Today we’d like to introduce you to Olivia Martens Hake.
Hi Olivia, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m the founder of Basecamp Advocacy here in San Diego. Even as a child I was an advocate for my younger sister who is autistic and non-speaking (though highly verbal through written and auditory forms). I remember when we were in elementary school with split classrooms, and I had one eye on my teacher and one eye on her. I was the first one to notice when she needed something even from 25 yards away. Through her activities and sports groups, I’ve come to love supporting the autistic community in any way I can. As a teen, I would volunteer in sports camps and seasonal competition teams. In college, I started my own Special Olympics swim team branch in La Jolla and offered adaptive swim lessons since I saw there was this huge need. After graduating from the University of California, San Diego with a BS in Cognitive Neuroscience, I thought I would end up in a non-profit sector, but I found my way to applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapies and worked as a therapist and clinical supervisor across numerous settings for the next decade. I love being able to support individuals with a neurological background from undergrad as well as a behavior analytic model from graduate school. Apart from supporting a diverse age group of individuals across home, community, clinic, and school settings, Basecamp Advocacy has always been the service project I wanted to bring forward to fulfill a greater need. Every child deserves the kinds of accommodations and modifications that will enable them to access learning in the best way possible and in the ways, they want to. Serving individuals in education as well as the clinical setting means having well-rounded supports that are working together.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Basecamp Advocacy is a very new entity, but the service work never stops, and I don’t want it to. Whether it’s being a soundboard for well-versed family advocates or answering and affirming the basic questions for families who are brand new to navigating the world of adaptability and accommodations, I’m here for it! Bumps in the road come with the terrain I’d say. There are always colleagues in the same position or who have fought similar battles in an educational setting though, so it’s great to have such wonderful peers to lean on!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Basecamp Advocacy?
Basecamp Advocacy offers advocacy services in special education and serves all students with exceptionalities across San Diego, California. An advocate may support the school or family in identifying, remediating, or initiating services and supports needed in an educational setting that help an individual learn. We strongly support self-determination and taking your own interests and learning desires into your own hands. Strengths we hold are really being able to take the whole human experience into account and understanding there are optimal precursors to any learning environment and for any learner. We help identify which precursors to learning are best going to serve an individual and get these written into the IEP along with their desired goals. We’re fiercely proud of the collaborative efforts we take to work with the student’s whole team (school, clinical, medical, etc.) in order to bring together such a broad scope of knowledge to set an individual up for success. Basecamp Advocacy also offers different tiers of services that are completely customizable to make sure all questions are answered and all bases are covered (Go, Padres!).
Who else deserves credit in your story?
Truly, the biggest advocate and role model has been my mother. Because of her, my sister was afforded incredible opportunities, the maximum amount of services, and consistent, expert support. She’s an incredible inspiration because she’s also been a para educator for over thirty years. She’s seen the wonders of the right supports and accommodations at the right time, and she’s been the kind of servant leader to always go the extra mile in identifying resources, asking the administration for more, and advocating in the school setting.
Pricing:
- Service Packages Start at $547
Contact Info:
- Website: basecampadvocacy.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/basecampadvocacy/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BasecampAdvocacy
