These grant funds are made possible by the annual Race for Autism - the participants, fundraisers and Race Sponsors. NFAR has awarded over a million dollars to the San Diego community, helping to change the lives of thousands of children and families.
The nine 2016 Community Project Grant recipients include:
- Include Autism — "Assistive Communication for Youth with Autism in the Community" The funding will be used for training staff and participants with autism on how to effectively utilize Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices and tools such as "TouchChat" in community based settings. Participants needing AAC assistance will improve their capacity to engage with peers and others in the community while doing things such as riding public transportation, shopping, dining out, etc.
- Kids Therapy Associates, Inc. — "Improving Generalization of Social SKills within a Naturalistic Recreational Camp Environment" This project will expand upon the success of the previous project that provided individualized support for children with special needs in a week-long camp comprised of 350 children, ages 6 - 12 years old. Specialized supports include individualized support plans, break area, camp buddies, and access to a one hour social-language group curriculum. This project will expand the social-language group activities to the whole camp group setting, and train the sport coaches and volunteer buddies on how to faciliate social generalization for up to 50 children with autism and other special needs.
- Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center -"Community Project: Inclusion of Campers with Autism" JCC's inclusion program is a local, regional and national role model, and the program has been awarded the Ruderman Prize in Disability for innovative programming. This project will offer up to 20 families an opportunity to have a 1:1 aide, specifically trained to help facilitate the full inclusion of their child with autism, grade K - 6 in JCC's summer Camp Program.
- Positive Action Community Theatre (PACT) - Performing Arts/ Life Skills Workshops and Anti-Bullying Theatre Troop" PACT provides four 8-week cycles of improvisional theatre workshops and four-8-week cycles of performing arts (singing and dance) workshops on Saturday afternoons. They also provide a Fall and a Spring workshop series for The Country School. NFAR funding will support the hiring and training of an assistant workshop director with autism, for both the workshops and anti-bullying Theatre troop as well as the project director's mentor training time.
- Rady Children's Hospital Autism Discovery Institute - "Esperanza" Esperanza is a culturally and linguistically-responsive parent group (groups offered in both Spanish and English) designed for parents of children with a recent diagnosis of autism. The program will run for 8 weeks, 90 minutes per session and help to increase parent understanding of ASD, advocacy and support. They are planning for two Spanish groups and one English group, with 10 families per group.
- San Diego Center for Children — "ASD Thrive v3 (Skills, Training, Parent group & parent training)" The Thrive Program is a pilot program aimed at low income families and their children with autism between ages 8 - 15 years old, who are in need of behavioral and social skills support. Additionally, it would target children who have co-concerns such as anxierty, depression, Obsessive Complusive Disorder or beginning stages of psychosis. The pilot is part of San Diego Center for Children's Wellness Center, developed to serve low income youth and families most in need, and would provide pilot families with services following the Group Intensive Family Therapy (GIFT) model offering support to not only the child but the entire family.
- Somali Family Service of San Diego — "San Diego Somali Autism Awareness Initiative" Somali Family Service of San Diego will provide monthly educational forums with host speakers ,a variety of family activities, transportation and translation services etc. to families of the East African community in San Diego who have a child with autism. The forums are structured to empower autism families with information and support.
- START Program, Escondido Union High School District — "Families of Transition-Age Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Experiences with Transition" This program will gather data regarding family experiences on transition from 40+ families who have a youth, ages 17- 22 who is exiting the school system, or who has recently exited, to achieve a better understanding of whether transition objectives are being met.
- Vista Hill/ Stein Education Center — "Relaxation Rooms" The Stein Education Center (SEC) provides educational, after-school and other opportunities to youth and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders and similar conditions. They also provide support for those with serious behavioral challenges. This project would convert what has been "Time Out" rooms into "Relaxation Rooms" equipped with items and materials that have evidence based value in promoting relaxation and stress reduction in children with ASD. The goal is to proactively manage behavioral challenges and increase student-initiatied self managment use of the rooms as a stress reduction technique.