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Trisha and Scott Cleary have been licensed with IPPI's Permanency Services Program since January 2012. Trisha is an Occupational Therapist in the Feroleto Children's Developmental Center (St. Vincent's Hospital for Special Needs) where she began working with her future foster son, MV in 2011. Trisha recognized that MV needed a home and began assisting in looking for a family placement for him. MV has complex medical needs and a huge and loving heart. The entire Cleary family welcomed him into their home and they became a visiting resource for him. They gave him a place to go on weekends and holidays while providing the experience of a home environment and family while the search for a permanent family continued. As time went on the Clearys and their three sons began to view him as part of their family. They reached out to IPPI about becoming that permanent placement for him.

After over a year of home modification headaches, the Clearys accepted MV into their home as a permanent family member in August 2012. Since then, they have not waivered from their commitment to this young man. They have remained loving and committed through many challenges. Trish and Scott willingly accept and ask for feedback and do all they can to support their foster son. They attend countless appointments and meetings monthly without complaint. In doing so they are teaching their biological sons the valuable lessons of love, strength, perseverance and commitment. Things have not always gone smoothly for their foster child and at times the other children in the home have made sacrifices of their own to support their foster brother. These boys identify him to their friends as their brother, include him in their activities and make adjustments to their schedules so that his needs can be met.

In identifying a STAR family, the Cleary family shines as an obvious choice.

Martha Wick

Licensing Supervisor

The Institute of Professional Practice, Inc.