AIM HIGHER Covina opened in early June of 2010 eager to bring “The AIM HIGHER Way” to a group of men and women who deserved it.

Making “The AIM HIGHER Way” a reality is a process that takes time and commitment from every team member and every client. Many of the men and women that have joined our program haven’t experienced it before. Many of our team members haven’t either.

It’s a pretty simple philosophy but living it, believing it and standing behind it day after day can be challenge to say the least. It’s a lifelong commitment – that requires a minute by minute application – to respecting ourselves and others as the adults we are.

On Friday the 23rd a client’s mother called at about 4:00 PM and asked if anyone on the staff team read the letter her daughter Katrina wrote during our letter writing activity earlier in day. When we told her that Katrina asked not to read her letter out loud and that we weren’t aware of it’s content she asked if we could stick around so she could come by and read it to us. So, four of our stellar new team members – Marianne, Matt, Carlos, and Robert waited in anticipation for Katina and her mother to come.

A few minutes later they arrived and Katrina read this letter to the team:

Dear Mom,

Thank you for giving me a much better part of this year of 2010. Thank you for looking for this program for me. I am now getting used to Aim Higher and I like this program better than (she named four specific programs) combined. I like this program better because I think they understand more about my disability and others too. When they pretended to be Pokemons like the instructors did yesterday they played along with us. It is not like the other programs. If we act strangely there they’ll tell me (or them) to grow up and act appropriately and act like an adult in program. But here at Aim Higher is different. You are free to act what you really are. You don’t have to feel bad about yourself here because is alright to still like the stuff you are really interested in to and you don’t have to pretend to be a normal adult and that might make them feel bad. Like me. I still like Star Trek, Arc The Lad, Final Fantasy, Digimon and Pokemon. They’ll never leave me and I’ll never grow out of any of the FIVE because I am now happy where I am and on my mountain I am in between teenagehood and adulthood. Here is my diagram.

True Adult – 21
Star Trek – 17
Me – 14
(Arc the Lad and Final Fantasy)
Digimon – 12
Pokemon – 10

Your lovely (CHARGEd up) daughter,

Katrina

We really do believe in what we are doing and it is a letter like this that will always help remind us why we do it. Thank you Katrina!