Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Christina Henderson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Christina , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

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 been an educator 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 not knowledgeable 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 in 2018 I decided to birth a non-profit organization, Coloring Life My Way.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Coloring Life My Way is a 501 c3 non-profit organization. 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 can relate and cater to the needs of the families we serve. We provide grants, advocacy, workshops for parents and teachers, and host community events. Coloring Life My Way has been blessed to partner with local school districts, churches, library and other businesses in the community to help bring awareness. Although we may encounter some challenges along the way, we can never give up because we are advocating for someone’s quality of life.

Coloring Life My Way was founded by Christina Henderson, who has over 15 years of experience in the field of education in various roles in state and abroad. She started out as a Life Skills Aide and quickly rose in the profession to become a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. Christina obtained her bachelor’s degree from Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana. Later she obtained her Special Education teacher certification at the University of North Texas and a Master of Education from Texas A & M Commerce specializing in Special Education with an Educational Diagnostician certification. In 2019, Christina received a Graduate Academic Certificate in Applied Behavior Analysis from University of North Texas. Christina is certified to teach EC-12 Special Education, evaluate students to determine their educational need for special education services, and is a professional trained in the area of applied behavior analysis.

Before becoming a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and founding Coloring Life My Way, she was a computer programmer and designed websites. However, God had a calling over her life and computer programming was no longer an interest. She began subbing in DeSoto Independent School District in the Special Education Department. While subbing, she reached a pivotal moment, discovering a new found passion and career direction focused on children with various abilities. Within a 10-year span, Christina worked as a Life Skills Aide, Content Mastery Teacher, Resource Math Teacher, and an Educational Diagnostician within DeSoto ISD. Christina later moved to Saudi Arabia where she worked at an American International School and earned her Pearson Train the Trainer Education Certification. In Saudi Arabia, Christina worked alongside international teachers and with parents to support and develop strategies to improve the educational needs of the students.

Today, Christina currently works as a Behavior Specialist for a local school district and is highly involved with giving back to the community, partnering with organizations that support those affected by autism and the special needs community. She is also busy working on a forthcoming franchise business amongst other exciting ventures.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Coloring Life My Way is on Facebook, Instagram, and has recently joined Twitter. Our advice would be to know your target audience and ensure you post relevant information. Also, I would suggest posting consistently. At first, we started out posting once a week or just randomly. We saw a huge growth in our social media audience when we started posting daily.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Being a parent is hard work but having a child with special needs can alter a parent’s expectations and can create challenges that they never imagined. Because each child is different, nothing can fully prepare a family for parenting a child with special needs. By going above and beyond to meet each clients’ evolving needs has helped us grow our clientele.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.coloringlifemyway.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clmw_autism/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ColoringLifeMyWayAutism
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/coloringway

Image Credits
Triple Photography