As a leading local charity with expertise in serving more than 100 types of disabilities, Variety the Children's Charity of St. Louis is making a difference in the life of a child, every hour of every day, as a result of its focus on continuous service each time a child needs our support. Built on the model of providing access to critical services and support through durable medical equipment and therapy, and providing opportunities for recreation, socialization and artistic expression through Variety Performing Arts, this organization improves the quality of life for Variety children by focusing on their abilities, not their disabilities. Through our unique model, these children build the skills they need to engage and experience their world as fully as possible, and demonstrate belief in themselves, their abilities, and their contributions to society. They can then gain and maintain independence at home, in school and in the community.

For many children, it all begins with durable medical equipment such as wheelchairs, braces, communication devices combined with various types of therapy to fully utilize it. This is the bedrock of our approach. From there, Variety children make valuable progress through our recreation and performing arts programs. Each program is specifically adapted to afford these children maximum growth in skills, self-esteem, socialization, and independence. These programs help Variety children reach benchmarks and milestones that, before, were never thought possible. At the same time, each program fosters the opportunity for each participant to just be a kid. Each child's advancement is integrated throughout all of our programs to provide a holistic approach to his or her services. This is the key to reaching profound growth.

Variety empowers children with physical and developmental disabilities, also referred to as children with special needs, and improves their quality of life. Our programs highlight ability rather than disability. This holistic approach gives access to critical medical equipment and therapies, along with innovative Camp and Performing Arts programs, which provide opportunities for recreation, socialization, and artistic expression. Children gain or maintain independence, boost socialization among their friends and family, demonstrate belief in themselves, and increase skills they need to engage their world as fully as possible

Variety is able to make the greatest positive impact on a child's life when he or she is able to participate in multiple/all of the organization's direct programs. This is the holistic approach utilized by Variety and deemed essential for each child to reach his or her potential. Variety conducts annual surveys for all programs and measures impact as well as satisfaction levels of families and service providers. The surveys allow us to measure the impact of these programs on the progress of each child, focusing on our core competencies of skills, self-esteem, socialization and independence.

Recent accomplishments include the development of a uniform program assessment tool to track satisfaction and outcomes against the core competencies of skills, socialization, self-esteem, independence. Other accomplishments include transitioning Variety completely to a direct service provider, continuing to increase awareness by engaging and partnering with key community partners and recruiting two key leadership positions.