News and Knowledge

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 8,000 general education students in grades K-8.

Result: By the end of April, OAR had reached 8,747 students with this program, bringing the total number of students impacted by the Kit for Kids to over 120,000.

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.

Result: By the end of April, OAR had distributed over 5,700 guidebooks to the autism community and reached over 7,000 community members with our online resources. Of those resources, over 1,100 copies of A Guide to Safety were delivered, exceeding OAR’s goal to distribute 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. Autism siblings, however, face 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 1,800 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.

Result: 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 Hire Autism initiative is dedicated to helping individuals with autism find meaningful employment opportunities across the United States. Hire Autism supports job seekers through various aspects of the job search process, from career exploration to providing helpful job search tools and advice.

Result: As part of our Autism Awareness Month efforts, Hire Autism registered 64 new job seekers on Hireautism.org and recruited six volunteers for the Navigator program. Additionally, Hire Autism created several new guides for job seekers with autism this year, including A Guide to Job Searching, A Guide to Job Applications, A Guide to Resume Writing, and A Guide to Cover Letter Writing as well as this infographic of tips for job searching during the pandemic.

Interested job seekers can access these guides on Hireautism.org. They can also access Jobtimize, a free career assessment tool that can be used to help focus their efforts on jobs that match their skills and interests. Additionally, professionals can continue to help support these job seekers by becoming Hire Autism navigators.

Goal 5: Raise Money for New Research and Resources

This year, RUN FOR AUTISM partnered with endurance events all over the country as well as a few international events. Although many events have been cancelled or postponed due to COVID-19, the RUN team has been able to pivot and launch our Active for Autism 5K as a virtual event.

Result: RUN FOR AUTISM raised more than $5,000 in April alone to support autism research. 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 its April efforts even during these difficult times reveals the strength of the autism community and the dedication of OAR’s supporters.

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.