  She plans to soon become a registered behavioral technician to learn more about autism behaviors to help her grandson’s condition.  We are so proud to serve families like Christine and would like to wish Christine and her family much success!