About The Crow's Nest

Morgan's Perspective

For nine years, Morgan learned alongside her daughter how to advocate in a world that wasn't built for her.

A pivotal shift in Morgan's perspective happened during her daughter’s early elementary years. She had been placed in a mild/moderate classroom with a 1:1 aide, but as the year progressed, she became increasingly dysregulated and left behind. Despite endless meetings to communicate her needs, the public school environment simply couldn't deliver. She spent most of her days isolated in the OT room, separated from her peers because the system didn't know how to support her. Yet at home, supported by a daily sensory diet, she was thriving, joyful, and engaged.

Relief finally came in the form of a non-public school that prioritized regulation and relationships first and academic demands second. The transformation was staggering. From day one, she blossomed. It proved that she wasn't failing to adapt; the environment had been actively dysregulating her. All it took were caring, compassionate people who were willing to slow down and actually “see” her.

Morgan realized that families shouldn't have to make their worlds smaller, or fight endless battles, just to find places where their children are understood. If the community lacked these spaces, they needed to be created.

Tara's Perspective

For nearly two decades, Tara's work with children and families centered on listening, observing, and learning. Over time, one truth became impossible to ignore: when the focus is strictly on behavior, the human being can get lost.

She began questioning approaches that prioritized compliance with external expectations over understanding how a child naturally communicates, regulates, and engages.

One question came to orient her work:

“Who am I to define someone else's authenticity?”

Her focus shifted from changing individuals to creating environments that support them—spaces designed from the beginning with multiple ways to participate, communicate, exercise autonomy, and belong.

Then her son, Matteen, offered a glimpse of what that could look like. For his birthday, he organized a service project that brought together a neurodiverse group of 30 children to give back to their community. Watching them lead, contribute, connect, and care for one another challenged assumptions about what neurodivergent children want and are capable of when given meaningful opportunities to participate in the community.

The Intersection

Around the same time, a friend shared a phrase that captured what Morgan and Tara had been discovering:

“Community is resistance.”

The Crow's Nest grew from that intersection: the mother who refused to accept isolation and the clinician who believed the environment could be reimagined.

Instead of asking people to change to fit the community, we ask how the community can be designed differently so more people can participate in shaping it.

Even our name carries that idea. Crows are intelligent, deeply social, curious, and often misunderstood. A crow's nest offers both refuge and a different vantage point—a place from which to see what others might miss.

The Crow's Nest is our invitation to gather, question what has always been done, and build something better—together.