Therapy room at Lighthouse Autism Center with toys on a table with blue chairs and book shelves above

Brewing up success with one Lighthouse Autism Family

Following the Journey of Nick – delivering 22 years of compassionate care

Featuring Maggie Curry, Program Manager, BCBA

2010

Maggie Curry started working with Nick at an ABA provider in 2010. He was 6 years old at the time. His family moved to Indiana from Nebraska for quality ABA services when Nick was 3 or 4 years old. At this time, Nick’s family was dedicated to his care and fostering his unlimited potential. Even at his early age, Nick’s family would talk about their goals of life readiness and future employment when he was old enough. Nick’s mother wanted to own a coffee shop and employ Nick, so that she could remained involved with his needs.

2013

Nick ended up starting in school and changed ABA providers before beginning at Access which has since been acquired by Lighthouse Autism Center. Maggie started at Access in 2014 and was once again Nick’s therapist for in-home services. As he grew older, he took a liking and interest to the kitchen, always assisting his mom with meals, baking, groceries, and in any way he could. This further fueled the idea to have him work in a restaurant or coffee shop.

Maggie was promoted to a trainer position while attending school to become a Board Certified Behavior Analysist and remained involved with Nick’s programming for supervision and training his therapists. Once she was certified, Maggie became Nick’s BCBA.

2021

Nick’s parents made the decision to invest in a coffee shop franchise based out of Nebraska and open one here in Indiana. They are a very close family and often travel back to Nebraska to visit and spend holidays there as well, in addition to much of their family from Nebraska coming to Indiana to visit often – some have even moved here permanently!

2022

It’s a long process for Nick and his family and they are working on finding the perfect location and hope to have a shop opened within the next year. By then, Nick will be 18 years of age and will be their first employee! They are also hoping to hire a few other employees with special needs and offer a safe and accepting environment for them to continue to grow and gain independence.

“It’s been amazing to work with Nick and his family for so long and watch this dream unfold. I’ve worked with them for 12 years, and while I’ll be sad not to work with Nick any longer, I cannot wait to go to Scooter’s and order a cup of coffee!” Maggie Curry, Program Manager, BCBA

Nick’s story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kfv0W4uirGY

At LAC, we are seeing incredible progress made by our learners every day.

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