We were lucky to catch up with Mireya Martinez recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Mireya, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

When you first hear the words, “you’re pregnant,” there is an incredible feeling that takes over your heart and fills it with so much joy! You become overjoyed but at the same time there is a lot of feelings of uncertainties if you are ready to bring a whole new life into this world.

The process of the nine months takes you through a roller coaster ride of emotions! The anticipation intensify even more, once you know that you are almost at the end. You know that the gift of life inside of you will be making its entrance into this world. Then the day comes! Your heart does summersaults once you hear that angelic cry for the first time! Its a girl! Tears of joy roll down your face and you experience sincere authentic happiness!! Purest love you can ever imagine!!

Now the journey of motherhood begins! There is a heavy weight of responsibility that comes over your shoulders. You have to provide this little life with a safe environment, with emotional and physical stability, education and so much love!

But wait, now life throws a curveball. You keep noticing that some things are not happening. Why doesn’t she look at me when I’m talking to her? Why doesn’t she crawl, etc.? Finally at the age of seven, a doctor told me that my daughter had Autism. That was just the beginning of her special needs. She was also diagnosed with Sotos Syndrome (which is cerebral gigantism). Life changed as we knew it. We had to learn a whole new way of life. One that was not considered normal or not familiar! The journey of the unknown began.

During her school years, we established a great educational system for her. Passing through the years, now she was ready to age out of her program. She was 26 years old. How was she going to continue her social skills? How could she continue to learn how to be independent once she left the program? How can she deal with such a huge change? What’s going to happen now? These are the questions that every parent with a special needs loved one asks themselves. A lot of uncertainties but finding ways to move her forward in life.

It just takes one person who cares to make a move to encourage change and growth! I decided to create the “Just 4 Me” Non-profit. I felt the need to do something for our young adults with special needs. To help parents like myself realize that there is always a solution. That once our loved ones aged out of the educational system, we could create a safe space for them to continue to work on their social skills and independence.

The mission of the “Just 4 Me” Non-profit organization is to build a community of young adults with special needs and amazing abilities! It is a group who love to have fun, develop social and independent skills, enhance their confidence, and develop lasting relationships. Our motto: Where different is an amazing way of life!

The name came about because I asked my daughter Bianca what she thought of the idea for me to start this non-profit and she said, “Just for me, mom?” I want every single young adult to feel like she did. For them to know that this non-profit is just for each of them!

There are no fees to become a member. The age ranges from 18 years old on up. The member just has to have a diagnosis. They can come from any county. My personal motto is “No young adults with special needs left behind!”

Our goal and mission is to have a building of our own to set up programs that will benefit the young adults. A place that they can call their own and run it. One of the most challenging aspects of life for my daughter as well as for the young adults is socialization. So we will develop programs that will help them with that. It is also our goal to have sprinter buses, handicapped accessible, to provide the transportation needed for them to get to our events.

Mireya, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Mireya Martinez and I have a daughter named Bianca who was diagnosed with Autism and Sotos Syndrome (cerebral gigantism). Life has always come with challenges for Bianca. We have been fortunate to find educational programs through her academic stages in life. Once she was diagnosed at seven years, she always had a place to develop social skills and a certain level of independence. Then we were faced as to what would she do after she aged out of the school system.

I created the “Just 4 Me” Non-profit because of the need to have something in place for the young adults with special needs once they aged out of the school system. It was created to help parents like myself realize that there is always a solution. That once our loved ones aged out of the educational system, we could create a safe space for them to continue to work on their social skills and independence. They would get the social skills through their every day life at school.

The mission of the “Just 4 Me” Non-profit organization is to build a community of young adults with special needs and amazing abilities! It is a group who love to have fun, develop social and independent skills, enhance their confidence, and develop lasting relationships. Our motto: Where different is an amazing way of life!

The name came about because I asked my daughter Bianca what she thought of the idea for me to start this non-profit and she said, “Just for me, mom?” I want every single young adult to feel like she did. For them to know that this
non-profit is just for each of them!

There are so many early-on programs, adolescent programs and work programs that are great for the disability community. Some of them require you to pay and some give out scholarships but sometimes you have to be on a waiting list. What sets our program apart is the fact that there are no fees to become a member. It doesn’t matter what county you live in because all counties are welcomed. We serve a population of young adults with special where there usually are not a variety a programs for them to continue to build on their social and independent skills. The age ranges from 18 years old on up. My personal motto is “No young adults with special needs left behind!”

Our goal and mission is to have a building of our own to set up programs that will benefit these young adults. A place that they can call their own and run it. One of the most challenging aspects of life for my daughter as well as for the young adults is socialization. So we will develop programs that will help them with that. It is also our goal to have sprinter buses, handicapped accessible, to provide the transportation needed for them to get to our events. We hope to continue to bring awareness of our mission in hopes to have donors continuously help our young adults! This is their livelihood!!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

There are so many factors that goes into starting a non-profit. Especially because it is your passion, your mission and what you value as very important to you! You stumble on the realization that the need encompasses a greater audience. You begin displaying your compassion and you feel a sense of commitment. In my case, the sense of commitment to the disability community.

What inspires me everyday to move forward, are the young adults we serve! I learn from their resilience through their daily challenges, their authenticity, their honesty and most of all their kind hearts!

We just celebrated our five years in October of this year. I was reflecting on how things have been coming along and where we should have been by now. We needed a board and we need more donations to get to our goals of a building and transportation. I was really struggling if I should just let someone else take the reign even though this was a dream come true through prayer. Never said a word to anyone, just felt a little down. So in our five year celebration, the young adults were asked what did they think of me as the founder. I was in awe of the comments of the young adults . Especially one comment of a member that said, “Ms. Mireya. You are not just Bianca and Briana’s mom, you are all of our mother and we couldn’t do it without you!” That just gave me the desire to continue working towards the goals we have set to benefit the young adults.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

When Covid hit our world, it left the majority of humanity scared of the unknown. I was working at Beaumont Healthcare System for almost 20 years at the time. I had to walk away from working for the first time in my life to take care of my daughter. She can not be left alone so I had to make a decision that would alter our lives. The finances would look very different but there was no other choice at the time.

It has been life changing and although it has been challenging at times, I won’t change a thing.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.just4menp.com
• Facebook: Just 4 Me
• Other: Email: [email protected]