Our journey with embedding professionals into settings began at the JCC of Greater Pittsburgh. April had been consistently providing consultation to the JCC’s Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) for many years. In 2019, the CCC team began “pushing into” Clubhouse (the JCC’s afterschool program) in order to model simple but effective PBS techniques for the staff; such as giving transition warnings, reviewing a schedule each day with their group, reviewing expectations before activities, and proactively responding to the needs of children in their group.

Shortly thereafter, the pandemic hit, and the JCC created All Day at the J, which was a program that allowed parents to continue to work from home and/or go into work, and not have to simultaneously juggle helping their children to stay on task with their virtual learning. The CCC team “pushed in” to this program and made sure that the staff had the proper support and approaches to keep kids on task in a completely new environment/setting/world.

In the summer of 2022 when April Artz, LPC ended her role as Director of Quest Therapeutic Camps of Pittsburgh, she then approached Rachael Speck with an idea: “What if we worked to make the JCC day camps inclusive as well?” It was a big undertaking as J & R day camp and South Hills day camp are substantially larger than Clubhouse or All Day at the J.

The CCC team has now wrapped up our second summer (2023) pushing into those camps, and there is strong evidence that embedded inclusion support focuses on modeling/teaching how Positive Behavior Support approaches work. It works for kids who have diagnoses such as Autism, ADHD, Anxiety etc. It works for kids who don’t have any diagnosis. It also works for camp staff as it gives them a framework of expectations of how they should be interacting with the children they serve.

Camp staff at the JCC are now spending more time engaged in activities with their campers. They are reviewing the daily schedule with their camp groups. They are giving transition warnings before wrapping up camp activities. They are reviewing expectations before activities (this was particularly evident at the J & R pool this summer where Walter and Emily (counselors) never let any camp group get into the pool without a quick “pop quiz” on expected pool behavior).

Enrollment and reported “parent satisfaction” at J & R has increased each summer since our inclusion collaboration began. This is because Positive Behavior Support is effective and transferring these skills through a “boots on the ground” method is the best way to educate.