Photo: Roads to Recovery/Facebook
YS Community Foundation grants funds to autism resource center
- Published: May 10, 2025
By El Mele
The Yellow Springs Community Foundation has recently granted funds for a new outing van to Roads to Recovery, an autism resource center nonprofit making avenues to support and resources for those with autism more accessible.
The nonprofit was founded in 2009 by a group of parents seeking alternative educational paths for their children with autism. Since then, the organization has grown from serving five to over 45 annually, and to include two locations in Fairborn that provide services for school-age children to young adults from Springfield, Fairborn, Dayton, Beavercreek, Vandalia, Yellow Springs at wider Miami Valley.
The main portion of Roads to Recovery is its school alternative applied behavioral analysis programming, offered through the Autism Scholarship Program, and funded by the Ohio Department of Education. For a student to qualify, they must be between the ages of 3 and 18 and have an individualized education plan through their school district. Roads to Recovery then works with the school to report metrics and make sure they’re meeting state requirements, and with parents to set behavioral goals and general life milestones.
Students attend four hours a day, year-round, and receive individualized instruction, as well as opportunities for social engagement and opportunities to work on skills like sharing, memory and fine motor skills. As the Roads to Recovery website states: “Our in-center location fosters a natural environment that motivates students and provides social opportunities with peers.”
The News spoke to Michelle Clements-Pitstick, a Yellow Springs resident, whose son, Colson, has been a part of the alternative educational program for two years.
“Colson attended the public preschool, but we were looking for resources that could offer additional support; something with more one-on-one time to help him flourish,” Clements-Pitstick said. “That’s how we found Roads to Recovery, and it happened to be in our own backyard.”
Clements-Pitstick said she has been very happy with the customized attention Colson has received, and the consistent communication from the staff. Staff and families communicate via an app called “Bloom,” which allows users to send and receive messages, photos and reminders.
“Even if the slightest thing happens, like a scratched knee, they let us know,” she said. “I was recently able to send his teacher a video of him counting to 12, after he had only been counting up to four before. You’re able to see the progress all the way through.”
She added that staff and families are a “tight-knit community,” in which all parents talk to one another and staff care deeply for students.
“They really treat the kids like they’re family,” she said.
As part of the alternative education program, students also attend monthly outings with their teachers, for which they have begun utilizing their new van. According to Administrative Director Simone Edgell, Roads to Recovery aims to “incorporate lots of fun, new experiences that engage our students, including monthly outings to explore new places.”
Clements-Pitstick said that, though the general perception may be that field trips are just for fun — and fun is part of it, she said — they serve a larger purpose for Roads to Recovery students.
“The other part of it is for the children to learn to be in public social settings,” she said. “They get used to doing everything in the classroom and with regular routines. Going outside of the classroom exposes them to everyday scenarios and challenges them to work through their sensory issues, whether it’s wearing headphones or learning something new that they might not like, but are trying to work through.”
Roads to Recovery students recently took a field trip to the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery in Dayton. Clements-Pitstick said the museum’s water table, often a source of great fun on a typical field trip, is a great learning opportunity for Roads students.
“When we think about pouring water in a cup, we think, ‘That’s not a big deal, everyone can do that,’” she said. “But for some of these kids, it’s a huge deal because that’s not something that they’re coordinated enough to do. Roads selects outings that allow them to learn and practice everyday skills, more so than the ‘who invented what’ that we see in a typical school field trip.”
In addition to the outings in the alternative education program, the van is also used for a monthly young adult social group. The group is composed of around 10 young adults, including a member from Yellow Springs, and led by Laurel Marrington, a board certified behavior analyst and intervention specialist, along with other Roads staff. The group focuses on conversation skills, peer interaction and forging friendships. They gather one evening each month to do an activity together, which in the past has included hiking in John Bryan and Glen Helen, outings to Young’s, and stopping for ice cream at Corner Cone, among other activities in the surrounding area. Last Halloween, they hosted their annual costume party at The Riding Centre. Roads has been connected to The Riding Centre for a while due to students participating in the center’s therapeutic riding program.
Roads also runs a young adult volunteering group that volunteers for a few hours every Monday at the Fairborn Library and Crayons to Classrooms. Edgell said student volunteers have enjoyed stocking, organizing, light cleaning and bundling supplies, among other tasks, with teachers on hand to support them. She added that, ideally, they would like to volunteer somewhere different each week on a rotating basis, and are extending their offer of help to the Yellow Springs community.
“Yellow Springs’ inclusive environment always lends itself well to our students’ diverse needs,” Edgell said. “We are greeted with open arms and welcomed in community spaces. If the community has any ideas for where we could volunteer once a month for about an hour on a Monday, please let us know!”
Clements-Pitstick said she appreciates all of the effort the board of Roads to Recovery puts into locating funds in order to provide resources, and wants to thank the Yellow Springs Community Foundation for the grant.
“The Autism Scholarship is about $31,000 per child, which is not a whole lot compared to all of the resources and support that Roads offers,” she said. “The board does a really great job of fundraising and spending their money wisely, and will do absolutely everything they can to make something happen, because they know the value of what they’re seeking funding for and how much of an impact it will have on the kids. I want to thank the Yellow Springs Community Foundation for the grant, and make it known just how much of an impact it has had.”
When asked what Colson’s favorite part about Roads is, Clements-Pitstick said: “At the end of the day, he just likes being at Roads. He loves playing outside with his teachers, he loves getting to see all his friends.”
*The author is a student at Antioch College and a freelance reporter for the News.
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