Complete History
Giant Steps began in Montreal when a music therapist named Darlene Berringer began to provide therapy to children with autism. In 1984, the small school providing special education was officially established and included a series of therapies on a one to one basis.
In 1994, after seeing a segment about this school on Channel Nine's "A Current Affair", an Australian family decided to take their son to Canada to attend the program. Impressed with the program and the great improvement their son had made, they embarked on setting up a Giant Steps school in Tasmania, Australia.
In August 1994, Rob Llewellyn-Jones contacted Darlene Berringer in order to also establish Giant Steps in Sydney. Berringer agreed to help if there was sufficient parental support for the initiative. A group of parents, who had children with autism and had seen the "A Current Affair" program, met to explore the possibility of establishing Giant Steps in Sydney.
From the first meeting it seemed that the Giant Steps approach was among the world's best practice and that it could be possible to set up a program in Sydney. Contact was made with Giant Steps Tasmania and some of the Steering Committee members visited Giant Steps Montreal soon after.
The Steering Committee met regularly to discuss the logistics, fundraising, staffing, finding a site, publicity, and lobbying the government. They hoped a program could begin from the start of the 1995 school year and that it could be substantially funded by various government departments. The Steering Committee also believed that a school for children with autism should qualify for funding from the Departments of School Education, Community Services and Health. They considered their chances of obtaining government funding best if they could attract sufficient publicity to persuade the politicians to support Giant Steps. A presentation about the Giant Steps initiative was arranged at Parliament House in November 1994. Publicity for the pilot program was also generated with Channel Seven's Summer Diary, ABC Radio and the Sydney Morning Herald's Good Weekend magazine.
A series of meetings were set up with the Departments of School Education (DSE), Community Services (DOCS) and Health. The committee proposed that a pilot program be jointly funded by the three government departments and that ongoing funding would be conditional on a satisfactory outcome in an evaluation study. They were successful in receiving funding similar to that of other special schools for children with autism.
As a prelude to establishing the school as a legal entity Giant Steps for Autism was set up and tax deductible status was obtained. The dynamic and motivated parents on the Steering Committee then set about raising the funds they needed. They had to send staff to Monteal for training, bring Darlene Berringer and some of her staff to Sydney to train Giant Steps Sydney staff, pay for the Service Agreement with Montreal and set up costs. By the end of February 1995 they had raised over $200,000 as well as getting commitments from the Financial Markets Foundation for Children, Citibank and GE Captial.
Parents (including the parents on the Steering Committee) wanting to place their children at Giant Steps were required to complete application forms and provide videos of their children. These were sent to Darlene Berringer in Montreal who selected the initial intake of 12 students for the program. Darlene also appointed the original therapists.
However, it had been very ambitious to expect to get the school started by February and it soon became apparent that that was not realistic. Darlene Berringer could not visit Australia until March or April and more time was required to recruit staff and purchase equipment.
In January 1995, it was agreed that a formal Board should be appointed and it was also decided to change the name from Giant Steps for Autism to Giant Steps Sydney Incorporated.
A skeleton staff of two teachers, two therapists and two teachers' aides referred to as "shadows" were employed from 31 March 1995. Heather Tyler was one of the original shadows and is still employed by Giant Steps. These staff members were sent to Montreal for two weeks training in early April 1995. The idea was that they could spend the term setting things up so that everything would be in place for the intake of children from the start of Term 3 (July). Additional staff could be recruited in the meantime.
When they returned from Montreal, the two teachers decided they did not want to be part of Giant Steps Sydney and it was decided not to locate Giant Steps with a DSE special school as previously planned.
A suitable site had to be found for Giant Steps Sydney. A vacant building called Markaling House at the old Galdesville Hospital was identified. The Department of Health was persuaded to allow Giant Steps to use Markaling House if they could get around the moratorium that had been placed on the entire site whilst the government decided on its future use. After contacting John Watkins, the local supportive Member, he in turn persuaded the Minister to allow Giant Steps to use Markaling House and the nearby Step House. Step House was larger and in relatively better condition and was therefore chosen in preference to Markaling House as the first school building. A Working Bee cleaned and painted Step House so that it was ready for use by opening for July 1995.
Additional staff members were employed to accommodate the original 12 students. It was not until a couple of weeks before Giant Steps officially opened that Libby Maher was employed as the Program Director.
Darlene Berringer came to Sydney to conduct 2 weeks of training in early July 1995. Four of her Montreal staff came for one week. The school opened on 16 July 1995 with 12 students.
The rest as they say is history.
