Established in 2003, the National Foundation for Autism Research (NFAR) is dedicated to improving the lives of autistic individuals. We are a local nonprofit organization that directly serves 2,200+ ASD individuals and their families in San Diego County yearly and nearly 6,000 community members through our annual Race for Autism. As an organization, we have always sought to create programs that fill a much-needed gap in services for autistic individuals and improve their learning, social, and employment opportunities.

When NFAR started, few people had heard of autism, and resources were limited. We helped to fund early identification and educational outreach efforts so that families could get the resources needed to jump start their child’s foundational learning skills to improve their learning trajectory. Working with the UCSD Autism Center of Excellence, we helped to launch the One Year Well Baby Check Up parent questionnaire used across pediatrician offices in San Diego that could track if any child showed early signs of developing autism and offer free resources to help.

At that same time, classroom educators were often isolated and working to support their autistic students’ needs on their own. To help, NFAR started our Educational Workshops so that educators from across districts could share and learn best practices. We also initiated the Teacher’s Grant Awards Program so that educators could purchase equipment, specialized programs, and materials to enhance their autistic students’ learning during school time hours, and to make the learning process more fun and enjoyable for their students.

Through our NFAR Community Projects Program, we have supported more than 100 community initiatives in early identification, education, theater and improv., sports camps, family camps, music therapy, martial arts, social skills training, driving instruction, vocational training, parent education, peer mentor programs at the college level, and more.

In 2015, NFAR launched our first Vocational Training Program to help bridge the gap for autistic individuals between school and employment. There are an estimated 1.1 million ASD persons that will turn 18 over the next 10 years. Yet, the national unemployment rate for autistic people is a dismal 85%, a figure that has remained unchanged for the last 7 years and is higher than for all other disability subgroups combined. Our signature vocational training programs provide comprehensive, autism-specific, hands-on training that combines hard skills with soft skills needed in the workplace and are useful for any career.

At the same time, NFAR is partnering with companies across a wide range of industries to open the doors to employment for neurodivergent individuals helping to ensure a higher probability of long-term employment success. To date, NFAR has successfully placed over 75% of its graduates in industry work internships.