Brand Story – Aim High PDX taps its core values to help all kinds of kids get ready for life.
About 10 years ago, Doug Ownby was looking for somewhere for his then-12-year-old daughter, Lindsey, to try out martial arts. She was a bit timid, and Ownby thought it might be helpful to find her a place where she could feel more comfortable and confident.
They checked out Aim High, a martial arts studio in Beaverton, and Lindsey took to it right away.
“She came into the organization and just fell in love,” Ownby says.
But something else happened around then as well: Just two weeks after that introduction, the team at Aim High got Ownby out on the floor doing Taekwondo with his daughter. The two would later test for their black belts together.
“I really had no intention. It was the charisma, the energy, the involvement the staff had that encouraged me to participate,” says Ownby, who first began studying martial arts in 2000. “They convinced me to get on the floor. It was life changing.”
Fast-forward a few years, and Ownby started volunteering for Aim High as a way to give back. Not long after that, he started working for the nonprofit, and in 2019, he became executive director.
Along the way, Aim High had evolved as well. Today, Aim High PDX is the nonprofit umbrella organization not only for the Aim High Academy of Martial Arts, but also for Aim High Impact, an Applied Behavior Analysis clinic serving teens and young adults diagnosed with autism, and Aim High Ascent, an ABA clinic that specializes in early intervention for kids ages 2-7 who have been diagnosed with autism.
“The goal has always been to be a resource center for youth and families,” Ownby says.
Learning life skills
Though it started in 2005 as a martial arts studio, Aim High began to transform in 2016. For a while, the studio had been working with some youths with disabilities and had realized how good martial arts were for their physical and mental health. Around the same time, Dana Donaldson, who worked in an autism clinic in Beaverton, was seeing an increasing need for ABA services for older kids with autism. In many cases, those kids were aging out of the facility and had nowhere else to go.
“We realized that not a lot of clinics were working with middle schoolers and high schoolers with high behaviors,” Ownby says. “There just wasn’t anything like that in the area.”
And so, in 2017, Aim High Impact was born. The insurance-based clinic now serves more than 40 youths and young adults with autism diagnoses. The clinic has a one-to-one staff ratio with licensed behavioral technicians who work with clients to help them with language, managing emotions, learning life skills and gaining independence. Robust internet service from Comcast Business helps ensure that Aim High’s behavioral technicians have the tools they need to provide the best treatment possible.
“Our staff work one-on-one with our clients,” Ownby says. “Each of them has an iPad they use to take data on the treatment they are providing, so having reliable internet is essential.”
Part of the therapy also includes desensitizing youngsters to situations that might be unsettling to them, such as going to a restaurant or a dentist appointment.
“A lot of these kids are so impacted by autism that they have not been able to go on a vacation or to a restaurant,” Ownby says. “We hope to work with the kids so their parents can have those experiences with their kiddos.”
The success of Aim High Impact allowed Aim High to later launch Aim High Ascent, which specializes in early intervention for kids age 2-7 who have been diagnosed with autism. Like Aim High Impact, Aim High Ascent works closely with kids through ABA therapy to help improve language and social skills and decrease behavioral challenges. The therapy also includes a sensory gym, which provides an important stimulating environment for kids.
So how does Aim High’s original foundation – martial arts – tie into all of this?
At the core
For starters, the Aim High Academy of Martial Arts is one of the largest nonprofit martial arts schools in the Portland metro region. It offers a range of programs, from Warriors for younger students to Taekwondo, kickboxing and the Korean martial art of Tang Soo Do.
Ownby says Aim High also has a special black belt program for youngsters who are on track to earn their black belts. The program is about martial arts, for sure, but it also focuses on life skills, bonding, the day-to-day struggles of adolescence, including bullying and anxiety, and other areas that help prepare them for their lives ahead.
“It’s not all about punching and kicking,” Ownby says. “It is a very specialized program that we are very, very proud of.”
And then there are Aim High’s core values of kindness, integrity and respect. Those permeate the martial arts training programs, but they also course through all of Aim High’s focus areas as well. So the youth involved in Aim High Ascent and Aim High Impact may not be learning the fighting moves that come with martial arts, but they are learning about the importance of Aim High’s core values.
“There is a lot of crossover between Impact, Ascent and martial arts,” Ownby says. “We are about community, culture and our core values that spread kindness, integrity and respect. We encompass those in everything we do.”
Find out more at aimhighpdx.org.
Brand stories are paid content articles that allow Oregon Business advertisers to share news about their organizations and engage with readers on business and public policy issues. The stories are produced in house by the Oregon Business marketing department. For more information, contact associate publisher Courtney Kutzman.
