“It has been difficult to find in-person activities during the pandemic. For someone as social as my son, virtual activities have been a poor substitute – much like watering the flowerbed with an eyedropper rather than the garden hose.

The creative and emotional support he received from participating in this activity was so crucial to his well-being, and we cannot thank you and the Greenleaf staff enough.”

“…opportunity for my son to socialize in a safe setting, learning new things and having fun.”

“…opportunity for social interaction and to work on self advocacy skills.”

“It gave my son access to individuals out in the world who understand and care about helping him grow. Also, it focused on the young adult age group who are higher functioning and needing guidance transitioning into adulthood.”

“ I joined this class because I had a yearning to eat up the knowledge of what we’d be learning Each time we met, we would all share and respond in kind to show we all care the time flew by as we read a book pretty fast and I only hoped that longer it could last our memories filled with what we had read then our own stories poured out of our heads Even a guest speaker shared with us his story about things that are wonderfully spooky and gory.
An inspired podcast inspired us too.So we’ll share with each other what we could do and though, like all good things, our story here ends.
I’m glad I’ll remember our time together as friends”

“Thank you for giving me so many joyful memories and experiences”

“It made me feel a greater peace and sense of calm”

“Some of my favorite things about Summer Social and being part of Greenleaf was meeting new people and creating friendships and being part of a community again”

“I very much enjoy (this club) and it’s the highlight of my week!”

“The most valuable thing I learned about in Wellness Club is the importance of meditation and having a calm mind”

“The most valuable thing I learned is that I’m still learning and making mistakes is okay. It’s a process”

“I learned that I am more creative than I thought I was.”

“I value having a consistent group of like-minded friends to spend time with being creative.”

“I learned how to balance comfort and health”

“I learned that making small changes a little bit at a time can be more effective than making big changes all at once.”

“I learned how to help my anxiety through meditation”

“I learned that I need to focus on my attitude toward myself”

100% agree that they experienced new friends and creative expression in Storytellers club

100% agree that they grew in their social skills and self expression (Storytellers club)

Previous years:

Participants reported learning things about themselves like:

• “I enjoy working with others”
• “I’m better in a group than I realized”
• “I can be positive, even pushing through something I don’t like”
• “It helped me feel happy, comfortable, excited and brave”
• “Doing things in class made me feel like I could actually go to college and study things I like”

Participants reported learning skills like: 

• “How to talk about our emotional states and autism”
• “To be more open to new things that my friends are sharing with me”
• “How to adapt to others quickly”
• “How to think faster”
• “Gave me inspiration to tell stories”
• “Helped me to express my ideas”
• “How to talk in front of a group”
• “How to communicate better with others and express my thoughts”
• “How to cope with change and think in different points of view”