OAR News

Earlier this year, OAR set outreach goals for the month of April to spread awareness, take action, and increase acceptance of persons with autism. Here is an update on what we have accomplished as of the end of Autism Awareness Month.

Goal 1: Educate youth about their peers with autism.

OAR’s goal for April was to provide peer education materials through the Kit for Kids program and the new Autism Tuned In program to 6,000 general education students in grades K-8. By the end of April, the program had reached almost double that amount, reaching over 11,900 additional students, bringing the total number of students impacted by the Kit for Kids to well over 112,000.

Goal 2: Empower the autism community with informational OAR resources.

OAR planned to distribute 5,000 Life Journey Through Autism guides to families, schools, conferences, police and fire stations, and lending libraries. In doing so, OAR hoped to offer tools, lessons, and advice on how to prepare for urgent needs experienced by persons with autism. By the end of April, OAR had distributed over 7,000 guidebooks to the autism community.

Of those resources, over 1,500 copies of A Guide to Safety were delivered to the community, far exceeding OAR’s goal of 1,000. This resource identifies the major safety threats for individuals on the spectrum during childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Its main focus, however, is to help parents understand what they can do to plan for threats, prevent them from occurring, and manage them if things go wrong.

Autism Awareness Month may be over, but you can still download or order OAR’s resources from our online store. OAR aims to share its resources year round with all those in need.

Goal 3: Support autism siblings with resources for kids, teens, and parents.

Being a sibling has its highs and lows, on or off the autism spectrum. For autism siblings, however, there are a few unique challenges. OAR provides three sibling guidebooks, each aimed towards meeting the specific needs and concerns of young children, teens, and caregivers.

This April, OAR’s goal was to deliver 1,500 copies of our sibling guides, Life as an Autism Sibling: A Guide for Teens; Autism, My Sibling, and Me; and Brothers, Sisters, and Autism: A Parent’s Guide. OAR distributed over 2,700 sibling guides by the end of April, including at sibshops and conferences all over the United States.

You can still use OAR’s sibling guides to make sure siblings’ questions are being answered and that they’re receiving the support they need. Remember, up to two copies of each of OAR’s guides are available for free in our store.

Goal 4: Support adults with autism through OAR’s Hire Autism initiative.

OAR’s pilot of its Hire Autism program continued in Northern Virginia this April. For job seekers with autism, the site offers job postings and employment-related support resources. Businesses can post jobs and view information about autism, workplace accommodations, and more on the site. After being hired, individuals can look to Hire Autism for tips on how to be effective workers and maintain their jobs long term.

In April, Hire Autism sought to bring in more jobseekers through local events, strategically promote their resources for job seekers, and further enhance their community presence within Northern Virginia. From its inception through the end of April, Hire Autism has helped 41 job seekers secure employment and is now working with 147 applicants and 53 employer partners.

If you know of any businesses in the Northern Virginia area that may be interested in Hire Autism, give them our informational brochure. If you are currently seeking employment in the area, you can register as a user at any time. To learn more about how you can get involved or to request brochures and other Hire Autism promotional material to share, contact info@hireautism.org.

Goal 5: Raise money for new research and resources.

This year the RUN FOR AUTISM partnered with endurance events all over the country as well as a few international events. After a record-breaking year in 2018, the RUN team is looking to build on that success for another great year.

Earlier this year the RUN FOR AUTISM set a team goal of raising $100,000 during Autism Awareness Month. To reach this goal, we continued to recruit teams for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, Marine Corps Marathon, and TCS New York City Marathon while also supporting the OAR team that ran the Virgin London Marathon on April 28. For the first time in OAR history, we also hosted our very first Active for Autism 5K in Alexandria, Va., on April 14 with all the proceeds coming to OAR. 

During Autism Awareness Month, the RUN program raised $67,439. While we fell short of our goal, the funds raised will go a long way towards supporting research grants and distributing resources. 

Looking Ahead

The success OAR experienced in working with the public to spread the word about Hire Autism, educating the next generation, distributing resources, and fundraising for OAR reveals the importance of connecting and collaborating with as many members of the autism community as possible. OAR plans to continue to reach out to new people and organizations to develop our ongoing initiatives.

If you are looking to stay involved in any of the above initiatives, contact OAR at 703-243-9710 or programs@researchautism.org. If you like what OAR does, then share your feedback on the GreatNonprofits website.