Ontario Autism Program

Foundational Family Services (FFS)

At Lake Ridge Community Support Services, OAP families can access Foundational Family Services through our dedicated Foundational Services team. These services are provided for families registered with the OAP and are individualized to meet each child and family's unique needs. These services include:

• Family and peer mentoring via our Facebook Group

• ON-DEMAND Family and Caregiver Workshops & Resources via our Foundational Family Service Portal

• Brief Targeting Consultations: families meet with skilled professionals within the LRCSS team who can support learning and growth with each child and family's individualized goals. 

• Learn, Explore & Play (LEAP): A 3-part, play-based education series that supports the development and building of communication skills.  

• Navigating the Education System: A 3-part education series to support caregivers on how to navigate and effectively advocate for their child within the education system.

• Caregiver, Parent & Peer Mentoring Groups: A peer-based webinar that fosters a safe space for caregivers to share their stories, strategize with peers, and learn how to create time for their self-care.

• Crisis Prevention and Management- A 3-part education series that teaches caregivers how to prevent a behavioural crisis and ways to manage before, during and after a crisis.

• SibChat - A 3-part education series that allows brothers and sisters aged 8-17 who have a sibling diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder to learn about autism and share their experiences together in supportive and collaborative group sessions.

• Understanding the New OAP: An information session to help orient caregivers to the 5 pillars of support the OAP offers, learn what options are available for funding and support, understand the roles filled by the various service providers and how they fit into the 5 pillars of the OAP, and your role as a caregiver supporting your child in the OAP.

FFS Portal

The Foundational Family Services Portal continues to be a go-to resource for families. The platform’s user base grew significantly in 2023-24 with more users year over year and more course enrollments.

Foundational Family Services Portal 2023-24 Statistics

SOURCE: Thinkific Dashboard.

February 2023, marked our second iteration of the Entry to School Program. With 180 children accessing the group program and 20 children accessing our integrated service model, we are proud of the number of families positively impacted by this wonderful program. Our teams surpassed our expectations, by prioritizing fun and learning through the wonderful themes and activity days they created while simultaneously targeting the domains of communication, play, social interaction, functional routines, behavioural self-management, pre-academic, learning and attention.  Once again the year ended with a graduation celebration for all children to mark the milestones of their successes.

Our partnership with Grandview Kids, Resources for Exceptional Children and Youth, and The Regional Municipality of Durham, allowed us to successfully transition all of the children into kindergarten or grade 1.  These transitions resulted in recognition from our partnering schools on our ability to collaborate, share relevant information and provide resources.

Caregiver-mediated Early Years Program

The Ontario Autism Program, Durham (OAP-D) partnership provides caregiver-mediated programs through  Lake Ridge Community Support Services, Grandview Kids, and Durham's Regional Municipality to offer families of children under the age of four years, a choice of caregiver-mediated programs to choose between. Lake Ridge Community Support Services is proud to provide Project ImPACT as part of the OAP-D.

Project ImPACT (Improving Parents As Communication Teachers) uses a Naturalistic Developmental-Behavioural Intervention (NDBI), which combines Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) and the communication and developmental fields. Applied Behaviour Analysis is a proven technique for teaching children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) social and communication skills. By utilizing ABA techniques naturally within the families’ day-to-day activities, children can better generalize newly acquired social-communication skills and continue to use them after the program is complete. This past year LRCSS provided service to 47 families in Project ImPACT.

Urgent Response Services

This program helps caregivers stabilize high-risk situations, prevent crises, and reduce the risk of the child or youth harming themselves, other people or property.  With the support of our Lead Resources for Exceptional Children and Youth - Durham Region (RFECY), URS has had another successful year helping families in our community. Part of the team’s success has been due to the addition of Therapeutic Respite.  This service offering of URS allows families access to more opportunities to learn from modeling and practice of caregiver skills.

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Therapeutic Respite clients served