The month of April is being celebrated by Beaches Turks and Caicos (BTC) and the world as Autism Awareness month.
The all-inclusive family resort, is the Caribbean’s first Autism-Friendly Kids Camp and is currently partnered with the International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards (IBCCES), a global leader in online training and certification programmes.
Autism is a complex brain disorder that often avoids a person’s ability to communicate, respond to surroundings, and form relationship with others.
BTC, since 2021, has been certified as an advanced autism centre, which has ranked the resort at a level of understanding various behavioral patterns of children or adults on the spectrum. For the month of April, the Kids Camp will seek to bring more awareness to celebrate with families who have children or adults who are on the spectrum. These families will be able to enjoy their vacation at any of the three Beaches resorts in the Caribbean with the assurance of knowing that they will have a secure environment for all to enjoy.
Children’s Activities Manager for the Beaches Resorts in the Caribbean, Fedeline Julien shared, “in our Kids Camp all activities are inclusive. Currently, we interact with the parents prior to them arriving at our resorts to have the necessary information needed to provide a meaningful experience for the family. If necessary, we may assign a Beaches Buddies, accredited staff members who can join the family for an hour, a day, or for their entire stay, at an additional cost, to help in providing additional care for the family with the child or adult on the spectrum.” “For this year, we had the launch recently, which was celebrated as World Autism Awareness Day. Each Sunday throughout April, we will be having sensitization sessions at our family shows for the parents and team members at the resort. There will be craft sessions in the Kids Camp with sensory material, daily finger painting in the craft studio, meet and greet with Julia, our Sesame Character who is also on the spectrum, and paint parties with Julia and friends,” Julien added.
General Manager James McAnally, noted, “here at BTC, our child care staff continuously receive competency training in order to provide for our guests with special needs. BTC recently received Advanced Certified Autism Centre accreditation, which has stipulated that at least one team member from each department must be autism certified. Our Kids Camps ensure that team members have the required knowledge, skills, temperament and expertise to cater to all children and offer age-specific programmes for infants, toddlers, pre-teens and teens.”
Beaches Buddy and 15-year veteran in the Kids Camp, Ismay Brown shared, “being able to care for these children and adults who are on the spectrum has been an absolute pleasure. When families decide to come to BTC to enjoy their vacations, each department is engaged in helping them to have an experience of a lifetime. These guests on the spectrum simply do things in their own special way. We are truly an all-inclusive resort and this allows us to be trained to deal with different behaviours and needs at all times.”
Beaches is the first company in the world to complete the rigorous IBCCES training and Autism certification. The resort offers guests with cognitive disabilities the opportunity to more comfortably navigate the on-resort experience through specialised services, engaging activities and customized dining options.