IRL Social Skills launched March 1, 2021 — during a global pandemic and recession — to ease some of the suffering and loneliness felt by all of us. However, none were more impacted than those who were already struggling socially due to neurodivergence.

My stellar team and I grew the business with only a $20,000 EIDL loan for start-up costs, and started with five families, from Hawaii to Florida, .

Since then, our work has touched over 500 families and individuals. We even expanded our offerings — due to high demand — to include services for adults age 25+. All via Zoom, accessible, reliable, and helping with the skills of making and keeping friends, from age 11 on up.

In August 2024, I started accepting insurance to help families cover the cost.

However, IRL Social Skills doesn't fit into their boxes of either medical or behavioral: ours is a biopsychosocial approach provided by medical professionals (speech-language pathologists and occupational therapists). So, insurance did not pay 90% of the claims, no matter how hard I tried.

IRL Social Skills has a lot going for us, including:

We also have a tech partner, iyarn, and are waiting to hear from the National Science Foundation about our Small Business Innovation Research grant Phase 1: IRL Neurodivergent Wellbeing, for which Mara McLoughlin, founder and program director, will be the Principal Investigator.

But the lack of payment by insurance — including Medicaid — means that IRL Social Skills may have to shut its doors.

We know that most interventions are for neurodivergent children. But as we get older, the social demands of life increase — and services decrease.

With your support, IRL Social Skills will be able to continue their work, including a pivot to B2B marketing, and help create hyperlocal communities of care, across the US and even the world. We know that intimate, trusted relationships with real people are the remedy to authoritarianism.

We so appreciate your support!