Autism New Jersey Releases Landmark Report: Connecting With Autism
Innovative Report Outlines Ways to Improve Quality of Life for Individuals with Autism. Study included more than 500 interviews of individuals, families and professionals
Autism New Jersey, the state’s oldest and largest advocacy organization for individuals with autism, released the results of a landmark review of more than 500 interviews to determine the best ways that the needs of individuals with autism, their families and professionals who support them would be better served in New Jersey.
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Download Connecting with Autism: A Blueprint for Lifetime Support
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“This is a seminal document because it identifies the critical goals and activities that will improve the quality of life for one of New Jersey’s most vulnerable and underserved populations,” said Autism New Jersey Executive Director Linda Meyer, Ed.D., MPA, BCBA-D, CPT.
“The Blueprint is a first-of-its-kind document. It relied on face-to-face interviews to fully understand the needs and desires of the entire autism community. The Blueprint provides guidance and direction for the autism community itself as well as policymakers and leaders at the local, state and federal levels,” Meyer said.
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Connecting with Autism: A Blueprint for Lifetime Support was developed over a yearlong period and involved more than 2,000 hours traveling across the state conducting face-to-face interviews of 537 individuals with autism, their families, and the professionals who support them.
The interviews and other research activities revealed five principle goals within its central theme, “A Continuum of Seamless Services and Support throughout the Lifespan.” These goals include:
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Lifetime access to individualized services;
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Collaboration and partnerships for lifetime planning;
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Skilled and compassionate people;
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Credible and reliable information; and
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Community-based inclusion.
Within each goal, the Blueprint provides an image of the future, initiatives that would help achieve the image and success indicators for each initiative. The 28-page Blueprint includes 16 different initiatives to create a lifetime support system.
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Listening Tour Overview
Autism New Jersey is engaged in a very exciting strategic planning project leading to the development of a “Blueprint for Lifetime Support Services for Families and Individuals with Autism.” The Blueprint will be used as the foundation of Autism New Jersey’s advocacy work on behalf of the autism community and reflect its greatest and most profound hopes and needs. Because this task is so ambitious, we need your help.
Background
Last March, Autism New Jersey leadership began a strategic planning process resulting in five Strategic Goals:
- 1. Development of a comprehensive government affairs advocacy plan.
- 2. Development of a marketing and outreach plan to increase membership to 25,000 members with a focus on the “disengaged, disenfranchised, discouraged, and disadvantaged people in the autism community.”
- 3. Development of a plan to expand supports to families.
- 4. Development of a plan to enhance Autism New Jersey‘s evidence-based research and information dissemination programs.
- 5. Improving the financial health and stability of Autism New Jersey.
Subsequently, our Board of Trustees and Directors began seeking additional, specific information from and about individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and the families and professionals who support them. We realized that executing a Listening Tour would enable us to canvas all segments of New Jersey to ascertain important information, which would be incorporated into our Blueprint. We need to hear directly from you – individuals with autism, those with connections to the autism community, as well from people willing to conduct interviews with us.
Our Listening Tour is engaging the voices of hundreds of people within the autism community through face-to-face interviews. We are reaching out especially to those individuals who typically have not been heard, are underserved or not served at all. We have heard from people living in every corner of the state, those requiring minimal to maximum levels of support and from representatives of every socioeconomic level. Autism knows no racial, socioeconomic or cultural boundaries; therefore, we are making sure that the diverse perspective of various ethnicities and religions have been incorporated into the process and that the ultimate Blueprint is reflective of their hopes, dreams, needs and aspirations. We hope to continue to have people deeply involved in this process who represent New Jersey’s African American, Hispanic and Asian communities. We are determined to ensure that we are listening to non-members of Autism New Jersey (those from whom we have not traditionally heard) as well as making sure that individuals involved in this process are representative of:
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a. The north, south and central geographical regions of New Jersey;
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b. The urban, suburban and rural regions of New Jersey;
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c. The age groupings that comprise the lifespan: 0 to 5; 5 to 13; 14 to 21; 21 to 34; 35 to 54; and 55+; and
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d. Varying degrees of ASDs: individuals who require minimal, moderate and significant levels of support and those who are dually diagnosed.