By Greg Archer | Contributing Columnist
A recent grant from Inland Empire Community Foundation will allow one nonprofit serving children to intake more patients.
“Thanks to the grant, we are able to onboard more than 35 new patients from our waitlist,” said Dr. Cassandra Sanders-Holly, CEO and founder of Leaps & Bounds Pediatric Therapy Inc. “Our patients are children with disabilities ranging from cerebral palsy to Down syndrome to limb deficiencies or autism. A lot of our patients receive therapy two to six times a week depending on what they need.”
“They’ll receive physical, occupational, or speech therapy and sometimes two times a week per discipline,” she said. “That’s a tremendous number of visits.”
The backstory of Leaps & Bounds is noteworthy. Sanders-Holly was born and raised in Norco. After receiving her doctor of physical therapy degree, she started practicing in Orange County.
“I realized that there just wasn’t anything in the Inland Empire to serve children with disabilities as far as specialized therapy services,” she said. “So, as I was back living in Norco and commuting outside of the county, and I’m thinking, ‘Why is there nothing here?’ So, I started the organization in 2010.”
“I didn’t really know that there would be a need, but very quickly patients started coming.”
The organization began with physical therapy and very soon these patients inquired about adding occupational and speech therapy.
“It just kind of snowballed into something I never, in a million years, thought ever would,” she said. “I was a professor up at the University of Southern California and I just thought I’d see a couple of patients on the side while I continued to teach. And those couple of patients quickly became about 1,500 per week that we see now.”
It’s hard to deny the nonprofit’s impact. Offering occupational therapy and speech therapy services for children of all ages in the Inland Empire and Orange County has been successful. These children are at risk for, or who have difficulty with, participating in standard age-appropriate activities. With the nonprofit’s therapists specializing in pediatrics, therapy services include evaluation, consultation, treatment, and home and school program activities that promote development and functional mobility.”
Sanders-Holly also notes that the nonprofit provides a comprehensive family-centered approach, working in collaboration with and for the child.
Another unique component to the services offered is Sanders-Holly’s affinity to horses. As a horsewoman since childhood, she leans into the highly supportive use of hippotherapy — the use of the horse in assisting children with neuromuscular dysfunction. This can allow children to gain postural strength and improve motor skills.
“In peer-reviewed medical journals, more than any other type of therapy that we do, we see how this kind of therapy helps children sit, stand, walk better, and acquire their motor skills faster,” she said. “I wanted to do it.”
As the organization enters its 15th year, look for an upcoming event called “Fun Fest,” an open house-style outing complete with a pancake breakfast for people of all ages to come and enjoy.
In the meantime, fundraising is always at the top of the nonprofit’s ongoing needs.
“We are aware of the cost of labor, the cost of everything,” Sanders-Holly said. “We just have wait lists on wait lists. We always have at least 250 kids waiting to get in for services. The list just keeps growing.”
She refers individuals interested in connecting and contributing to the nonprofit in some way to contact the organization or visit its website.
Looking ahead, Sanders-Holly wants to continue offering area residents new opportunities to thrive right where they are — in Norco.
“We want to work right here where we live,” she said. “So, to be able to get jobs to more than 90 people right here in the Inland Empire was also really important to me.”
Learn more at leapsandboundspediatrictherapy.org.
Inland Empire Community Foundation works to strengthen Inland Southern California through philanthropy. Visit iegives.org for more information.
