Autumn’s STORY

All in Need was born from Autumn’s realization that she, as the mother of a special needs child, needed a break to recharge and regroup--and she knew she wasn’t the only parent feeling this way.

Autumn had struggled for a long time to figure out why her son (who was originally diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder) was so out of control. Autumn felt isolated after moving from her hometown in Oregon to the Bay Area. She lacked the resources and the support of other parents going through similar experiences. Because her son was originally diagnosed as Bipolar, there were no agencies she could turn to for help because Bipolar Disorder does not fall into a specific category to apply for aid. The idea for a respite program began to form from this feeling of being overwhelmed and isolated.

 Autumn realized that if she was feeling the pain of seeing her child with special needs struggle to fit in at mainstream social events, there were others like her feeling the same way. She decided to develop a place where those children and their parents could interact, learn, and grow together with peers facing the same challenges.

In the spring of 2007, an incident at a mainstream Easter egg hunt changed Autumn’s life. She watched as her son, Yaakov, hunted for eggs with the other children. As Yaakov placed eggs into his basket and reached down to collect another egg, his coordination failed him and he dumped the eggs in his basket back onto the ground. Seemingly unaware of this happening, Yaakov continued on his hunt. Other children noticed the eggs he was dropping and began following behind him to pick them up. Although Yaakov did not seem upset by this, Autumn’s heart was breaking as she watched him from the sidelines. Another idea began to grow in Autumn’s head. She saw the need for events like this one to embrace the children with special needs.

In 2008, All in Need began working as a ministry at Oak Park Christian Center. The first respite event had two children. As word began to spread to the special needs community, the AiN family grew. As a ministry, AiN was only able to serve children up to the 5th grade. In order to serve a wider range of children, Autumn began the process to make AiN a non-profit organization.

In 2011, All in Need, Family Support non-profit was established.

The Cookies With Santa event was the first step at creating special events geared towards the special needs community. Later, the Egg-treme Hunt and Trunk or Treat were added to the calendar. In 2019, the special event known as the Trunk or Treat will be called the Frank N Stein event.

2019 has also brought new changes for All in Need. Autumn has expanded the reach of support from All in Need by moving to Oregon and bringing All in Need to the Willamette Valley and surrounding areas.