Shayla`s Voice is a non-profit organization created to help special needs families find the right services for their loved ones through the collective reviewing of services offered to the special needs community. Through this platform, families can share their own personal experiences on the services they’ve used in order to encourage the right level of services for other families in the community. Essentially, Shayla`s Voice hopes to help special needs families find the right services for their loved ones, one review at a time.
Our Story
After our daughter Shayla, was diagnosed with autism at the age of 2, our mission was to gather as much information as possible, and to seek the best help for our daughter. With sleepless nights researching the internet, and speaking to professional after professional, we grew more and more confused and devastated day by day, as we simply did not know what the right service was, or who would provide the best service for our precious angel. We found ourselves spending money on anything and everything from diets, to therapies, seeking, reaching and hoping that we were doing the right thing for Shayla. Like us, we are certain that many parents receiving a new diagnosis for any disability has done and are doing just the same.
As we look back and reflect on our journey, although we wouldn’t do anything differently, we however identified an opportunity to do better for our precious kids. We created Shayla’s Voice to provide resources to families in our community solely based on other parents’ personal reviews and journeys.
With the special needs community growing day by day, our goal is to connect parents to the right resources and professionals based on what others within the community have personally experienced, providing a trusted genuine voice, because we live the same day to day experience.
Shayla’s Voice is dedicated to providing individual compassionate reviews on service providers for those living with any different ability. We seek to fill an unmet need by allowing our personal voices to come together on care and services to individuals and families that are burdened emotionally by a diagnosis.
Our voices together will strengthen our community.
Who We Are
Annasha Martin
President
Annasha Martin is a Wife, Mother and an executive with over a decade of experience in the CS industry. Scaling innovation, developing effective processes and systems to enhance user experiences has built Annasha’s capacity to established customer centred frameworks to better serve clients. Learn More
Kara Halonen
Public Relations Director
Kara Halonen, is a wife and a mother of two beautiful girls who have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, with one of the girls having a dual diagnosis. Kara prides herself in being a proud special needs advocate, spreading awareness through her writing for magazines which include but …Learn More
Samantha P. George
Early Childhood Educator
Samantha George, is a young woman who is passionate about her career in working with children of all ages and various levels of developmental abilities. Although she doesn’t have any children of her own, she is actively involved in the lives of the children in her work environment and in her family. Learn More