‘You can’t spell disability without the word ability’

Chris Rugowski

Contributor

November 2, 2026

DE PERE – Counting Stars, Inc. is a growing nonprofit organization based in De Pere, dedicated to empowering children, young adults, and families of all abilities through individualized support, skill development, and meaningful community connections.


It serves families throughout Brown County and surrounding communities, providing daily living skills instruction, respite care, caregiver support, Individualized Education Prorgam (IEP) advocacy, transportation, and community-based programming.


According to its website (countingstarsgb.org), the nonprofit is guided by its core philosophy of creating calm, building relationships, and teaching skills, while the organization focuses on helping individuals build independence, develop confidence, strengthen relationships, and experience a true sense of belonging.


In 2026, Counting Stars supported more than 80 families and continues to expand its services, partnerships, and opportunities to meet the growing needs of the community.

The stars align

As the saying goes, “necessity is the mother of invention,” and for Jen Bourget, Executive Director and Founder of Counting Stars, she said that necessity came out of working within a system that no longer encouraged meaningful engagement and support for the families of children with disabilities.


“We learn the most about our families and their needs by going into their homes and developing trusting relationships,” she said. “In my previous role, there were so many barriers to getting people what they needed.”

While out with friends and listening to the song “Counting Stars” by OneRepublic, Bourget said she heard the lyric, “No more countin’ dollars/We’ll be countin’ stars.”

“That was all the inspiration I needed to get this dream off the ground.”

Bourget said she knew she needed change and lovingly called her creation of Counting Stars a midlife crisis of the best kind.

“I felt our families in our community deserved to find success with services and thrive, not just survive.” 

When asked her main “why” behind the mission of Counting Stars, Bourget pointed to “taking action and not just admiring the problem.” 

“When someone opens their heart and doors to people with disabilities, the possibilities can become endless,” she said. “The word ‘disability’ can bring assumptions to mind when the reality is far more unique. Disability can be anything – mental, cognitive, or physical – and has many different looks.”

As a special education teacher and a business owner, Bourget said having these youth in her life makes it “exponentially better.”

“My kiddos teach me more daily about being a good human being than I could ever teach them,” she said. “Seeing Counting Stars in action from my side of things and the businesses who support this mission has been one of the most fulfilling and rewarding things I’ve ever done. My goal is to be a part of the solution to removing discrimination while showing the world what’s possible when you give someone a chance.”

Serving the needs of the community 

Counting Stars currently serves ages 3–17 because Bourget said she believes education needs to start early – knowing that many of their kids and teens struggle with having conversations and advocating for their own needs.


Coaching, modeling, and teaching these skills, Bourget said, requires patience on both sides, because employers are also learning new ways of communication and empathy at the same time.

“I think about parents who are struggling with their own kids who have special needs and get called to come pick them up from school because of a crisis but also have to deal with employers who may not understand the full issue at hand,” she said. “I believe it is our responsibility to help these leaders to see their staff as people and learn about what their lives outside of work may look like.”

Bourget said she knows that as employers gain confidence in breaking down the barriers to hiring people with disabilities in their companies, increase access to their products and services, and support their employees, these employees become an integral part of supporting inclusion and creating a healthier community for all. 

“I have seen businesses that embrace the idea of bringing in or supporting those who have differing abilities exponentially explode,” she said. “The second your business starts promoting that they hire or support people with disabilities, the more people support your business. I can tell you from my own experience you don’t hit a million dollars in operational revenue in eight months in your third year without doing something right.”

However, for Bourget, she said it’s not about the monetary impact of Counting Stars; it’s about the impact the investment makes in the long run.

Looking at the autism spectrum, for example, Bourget said she is the first one to say it’s not as scary as it’s advertised in the media, but that doesn’t mean meltdowns don’t occur. 

“Some of my staff have been told our youth don’t belong at different events by community members,” she said. “I train my staff to train those community members that people with disabilities are allowed to be in the same places as everyone else. Avoiding access to the community means the kids can’t practice the skills necessary to be appropriate in new environments and situations.”

Increasing community opportunities, Bourget said, makes Counting Stars a support resource because she has found many of the families are often scared to take their kids out alone into the community.

“The fear is real,” she said. “These families are already afraid of judgment. I want to give parents the confidence that it doesn’t matter what other people think. It matters what the parent does in the moment to take authority of a situation confidently and also not let others bother them.”

Bourget said she and her team continually work to help the community realize the disability doesn’t define the human with their outings and educational efforts.


The community connection

Bourget estimates around 300 families of various sizes have been helped in the three years Counting Stars has existed.

She often discusses the wraparound services Counting Stars offers and knows the impact is felt by kids, teens, parents, and businesses.

“When we talk about wraparound services, we’re talking about so much more than providing a child with a safe place to spend a few hours,” Bourget said. “We’re looking at the whole child, the whole family, and the challenges they face beyond our doors.”

Bourget said it’s not just about teaching a few skills during a session; it’s about understanding what that child needs to succeed at home, at school, and in their community, and working alongside their family to make that happen. 

“Our goal isn’t simply to fill a few hours of their day – it’s to make a meaningful, lasting difference in their everyday lives.”


The biggest challenge Bourget and her team at Counting Stars face, she said, is that the families that need the most help are often also struggling financially.


As she pointed out, many of them are “one catastrophe away from losing stable housing, access to healthy food, and good healthcare.”

Bourget said by incorporating early intervention, they’re helping parents implement behavior strategies and teaching the kids and teens the skills they need so that by employment age, they have good self-regulation skills.

By building essential life skills, fostering independence, strengthening relationships, and creating opportunities for meaningful community participation, she said Counting Stars is helping lay the foundation for lifelong personal and professional success.


“These skills build upon one another over time, creating a ripple effect that strengthens families, expands future employment opportunities, and contributes to a more inclusive, capable, and economically thriving community,” Bourget said. “I believe that the investment made in an individual today has the potential to positively impact families, workplaces, and the broader economy for generations to come.”

By employing that methodology to educate the youth, Bourget said she talks often about the job potential for them looking forward.

“Traditionally, many in society, and even still some employers, think that those with disabilities are only capable of helping with limited tasks,” she said. “When you really dig into available jobs, it should be based on a person’s preferences, interests, needs, and skill sets. I wouldn’t want one of my teens here to work in fast food if they dislike cooking or serving.”

At its core, Bourget said the driving motto is simple: When you’re happy, you do a better job, and that affects everyone’s bottom lines, whether you have a disability or not. 

Furthermore, she said that everything Counting Stars is doing for children with special needs when it comes to strategies, accommodations, and modifications is good for all humans.


Making an economic impact 

In the three years Counting Stars has been in existence, Bourget said the kids have been delivering mail at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay during the summers and volunteering at Golden House.

“Still, it’s not enough,” she said. “I want to get more business and kids involved in the community. The kids go on business tours, and they’ve been all over the place with us. We get a lot of thank-yous, and vice versa. The more we expose the kids to different businesses, jobs, and areas of the city, the more we encourage independence.”

Bourget said the exposure to new opportunities and experiences is what Counting Stars is working toward because learning what an individual likes early on is going to impact the community in the long run.

Bourget also noted her appreciation for the patience many of the businesses have shown during the tours.

“One of those companies in particular was Belmark,” she said, “We had taken a group to do a tour of the plant, and one of our tour guides has a five-year-old son with autism. By the end of the tour, he was in tears, thanking us for bringing kids into the plant who are like his own child. He seemed to have shared in my feelings of pride and joy to see our youth with disabilities excited to learn about employability skills and opportunities in our community.”

That’s just one example, but the reality, as Bourget said, is you never know who’s going to be impacted by something like a business tour or a partnership opportunity.

When asked what partnership can look like for businesses, Bourget talked about financial donations, items like clothing and toys, and volunteering their time.

“Maybe your employees are cleaning out their basements and have toys and clothes they don’t need anymore; you can donate that to us because our kids are always in need of clothes,” she said. “These donations free up funds for other operational costs like the business tours. If something is still functional, we will take it. We have families who need it, and we give it out at no cost.”

Partnerships can include volunteering opportunities for their kids to work on skills such as landscaping and cooking meals for residents, which they’ve been doing with Golden House.

Economic impact isn’t just a one-sided focus on the disabled either.

Bourget said she has staff who are college kids who have changed their majors to go into the special education field.

“I’m proud as a special educator myself to be raising that next generation of people who want to go into occupational therapy, special education, psychology, and more,” she said. “They’re gaining skill sets that are going to help them in their future careers they would otherwise not be able to get. We support children and young adults with a wide range of abilities, diagnoses, and individual needs, including cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, intellectual and developmental disabilities, ADHD, anxiety disorders, and more.”


Capital campaign on the horizon

Bourget started Counting Stars in 2024 at the YWCA with an average of 40 kids and 37 staff, clearing $400,000 of operational revenue.

Now, three years later, hitting $1 million within eight months of 2026 shows the clear needs of the community, she said. 

“Our operational costs are pretty close to what we’re bringing in for revenue,” Bourget said. “Part of that is because we’re providing so many more opportunities than what’s covered in the state rate for our services. All of the ‘opportunities’ we have come at no cost to the families.”

Bourget said her main goals looking forward are to have statewide IEP advocacy, parent coaching, and in-home daily living skills (DLS) available.

She knows they can attain the first two virtually, and the third would help grow their base of qualified employees around the state, which furthers the mission of impacting the economy.

“The goal with DLS around the state isn’t to have physical locations, but rather to have remote employees who can make that impact locally for their community.”

Looking three years down the line for Brown County, Bourget said her goal is to start their dream building and have tiny homes within the community to help provide some stability for families who need it the most.

“After hearing how much other local organizations have been able to raise in a year, and how long their renovations took, I don’t see why we can’t achieve our goals for phase one in three years,” she said. “I’m looking at local schools and organizations for possible partners, which would allow us to continue providing the current set of services we do.”

In five years, Bourget said she is looking at phases two and three, meaning completing the Counting Stars building and being able to integrate the adult world into the current services. 

“It will include on-site training for jobs that fall into different career pathways.”

Looking at the steps needed to actually make this all come to life, Bourget said she is confident in what Counting Stars has done for the community and what they will continue to accomplish. “We have the momentum and have a purpose,” she said. “We’re a good one to gamble on because I’m not going anywhere. I have a good 20 years left in me to grow this business and mission, and I will not let it fail.”

Learn more about Counting Stars on the aforementioned website.