NFAR is pleased to announce our 2012/2013 Community Project grantees, all of which provide increased learning and treatment opportunities for local children with autism and their families.

NFAR is pleased to announce our 2012/2013 Community Project grantees, all of which provide increased learning and treatment opportunities for local children with autism and their families.

With the support of our Race for Autism participants, fundraisers and sponsors, NFAR has awarded nearly $120,000 this year and over half a million dollars to the San Diego community, helping to change the lives of thousands of children and families.

The nine 2012/ 2013 Community Project Grant recipients include:

• Include Autism — “Autism Inclusion Training for Community Businesses and Organizations.” This innovative program will reshape the way the community looks at autism by providing businesses, organizations and community leaders with practical and specialized training on how to more effectively include individuals with autism in their daily operations and offerings.
• Kids Therapy Associates, Inc. — This project will provide high quality, individualized support for 40 children with special needs, ages 6 – 12 for full inclusion in a summer sports camp. To accomplish this, a comprehensive volunteer buddy training program will be developed and implemented and an instructional module and training materials (Volunteer Training Model for Full Inclusion Camps) developed and offered to other recreational inclusion programs in the community.
• Positive Action Community Theater (PACT) — The Country School Theatre Project. PACT is collaborating with The Country School in San Marcos to provide two, 8-week theater workshop series for students with autism. The students will learn vital life and social skills while participating in improvisational theatre activities with their peers at school.
• Re-Spectrum Community — Serving Youth and Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders. NFAR and ReSpectrum are working through the final details of this initiative.
• Sierra Academy — The WordQ Writing and Reading Assistive Technology Program provides text to speech capabilities as well as word prediction and will be utilized for elementary, high school and transition age students.
• SDSU and Grossmont High School District — This grant will fund the development of a 7-week Young Adult Transition Series program for families. The program will consist of weekly informational and support group sessions including guest speakers from various resources and agencies in San Diego County.
• SDSU and Stein Education Center — The purpose of this project is to create and implement an effective multi-tiered training program (utilizing video modeling techniques) for paraprofessionals in the instruction of Functional Communication Skills for transition-age students with autism.
• Star Specialties, a program of Vista Hill — Family Intensive Training (FIT) Program is a 22 week social skills/ behavioral treatment program for children with autism and their families. Those with high functioning autism (i.e. Aspergers Syndrome) do not qualify for SDRC funding. This grant will provide scholarship funding for families of high functioning children as well as funding for the Spanish translation and formatting of the FIT Parent Handbook.
• UCSD Autism Center of Excellence — A continuation of the Early Identification and treatment Program for Spanish Speaking Families. Early identification and treatment provides the best opportunity to improve long range outcomes in language, social skills and overall IQ. UCSD ACE Center is identifying children as young as 12 months of age who are at-risk for autism and helping them get the resources they need while gathering critical early diagnosis information.

Esperanza, is a bi-lingual 8 week class (español/English) for recently diagnosed families.

¿Cuándo? / When?: Lunes/ One day a week 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM   -

Donde / Location: National Foundation for Autism Research, 9815 Carroll Canyon Road, Suite 208, San Diego, CA 92131

Para obtener más información o para inscribirse,  favor de comunicarse con la Dra. Eliza Harley, al (858) 246-0059 (858) 246-0059/

For more information or to enroll, please contact Eliza Harley, Ph.D.at (858) 246-0059 (858) 246-0059