Pamela Butler

For nearly 30 years, Families Outside has been providing transportation services to state correctional institutions and assisting family members to develop the coping skills necessary to deal with the pain of having a loved one in the correctional system.

With many of the state correctional facilities located in rural areas, Families Outside provides low cost to-and-from transportation services to most of the state institutions. “A lot of the family members taking advantage of our program are senior citizens and mothers with children who don’t have transportation,” said Gwen Porter, loan officer of the Ways to Work Program and supervisor of Transportation Resource Services.

• Read the full article about the Families Outside program here

Wesley Spectrum and Family Services of Western Pennsylvania announced plans to merge into a larger organization that will be called Wesley Family Services. About 30,500 people are served by the two organizations each year!

• Read more about the merger or our two organizations here

 

The “Pieces of Hope for Autism” Cookie Campaign is an annual campaign with local Panera stores during Autism Awareness Month. Proceeds from the puzzle piece shortbread cookies are donated to Wesley Spectrum to support Autism services for children and families.

• Watch Christopher Wesling from Wesley Spectrum on Pittsburgh Today Live here.

Doug Muetzel has been the CEO of Wesley Spectrum for more than 17 years. In that time, he has spearheaded a lot of change, including the recently launched Connections, Assessments, Resources, Evaluation and Support (CARES) program, a comprehensive diagnostic evaluation and service-planning program for the children with autism and their families Wesley Spectrum serves.

Here he talks about the struggles that families who receive an autism diagnosis face, as well as what attracted him to Wesley from the corporate world

Intervention services are available to children with autism and are credited with helping to lessen the condition’s effects on a child’s development. Wesley Spectrum’s new CARES program counteracts the difficulty families have in getting a timely diagnosis and needed services.

Read more about this multidisciplinary program here

Representative Dan Miller’s Annual Disability and Mental Health Summit is one of the largest events of its kind. Luckily this event is right in our backyard – in the South Hills of Pittsburgh!

Watch Doug Muetzel, CEO of Wesley Spectrum and Rep. Dan Miller talk with Jon Delano of the Sunday Business Page about this special event: