Gio’s Garden Special Needs Recreation, Respite and Support Services

Address: 2028 Parmenter Street
Middleton, WI 53562 Website: http://giosgarden.org

Gio’s Garden’s mission as a non-profit organization is to nurture and strengthen families with special needs children (birth to 6 years) by increasing their access to needed services.  Gio’s Garden seeks to grow into a one-stop special services delivery organization for special needs children and their families. Examples could include a respite care facility, professional therapy, client advocacy, and social work/support.

Therapeutic Respite Care 

Gio’s Garden is a center that provides an opportunity for children with special needs to work on therapeutic goals, while their families have the opportunity for a short break. It’s a place for parents to find quality, therapeutic respite care for a few hours a week when they need it most, while Gio’s Garden staff provide professional, developmentally supportive care in a fun, home-like group setting that encourages growth through play and socialization. We provide a child with up to 16 hours of therapy/respite care each month, in addition we assist with connecting families to other agencies, needed programs, and services throughout Dane County.

We are licensed by the State of Wisconsin’s Department of Children and Families as a Family Child Care Center to care for up to 8 children at any one time in our fun, home-like group setting that encourages growth through play and socialization.  This means that our staff and the Gio’s Garden house have gone through a rigorous screening, training, and approval process, and are monitored for continued adherence to specific State childcare licensure rules and regulations.

We are able to offer up to 16 hours a month of respite care to an individual child which may be used in blocks of time ranging from 1-4 hours. The specific number of hours will be determined through a consultation meeting with senior staff and is based on each family’s specific circumstances. It costs Gio’s Garden about $10 per hour per child, but due to fundraising, we are able to offer our services on a donation basis. Families choose to donation what they can towards this fee. Each family makes this determination for themselves. No fee is required for a child to attend Gio’s Garden.
 

Therapeutic Recreation at Gio’s Garden

Therapeutic Recreation (or recreation therapy) is the use of recreational and other activities as interventions to improve functional living skills by focusing on physical, emotional, cognitive, and social developmental areas.