Adele Saccarelli was born in 1965, at a time when the country was in great change. In just a few short years, people from across the country joined together to support common causes: from civil rights to women’s liberation. This movement shook the nation to its core and united people in ways the world had never seen. During this time, Americans witnessed great change, but also great tragedy with the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.
1968 marked a turning point with the assassination of Bobby Kennedy. This represented a loss of hope for many Americans and the beginning of a new shift toward the individual. In the 1970s, people began to split away from their original movements and groups, moving instead toward their own pursuits.
As a young girl, Adele watched her older sisters as they experienced the energy and excitement of the times. Although she was too young to participate herself, she loved listening to the music of the 1960’s and always connected with its message. She especially loved the spirit of cooperation and family that people all around seemed to embrace.
As she entered middle and high school, Adele began to struggle more and more with her studies. Sitting through class felt like an eternity and she dreaded being called on by the teacher. Her hyperactivity & attention problems caused her to miss blocks of information in every class. These problems sustaining mental focus interfered with her reading, understanding & decision-making skills. This also affected her relationships, as well as her reading, writing, conversational & communication skills.
Adele found her release in the world of sports and she played on three different teams in high school, and on one team in college. She loved being part of a group and thrived on the comradery and support of her teammates. Although sports provided some release, she still struggled in school, but no one seemed to have any answers. Adele spent the next decade of her life trying to find these answers, struggling with the same problems year after year. This led her to begin studying both traditional and alternative methods of dealing with these challenges.
Around the same time, Adele began working with children and young adults with invisible challenges in the prison system, as well as in Montessori, military and public schools. She developed a love for teaching, but saw the limitations of traditional learning environments. Her approach to teaching combined ideas and philosophies from across the board, but was outside the box of conventional curriculums. This created roadblocks and hurdles when it came to helping the children who needed it most.
Finally, Adele realized that she would have to create her own system, her own organization that would incorporate a variety of different modalities and ideologies. In order to do this, she turned back in time to harness the creative and community energy of the 1960s. By working as a team, she realized she could provide every child with access to ALL quality resources.
In 1998, Adele was visiting a museum in Maryland with her older sister when she saw the newspaper headline that would finally explain what she was trying to convey: “Teamwork Wins.” The headline was quoting President Roosevelt, who was describing his plan to move the country out of recession and create a unified front to defeat Hitler.
In the same way, Adele knew that she would have to create a unified front to find answers in a time when people didn’t believe there were any to be found. But she knew that the phrase “teamwork wins” would create the foundation for change, awareness and answers that she needed to find.
With the perfect name in hand, Adele began to lay the foundation for Teamwork Wins. She officially started her organization in November 2000, with the goal of providing every child with access to ALL quality resources. Adele combined her knowledge of different teaching modalities and paradigms to create programs that worked for children across the spectrum.
Michael Cavallaro spent most of his life searching for alternative ways to work with the unseen challenges of life. By the time Adele & Michael met, they realized that their individual goals were taking them in the same direction. By combining their goals, the concept of Teamwork Wins expanded.
Adele and Michael began by facilitating workshops on various invisible challenges. They also organized an AD/HD coaching program at a local prison, where they worked with 27 inmates/mothers to develop inner balance, as well as the skills they needed to successfully reintegrate with society. Together, they worked as a team, along with Gail Kerschner and Becky Cibroski to grow the organization. This initial group, along with 52 other volunteers, organized the first International AD/HD Conference in Philadelphia in 2003. The conference was the first of its kind and brought together professionals of both traditional and alternative methods for the first time in history.
In 2003, Rachael Simms met Adele at the International AD/HD conference. They crossed paths again and again over the next three years and finally decided to work collaboratively in 2006, with the goal of supporting individuals on the ASD Spectrum. Together, they worked to create a peer mentoring training program, as well as several social awareness program as a part of Teamwork Wins.
Today, Teamwork Wins researches and employs a variety of modalities to help children with Invisible Challenges. This includes traditional medicine, mentoring and alternative Self-Healing. The goal of Teamwork Wins is to help children integrate their physical, emotional and spiritual needs so they can blend with society without changing who they are. This helps children transform their challenges into strengths so they are ready for today's playgrounds, classrooms and workplaces. Teamwork Wins also teaches parents, teachers and other professional staff that things aren't always what they seem. This creates caring communities that are more accepting of invisible challenges.