Help us Raise our Final $300,000 Dollars to Furnish, Equip and Operate Shade Tree Academy!
Give the Gift of Hope!
HELP US GET ACROSS THE FINISH LINE!
Shade Tree Academy
Give the gift of an education to children and youth affected by trauma. Every Gift Counts. Learn more about ASA Now below!
Construction will soon begin behind ASA Now~Jacob's Mission Community Center!
Pulling permits for the construction of Shade Tree Academy has begun. We are honored to provide a place where children and youth who have experienced emotional and physical trauma, will find solace, serenity, and reprieve. Your classroom or library plaques, bricks or leaves will be displayed for future generations to appreciate.
In addition do your donation, we would be honored for you to join us at Shade Tree Academy's Grand Opening Ribbon Cutting Ceremony in 2024. There will be an outdoor dinner to personally thank you and show you what your support and donations made possible. We will tour the inside of the school buiding as well as our grounds to show off the completion of the sports court, playground, healing garden, raised garden, and equine center. Learn more about our school HERE.
Help us Raise our Final $300,000 Dollars to Furnish, Equip and Operate
Shade Tree Academy!
OUR FUNDRAISER HAS BEGUN!
Join us for our
Field of Dreams Fundraiser Benefitting Shade Tree Academy
Saturday, February 24th, 2024 | 4 pm
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to Angela Teachout, Heather Marlowe, Jessica Blackwell, and the dedicated angel volunteers for orchestrating our remarkable Field of Dreams Fundraiser. Your unwavering commitment and incredible efforts have left an incredible mark on our cause.
Help ASA Now Raise the Final $300,000 Dollars!
*SPONSORSHIP PACKAGES AVAILABLE*
days
hours
minutes
seconds
- HELP US NOW -
PLEDGE OR DONATE TODAY
Individuals or businesses are invited to pledge to find a group of caring individuals for the Platinum, Gold, Silver, or Bronze sponsorhip. Get your friends and/or co-workers together to donate $1,000 each or more and leave a lasting gift that will impact our most vulnerable population for generations to come.
Promote your business or honor a loved one, while making a difference in the world
$50,000
PLATINUM
1 Available Aquatic Center
1 Available Library
Name(s) and/or Logo on Plaque next to door
Logo/Ad or Name on Website & Social Media
2 Min. Video on our website
on why you support ASA Now
Dinner for up to 40 people at our School Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
PLATINUM SPONSOR
$25,000
GOLD
10 Available Classrooms
Name(s) and/or Logo on Plaque next to door
Logo/Ad or Name on Website & Social Media
2 Min. Video on our website
on why you support ASA Now
Dinner for up to 20 at our School Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
GOLD SPONSOR
$5,000
SILVER
100 Available Founders Bricks
Bold Name (s) & Inscription on
8 x 16 Founder's Brick (4 bricks)
Logo/Ad on Website &
Social Media
Dinner for 4 at our School Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
SILVER SPONSOR
$1,000-$2,600
BRONZE
150 Available Leaves
Painted Mural - Name(s) or Business Inscription on Leaf Honoring our Donors
Logo/Ad or Name on Social Media
Dinner for 2 at our School Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
BRONZE SPONSOR
Your donation to Shade Tree Academy may be eligible for a dollar for dollar tax credit.
How is Shade Tree Different:
Shade Tree Academy, a program of ASA Now, offers help for children struggling in school because they have experienced significant trauma due to the loss of primary attachment figures and circumstances associated with that loss.
Shade Tree Academy is a trauma-focused private school designed to help children whose life experiences have impacted their ability to access education in a traditional school setting. Our mission is to equip children who have experienced significant trauma due to the loss of primary attachment figures and circumstances associated with that loss with the social and emotional skills to be successful in school and thrive in life.
This mission is accomplished by providing students with a therapist trained in traumatology, neurodevelopment, and attachment who can understand and address their social and emotional needs while also providing individualized support in their progression toward achieving academic goals. In addition to academic support, students learn to identify and assess their traumatic stress, address and treat the traumatic stressors, and gain coping skills and tools necessary to manage or heal from the traumatic stressors in their lives.
School hours are Monday through Thursday 9 am to 2 pm, there is no school on Friday. This free day provides caregivers the ability to schedule med appointments, therapy appointments, extra-curricular appointments, etc. Shade Tree Academy students are those who had high acute behavioral health needs who could no longer remain safe at school due to trauma triggers and/or were expelled or suspended. A shortened school schedule is more conducive to preventing our students from becoming emotionally dysregulated, which can lead to escalating behaviors. We have created and support a safe, calm environment that promotes healthy and successful students. We strive to give them the tools necessary to return to a traditional school setting, be successful at home, and in a community environment.
Consistency and stability are critically important to our students, so they have 15 minutes of instruction with a 5-minute break to work on learning emotional self-regulation techniques such as mindfulness, relaxation, deep breathing, meditation, grounding and bilateral stimulation techniques. We also allow them to take time out to use these techniques when needed. The students are offered a healthy snack every hour on the hour that includes a fruit, protein, and vegetable. We provide their healthy snacks as they learn to fuel their brain with healthy foods.
Shade Tree Academy classroom offers a seven-to-one student to academic instructor ratio with social work ASU interns available to assist as needed. This gives our trauma therapist the ability to work one-on-one with students or in small groups while the academic instructor assists students with educational material.
Our academic educator is Lucy Ringler, she has a Bachelor of Arts in Education and completed the SEI coursework program and Multilingual/Multicultural program. She has taught for 17 years and is well versed in making accommodations for children with special needs. Educational plans are made and designed around each student’s unique needs, helping each student reach specific attainable goals within the given school year.
Our trauma therapist is Shelbi Moeller, she is a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW). Her practice revolves around an integrated approach and uses positive psychology to help children see past their trauma and not let their past define their future. She is trained in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Solution-Focused Therapy and has her certification in Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART). Shade Tree Academy offers a whole group, small group and one on one therapy time based on the unique needs of each student. Our therapist uses a broad range of therapeutic techniques, skills, and activities to teach and support each student. The two types of psychotherapy that are primarily used to help students learn how their thoughts are influencing their emotions and behaviors are cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavioral therapy.
Our Equine instructor is Shawn Rodrigues, Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and she is a National Certified Counselor. Shawn is certified in Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association, Equine Assisted Psychotherapy, Gestalt Therapy, Person-Centered Therapy, empowerment, self-esteem, mindfulness, and self-awareness. Her weekly therapy focus is equine assisted psychotherapy.
We use a variety of proven curriculum that helps us meet the child where they are at. We want to fill in any gaps and help each student thrive academically.
The Community Garden & Equine Center
Thanks to the support of our community, over the past nine months, our Community Garden and Equine Center were completed. Studies show gardening raises seratonin levels, reducing depression and anxiety. Through the much requested after-school gardening program, kids will have the space to be kids again, playing in the dirt and connecting to nature.
We worked tirelessly to bring equine therapy to our youth at Shade Tree Academy as it has become an increasingly effective method of helping children with emotional and behavioral difficulties to overcome some of their past traumas. In addition, it contributes positively to their cognitive, physical, emotional and social well-being. In January 2022, therapeutic equine services for all Shade Tree Students commenced.
A garden,
where one can witness
the magic and potential in life,
for out of the darkness
rises beauty.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
-Margaret Mead
- Welcome To ASA Now
Where Small Actions Lead To Big Changes - Our Journey:
Angela, Susan and Anika - In the fall of 2015, three foster and adoptive mothers recognized that someone needed to do something to help children impacted by foster care receive the behavioral health services they so desperately needed. Despite having 24 children between us, Angela, Susan, and I realized that WE were the someone, and joined forces to author HB2442, which passed unanimously and with an emergency clause, known as Jacob’s Law on March 24th, 2016. This groundbreaking legislation accelerated state-paid behavioral-health screenings for foster children and put deadlines on therapy and medical appointments and services. It required the state to provide critical information to foster parents at the time of placement, enacted protections for caregivers, and mandated timelines for Out-of-Home placement for children with high acute needs who are not safe living at home and require a higher level of care.
In the process of running legislation, we heard countless heartbreaking stories from foster and adoptive parents about the ways the system had failed their children. The gaps in support for kinship, foster and adoptive families became painfully clear and we knew we had to do something more to support those who had welcomed Arizona’s most vulnerable children into their homes.
ASA Now - In 2016, less than two months after Jacob's Law passed, we started our own non-profit and hit the ground running by creating opportunities to get our community involved in supporting dedicated caregivers and helping meet immediate needs for children entering foster care. Through the generosity of many donors like you, ASA Now has been able to help to provide assistance to offset the costs of clothing, food, hygiene items, school supplies, birthday presents and holiday presents. Our services are offered statewide and over the past five years our angel volunteers have made serving our community possible through their talens and time. We hold Parents’ Night Out events, where caregivers can drop off all the children in the home and have an evening away. To date, you have helped us serve more than 31,000 children impacted by foster care in Arizona. For caregivers we provide weekly therapeutic workshops, and twice a month support groups where they find solace in the companionship of other caregivers who are also parenting children from hard places. We offer an annual Trauma Mama, Couples and Family retreat, as well as a 24/7 crisis and advocacy number. To our knowledge, we are the only foster care nonprofit organization that serves kinship and foster families throughout Arizona 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. ASA Now is committed to ensuring that all children and families who have been touched by foster care succeed. Prevention is at the forefront of our vision. We offer innovative services and events that promote health development and support for biological, kinship, foster and adoptive families and all their children. We believe that opportunities and education improve outcomes. Our mission is to support and strengthen the most vulnerable population by providing the necessary education and skills needed to flourish and thrive.
Jacob's Mission Community Center - In 2018 after learning that only 32 percent of foster children graduate from high school and that only one to three percent graduate from high school, we started a 501(c)(3) public charity. A program of ASA Now, Jacob's Mission Community Center is a trauma focused after school program serving children and youth impacted by foster care in grades K-12th. Since the birth of our charity in 2020, Jacob's Mission was able to serve 959 children. Our mission is to improve the educational outcomes of students impacted by foster care by providing high-quality afterschool and life skills programs. These programs encompass a broad range of focus areas including academic support, mentoring, arts, dance, yoga, cooking, basketball, piano, guitar, ukulele, musical theater, health, positive youth development, educational, housing and workforce development programs for youth ages 14-18. The activities children and youth engage in outside of school hours are critical to their overall development, highlighting the need for quality afterschool programs in our community. Jacob's Mission helps children and youth reach their fullest potential by helping them discover and develop their talents. We offer after school activities; life skills and we provide after school activities which help them discover their fullest potential by helping them develop their talents.
Shade Tree Academy - In 2019, we recognized a real need to build a trauma focused school taught by clinicians educated in traumatology, neurodevelopment, and attachment. The school provides a quality education to children experiencing significant academic, behavioral, and social difficulties at school. Children who have experienced ruptured attachments due to the separation from their family of origin. Children whose lives were impacted by foster care. We wanted to give them an opportunity to improve their lives, while also providing them an opportunity to learn sound values, emotional self-regulation techniques, practice service to others, and respect the dignity of all people they come in contact with. In 2020 we were approved as a private school nonprofit organization. In 2021, without a physical location, we started serving five children at a time through borrowed space. Tuition is paid through STO's or ESA funds.
In 2021, after a year of working with architectural faculty at ADM Group as well as Developers at Davcon Aviation and Mesa Hanger designing and planning a school which incorporates best practices for educating children impacted by trauma, we were excited to report that we’ve secured four million dollars donated by Dell Loy Hansen and Randy Hansen, founder of Mesa Hanger, and we know that our goal of five million dollars is within reach. The architectural design for the school has been completed and with the help of David Wakefield from Davcon Aviation, building permits will soon be acquired. We aim to start the construction of Shade Tree Academy in the fall of 2023! ASA Now is responsible to raise a million dollars to furnish, equip and operate the school. Please help us cross the finish line. Thank you for being part of our journey and thank you for giving our community the "Gift of Hope!"
"We Believe All Children Deserve To Feel Safe, Supported And Worthy Of Their Fullest Potential"
-Angela, Susan & Anika
We Invite You To Volunteer With Us!
You can Make a Difference!
We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It's easy to say "It's not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem." Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.
- Fred Rogers
SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES
FROM HOME OR IN-PERSON
There are 11,000 children currently in foster care in Arizona. We’ve seen their faces, we’ve seen their potential, we’ve seen their hope, and we’ve seen them thrive. As citizens who love Arizona, we have a duty to serve these precious children. We have the rare opportunity to change the trajectory of their lives. The future here is bright, and we invite our community members to join us by volunteering and becoming involved by helping make an impact in the lives of our most vulnerable population.
Foster CARE:
Although foster children are removed from their home due to traumatic abuse and neglect, they face unique circumstances associated with foster care which go beyond traumatic experiences. “Children in placement are doubly traumatized: first from their severe abuse or neglect: then from the added experience of separation trauma” (Morrow, 1987, p. 148). The act of being physically separated from their biological parents, removed from their homes with only a few belongings, often separated from siblings, relocated to a new town and school district without friends or familiar faces, and placed in the care of strangers is traumatic in its own right, regardless of their previous abuse or neglect histories. Once in foster care, their transience continues as they are often rapidly moved between temporary foster homes and endure limited, brief, emotionally trying visits with their family, only if visits are allowed. Although the intent of foster care is to provide children with necessary temporary caretaking in a protective home, many children experience years of multiple placements with varying degrees of stability, contentment, or conflict. In addition, many decisions that are made for children may be perceived by them and nonsensical, confusing, or punitive. Children who are removed from their families may not understand the separation easily or well. They may remain worried about their families, and they may experience significant feelings of loss.
Many of America’s child welfare systems are badly broken — and children can suffer serious harm as a result. Some will be separated from their siblings. Others will be bounced from one foster care placement to another, never knowing when their lives will be uprooted next. Too many will be further abused in systems that are supposed to protect them. And instead of being safely reunified with their families — or moved quickly into adoptive homes — many will languish for years in foster homes or institutions.
Our motivation to continue our work, comes from the growth we see in the lives of the children, youth, and families who enter our doors. From the young man who came to us for tutoring and turned his failing grades into Cs; from the foster parent who let us know that our birthday event was the first time their foster child had ever had their birthday celebrated; from the little girl wearing the sparkly new backpack and matching shoes from our Giving Closet who told her caregiver she loved Jacob’s Mission so much that she never wanted to leave; from the teen who showed leadership during a renovation project his group home was helping with at Jacob’s Mission; from the moments of carefree happiness we get to see in the faces of children whose life circumstances have stolen the innocence of childhood from them; from hearing the desperation in a foster parent’s voice melt away as we help them understand how to effectively advocate for the child they love so dearly; from every moment of hope and healing that we are blessed to witness, we draw the determination to continue our mission.
Services and supports offered by ASA Now and Jacob's Mission Community Center are made possible by generous contributions from donors who believe in the importance of the work that our volunteers do. Thank you for being a part of our village!
With Gratitude,
Angela, Susan and Anika
Co-Founders | ASA Now
Co-Founders | ASA Now
WE NEED AUCTION ITEMS FOR OUR SPRING
AUCTION FUNDRAISER!
Make a Tax Deductible in-kind donation with new or excellent condition gifts such as:
Collectables
Vacation Properties
Gift Cards
Services
Jewelry/Purses
Gift Baskets
Sport/Event tickets
Artwork
Have fun with it. Let your imagination guide your generosity!
Auction items will identify donors name (great advertising) and an in-kind donation receipt will be provided.
Email us at hope@asanow.org or reach us at (623) 428-1592.
Share this site with your family, friends and co-workers
so we can continue serving our most vulnerable population.
Jacob's Mission Community Center
7830 E. University Dr.
Mesa, AZ 85207
Ph: 623-428-1592
@ 2018 ASANOW – All Right Reserved