A private five-year vocational residency for young adults with intellectual and developmental differences, TBI, and neurodivergent profiles. Built for families who refuse to accept that growth ends at 21.
Scholar-paced advancement. Clinical structure. Real professional work.
Young adults who have been consistently underserved by every existing post-secondary option in Western Washington. Not because they lack capability, but because available programs have never asked enough of them.
Young adults with mild to moderate intellectual and developmental disabilities whose capability far exceeds what available programs have ever asked of them. ThrivePoint meets them where their ability actually is. Not where the system decided to stop.
Traumatic brain injury survivors whose vocational trajectory was disrupted by acquired neurological injury. ThrivePoint provides the structured, low-arousal professional environment they need to rebuild independence on their own timeline.
Neurodivergent young adults, including many who are simultaneously aging out of the foster care system, who have been labeled and managed by every institution they have encountered. ThrivePoint serves autism, ADHD, and sensory processing profiles alongside IDD and TBI. ThrivePoint was designed for exactly this young person.
Scholars choose a Guild, a professional vocational track built around skills with real-world application. This is not simulated work or occupational therapy. It is professional development.
Professional document archiving, digital preservation, metadata management, and media production. Scholars produce real deliverables for real clients. Skills that translate directly to professional library science, records management, and digital media roles.
Opens at LaunchFine arts, ceramics, printmaking, and maker-studio craft. Work that is displayed, sold, and valued. Not tucked away as occupational therapy. The Artisan Studio produces work that goes into the world and earns recognition on its merits.
Opens at LaunchPlanning, coordination, event management, and professional communication. The skills that make every other Guild run, skills that transfer to any professional environment. Operational Leadership scholars run the logistics of ThrivePoint's real events and enterprises.
Opens at LaunchCommercial kitchen skills, professional food service, event catering, and real guest hospitality. From knife safety to a multi-course dinner served at a Guild Hall gala. The Culinary Guild operates a real commercial kitchen producing real food for real events.
Opens Year TwoScholars choose their Guild, build their skills, and advance at their own pace through a documented five-tier mastery framework. Staff are Guild leads with professional expertise, not supervisors managing behavior.
A 1:5 staff-to-scholar ratio. An LPN-Director of Clinical Services on site. Individual Support Plans reviewed annually. Clinical protocols written by a consulting neuropsychologist. All of this operates in the background. Scholars experience a professional environment, not a clinical one.
Most programs move scholars toward an exit. ThrivePoint is built for scholars who need years, not months, to develop real professional capability. Families who have spent years being told their scholar needs to move on will find something different here. Scholars stay as long as they are growing.
ThrivePoint Academy has 25 seats. That is not a marketing constraint. It is a clinical requirement. The 1:5 staff-to-scholar ratio that makes this program work cannot be maintained beyond 25 scholars. Families who secure a waitlist position now will be first in line when enrollment opens. Our target is Summer 2027.
Standard Residency
$500 Waitlist deposit · Credited at enrollment · $4,800/month tuition
Concierge · Extended Schedule
$1,200 Waitlist deposit · Credited at enrollment · $6,800/month tuition
Your deposit is protected. Waitlist deposits are held in a dedicated ThrivePoint Academy LLC account and are not used for operating expenses. A signed Waitlist Agreement documenting your refund rights is sent within 24 hours of your deposit. Questions? Contact billing@thrivepoint.academy
Let us know you are interested and we will keep you informed as we approach opening. No commitment, no payment required.
Keep Me Informed →ThrivePoint Academy is a private-pay program. Our families are not identified through agency pipelines. They are identified through the professional networks of the people who know them best.
If you work with transition-age young adults with IDD, TBI, or neurodivergent profiles, the families you serve may be exactly who we are building this for.
We are in pre-opening phase. We are not asking for a formal referral. We are asking for an introduction. A 20-minute call. A family who wants to know whether ThrivePoint is what they have been looking for.
We understand that the families you serve need more than a brochure. They need to trust the program and the person running it. Carla Estes is available for direct conversations with clinical and legal professionals who want to understand what ThrivePoint is before recommending it to anyone.
Here is exactly where we are and what comes next.
From the Founder
Carla Estes
Founder & Director, ThrivePoint Academy LLC
University Place, Washington
I spent 25 years in education, beginning in Los Angeles, California and the last six years in Pierce County, Washington, as a classroom teacher, building principal, and special education transition coordinator. I worked directly with the young adults ThrivePoint will serve. I watched them age out of systems that were supposed to prepare them and find nothing on the other side.
Not because they lacked capability. Because the programs that existed were not built for what they are actually capable of.
ThrivePoint is not my retirement project. It is the most serious professional work I have ever done. I am building it because it needs to exist, because I am the person who knows how to build it, and because the scholars who will walk through these doors deserve someone who isn't going to cut corners to get there.
If you are a family who has been told that your scholar's growth has a ceiling, I want to talk to you. Reach out directly.