We had the good fortune of connecting with Christina Henderson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Christina, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
My thought process was to utilize my professional experience to support families of special needs children while bringing awareness to the community. By profession, I have served in the public school system for over 15 years. During this time, I challenged myself to learn and grow as I encountered students with disabilities, specifically autism. Autism is a term used to describe an array of neurodevelopmental disorders that affect a person’s social, behavior, and communication skills. What I learned is that many families are uneducated and/or misinformed about the disability. These same families are also unaware of services and resources available to help their children with autism. Oftentimes they do not know about these services and resources because they are not readily available within the minority community. This disparity tugged at my heart so hard and for so long that I decided to birth a non-profit organization, Coloring Life My Way.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Our mission is to provide support and services to underprivileged and minority families with children who have autism, behavioral and sensory disorders, while bringing awareness to the community. Because our board is made up of service providers and parents who have children with autism, Coloring Life My Way is able to cater and relate to the needs of the families we serve. We have been blessed to partner with local school districts, library, police department and other businesses in the community to help us bring autism awareness. We have also encountered some challenges along the way, but we can’t give up because we are advocating for someone’s quality of life.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I want to thank God; without Him I can do nothing. To the person who is always by myside, who instilled in me the phrase “where there is a will there is a way”, my mother, Faye Henderson. I also want to shout out in no particular order:

Kristen Cain, Yolanda Morrison, Mon Shea Neal, Chameka Lusk-Bishop, Kedra Lilly and Jason Fisher. Thank you all for believing in the vision and helping me give birth to Coloring Life My Way. Thank you to Jones Inck, LLC for your partnership. To the rest of my family, friends, coworkers, community and the families I serve, thank you for your continuous support, encouragement and giving me reasons to never give up.

Website: www.coloringlifemyway.org

Instagram: @clmw_autism

Twitter: @ColoringWay

Facebook: Coloring Life My Way

Image Credits
Kevin Henderson, Triple Photography

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