The Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism Supports
Meeting Street’s Pilot Phase of Family Autism Services Program
Meeting Street is very excited to announce that The Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism has awarded a $19,980 grant to support the pilot phase of a Family Autism Services Program. The program will improve long-term educational, communication, and socio-emotional outcomes for 15 children and their families in 2008 that are involved in Meeting Street’s Early Intervention program.
During the new pilot program, Meeting Street will increase opportunities for parent/child participation in highly successful playgroups; improve program fidelity across home-and-center-based environments; reduce fragmentation of services for families; and implement new evaluation and curriculum assessment tools to ensure that children are receiving the best supports available for their particular needs and circumstances.
Meeting Street Early Intervention (EI), the state’s largest EI provider, evaluates and treats over 1,100 children (from birth to age three) each year, either in their own homes or within the community. The EI team assesses and responds to the unique educational, developmental, and therapeutic needs of each infant or toddler and provides resources to families so they can better manage their child’s daily care.
With national research supporting the theory that autism can often be detected before a child’s third birthday, the role of Early Intervention staff as key identifiers and supporters in collaboration with family, medical professionals and others is essential. Early diagnosis can allow a child and family to begin receiving services at a critical developmental stage and can enhance long-term outcomes.
For the past year Meeting Street Early Intervention has been involved in assessing and supporting the needs of children diagnosed with autism or showing risk factors associated with it. With the support of The Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism, Meeting Street will be able to improve and expand upon the level of services they already have in place for this population.
"Meeting Street is so fortunate to have the tremendous support of The Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation. We are so grateful for opportunities like this, where we have the ability to provide even more unique and quality programming for the children and families that we serve. We could not do all that we do without the generosity of organizations like this," explained Sharon Terreault, director of Early Intervention at Meeting Street.
“Ten years ago, we started “Dougie’s Team” to increase the awareness of autism and provide support for families caring for children with autism,” said Doug Flutie. “Providing this funding is even more crucial in times of federal and state budget cuts and because of the fact that the numbers of children being diagnosed with autism has increased significantly over the past ten years. The early intervention services provided by Meeting Street will help to improve the quality of life for families and give them a hope for the future. We are very happy to provide the much needed funding.”