Media Contact: Barbara Fornasiero, EAFocus Communications; barbara@eafocus.com; 248.260.8466; Melanie Esland, LifeLab Kids; Melanie.Esland@LifeLabKids.Org; 248-635-5102
Clinton Township, Mich.—April 18, 2023—The Clinton Township location of Ferndale-based nonprofit LifeLab Kids is seeing continued growth following its 2022 opening. LifeLab Kids offers therapy, recreation, skill development, and creative outlets for individuals with disabilities from 18 months to young adult. The Macomb County site is located at 42450 Hayes in Clinton Township and currently serves 40 children.
LifeLab Kids was established by tech entrepreneur Jai Reddy, who is also the founder of an IT staffing and consulting business, JRD Systems. After years of struggling to piece together comprehensive care for his son Arjun, who was diagnosed with autism in 2009, Reddy knew there had to be a better way. He founded LifeLab Kids in 2019 to be a full-service provider of therapeutic services, all housed in one location in Ferndale. As COVID changed the traditional office, JRD Systems switched to a remote workforce and Reddy transformed the building space that had housed JRD Systems from a tech office to a hands-on second location for LifeLab Kids.
“In providing comprehensive services using a multi-disciplinary team approach, we are also meeting our goal for LifeLab Kids to be a community that allows individuals with developmental disabilities to be accepted for who they are and to discover their full potential,” Reddy said. “There was an unmet need for our services in Macomb County, and we were happy to repurpose our space to help fill the void.”
Today, Reddy continues as the CEO of JRD Systems and LifeLab Kids, which has 40 full and part-time employees between its Ferndale and Clinton Township locations. The organization offers a collaborative, multi-disciplinary approach to serving youth with ADD/ADHD, anxiety, autism, developmental delays, Down syndrome, feeding challenges, mood disorders, and other learning disabilities. Its growing list of services include art therapy, applied behavior analysis, behavioral health counseling, fitness, feeding therapy, life skills, music therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, behavioral health counseling and technology skill building. LifeLab Kids approach is family-centric, engaging the entire family in approaches that benefit both their loved one with developmental disabilities and the family as a whole.
“We are not a drop-off center. While children receive both one-on-one and team services from multi-disciplinary clinicians and therapists at LifeLab Kids, we believe that children have the best opportunity for positive outcomes and optimal quality of life when families engage to continue reinforcing at home the progress that is being made through our on-site therapies,” Reddy said. “It’s not a fit for all families, but for those who are able to commit, we have seen tremendous success stories full of joy and hope.”
Those interested in pursuing LifeLab Kids services can find more information on the organization here. Those seeking career opportunities can learn more on the LifeLab Kids careers page. Students interested in internships to work with children with developmental disabilities are also encouraged to apply.
About LifeLab Kids
Founded in Ferndale, Michigan in 2019, with a second location in Clinton Township, LifeLab Kids is an immersive therapeutic, recreation, and learning center that provides unique, comprehensive and individualized programming to help differently-abled youth and their families be healthy and active – and to belong. Empowering these individuals to see past their limitations and lead full lives, the 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization brings a multidisciplinary team together under one roof to collectively work with students to discover their strengths and engage in their passions. Learn more at www.lifelabkids.org.
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