Our Story

Adaptive Parent Project (APP) was started by Alesha Thomas, a mother with cerebral palsy. When Alesha was pregnant with her son, there were very limited resources to turn to in the United States and internationally. APP began as a Youtube channel to teach parents adaptive techniques to parent from a wheelchair. From there it expanded as members in the community began to contribute content. As the community started to grow, the non-profit was born when it became clear to Alesha that an inclusive resource for parents with disabilities was needed, but did not exist. She set out to make this her mission.

In 2021, APP applied to the Aerie Real Changemaker Contest and was were fortunate enough to be selected as one of the top 20 winners. Each winner received $20,000 to help launch their project to make real change in their community. Since then, APP has been able to produce dozens of videos and take part in several educational webinars. APP has also been featured in Forbes magazine as well as international breastfeeding conferences. Our mission to help empower parents with disabilities began with one mother’s ideas and became a collaboration of parenting techniques from all over the world.