AUTISM CHARLOTTE
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Mission Statement
Our mission is to embrace and empower children and families affected by autism.
About This Cause
Autism Charlotte (AC) envisions a community where every family navigating autism is supported with knowledge, resources, warmth, and understanding. We provide a continuum of educational and skill-development services for children and youth with autism. AC is unique among those that serve the autism community in that we also focus our efforts on creating inclusion-based opportunities and programs for those we serve. Our goal is to ensure that children and youth with autism have every opportunity to achieve their full potential as integrated members of our community. Our programs are strategically designed to provide learning, development, support, and opportunities to fully integrate individuals living with autism into our community, while recognizing and celebrating their unique abilities, gifts, and talents. Through our programs, we not only help children with autism to grow and develop, but we also provide opportunities for them to interact and build relationships with “non-affected” or "typical" individuals (i.e., both terms refer to individuals without disabilities). Through these interactions, the special children we serve teach patience, tolerance, and understanding to our non-affected community, offering typical peers and community volunteers a life-changing experience. Our 4 core programs are delivered in schools, on college campuses, in private homes, and throughout the community, and annually serve over 500 children and youth living with autism. Our core programs include: Extended Learning & Development: An innovative service delivery model, offered in various Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and YMCA of Greater Charlotte locations, offers children on the autism spectrum a balance of educational and social learning; individualized skill development training; recreational opportunities; and personal support in their natural setting; among typical student peers; during afterschool and summer hours, and with a 1 to 3 staff to affected child ratio. The program creates a safe, nurturing, and enriching environment, aimed at meeting each child’s unique needs by first providing training and education to both staff and student peers. Student peers are engaged in the program by offering opportunities for them to become homework helpers, playmates, and snack buddies for children impacted by autism. High school students, college interns, and community volunteers are also incorporated into the serving network. Currently serving approximately 114 children with autism annually, involving hundreds of peers, interns, and volunteers, Autism Charlotte’s Extended Learning & Development Program is the only service of its kind offered in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area. It is also Autism Charlotte’s longest standing program Our experience has afforded us an opportunity to develop a level of expertise that has resulted in a program model that has consistently demonstrated successful results, and on average annual data collection and evaluations show that of the children served: • 90% show improvement in behavioral functioning • 88% increase interactions with typical student peers • 99% of parents report satisfaction with the program • Student peers, interns, and volunteers also report experiencing life changing impact as a result of their participation in the program. University Autism Outreach Program: An innovative in-home and community-based program that connects children with autism with college students seeking to gain meaningful autism-related experience. Students are strategically matched with children with autism, and under the training, direction, and supervision of credentialed staff, provide care, one on one coaching, skill development, and a wide variety of support, as they earn invaluable work experience and required college credits. Current university partners include Davidson College, CPCC, UNCC, JCSU, Queens University, Wingate University, Winthrop University, Columbia College, and University of South Carolina. Approximately 300 children are served annually, with 98% demonstrating measurable progress towards their individualized goals. iCan Bike Camp: A community-based program designed to serve children and young adults with a wide range of disabilities, utilizing a nationally recognized model. Participants are taught and supported in learning to ride a conventional bicycle. The primary goal of the program is to increase independence and build self-confidence. The program consistently serves at the maximum program capacity of 40 children per summer, with an 85% success rate, and involving over 75 community volunteers. PATHS: A cutting-edge curriculum (created by Autism Charlotte) specifically targeted towards tweens, teens, and young adults with ASD; delivered in a college setting (currently Queens University of Charlotte and UNCC), with teaching, skill development, training, simulated and real life experiences, and enrichment activities that are designed to help participants plan and prepare to for successful transitions such as entering high school, joining a new peer group, managing relationships, building personal skills, preparing to enter college, etc. Approximately 60 youth and young adults are served annually.