Officially launched this past April, NeedQuest.com is an innovative take on something that’s become quite familiar in the 21st century: the online local search directory.
However, what sets NeedQuest apart from other similar websites is two-fold. In addition to being a community-building site that directly connects parents of special needs children in the greater Westfield area with reputable service providers located right in their backyards, this new website is also founded by a local parent of a special needs child.
“My 14 year-old son, Jack, was diagnosed at age three with an autism spectrum disorder,” says Leslie Crowe, Founder of NeedQuest LLC. “At that time, I was told by our public school district in Brooklyn to locate a Special Education Itinerant Teacher (SEIT) on my own. It was quite a jarring experience because I didn’t know where to begin! The internet? The yellow pages? Our pediatrician? I really had no idea.”
For Crowe and her son Jack, it took four more months before they could find an appropriate professional. Thereafter, locating an appropriate school for Jack took another three years. Over time, as Jack grew, so did his needs. From therapy to after school programs, summer camps and more, the list of concerns that Crowe found herself combing the Internet in search of answers for, as well as her own anxiety and despair steadily increased.
“I know there are a lot of special needs parents looking for resources for their children,” Crowe says. “However, I could not fathom that there wasn’t a more efficient tool to navigate the Internet while searching for local providers to meet our children’s needs. Eventually, after years of personal frustration, in 2015 I founded NeedQuest.com and committed myself to filling this void for the special needs community.”
When it comes to affirming the need for Crowe’s mission, the numbers don’t lie.
According to the 2012 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs (NSCSN), nearly 14 percent of children under 18 years of age in the United States, or approximately 10.2 million children overall, were estimated to have special health care needs. In New Jersey, the same study uncovered that out of the state’s 1.5 million school-aged children, the number of children reported to have a disability is 4.5 percent, or 67,772 children overall.
32 percent of parents spend more than 40 hours per week with their special needs child or the amount of time equal to a second full-time job.
As such, helping her fellow special needs parents ease these kinds of concerns has become a driving force for Crowe.
“Parents are looking for services and providers at a time in their lives when they have the least amount of energy,” she emphasizes. “With NeedQuest, we’re aiming to be a catalyst for change when it comes to northern New Jersey special needs search – and hopefully, we’ll make everyone’s life, both parents and providers a little easier.”
(above) Westfield residents Jack and Leslie Crowe.
