The Problem Oregon has the second highest per capita number of children diagnosed on the autism spectrum (one out of every 98 of our kids), and our families, schools, communities, and social services are not prepared to deal with this growing crisis. Parents do not have anything close to the resources needed to care for, and pay for, treatments that are vital to children with autism. Schools are already overwhelmed with the cost and difficulty of providing effective educational service to a population that requires specialized knowledge and teaching strategies. Communities lack the in-home specialists and early intervention centers that can make a huge difference in the life of a child with autism. Our state faces an unsustainable future of long-term-care for an ever- increasing number of citizens that will depend on transition and lifespan services.
The Solution: A two year effort to raise public awareness, document the statewide needs and available resources, develop the long term strategy to face this challenge, and organize overwhelming grassroots support to pass legislation during the 2009 Legislative session to put the strategy into action. This issue has strong bipartisan support.
--2008: Plans are in place for a statewide education tour by the Oregon Autism Alliance, followed by a statewide series of town halls coordinated by Oregon Department of Human Services, followed by plan development by the Oregon Education Department to design wraparound services in home, school and community; we need grassroots efforts to support the education tour, and the town halls, and to do capacity-building for lobbying and testimony to bring into the legislative process in 2009.
--2009: Bipartisan legislative support for and passage of comprehensive and effective care, treatment and education of developmentally disabled children in Oregon.
The Prizes and How We Would Use Them: We would, of course, make effective use of the Grand Prize, asking volunteers to promote the educational and DHS tours in 2008 through use of all available email lists and media contacts, and to coordinate and bring people to the events. In addition we would seek support from volunteers to recruit all organizations they belong to for inclusion in the statewide coalition needed for legislative success in 2009. We’re confident that we could use all pieces in the Grand Prize or any of the subsequent prizes to great effect.
Our Non-Profit Umbrella: Contributions to our effort can be made to: The Autism Group Foundation, EIN: 65-1292481.
Bios for Presenters: Rep. Peter Buckley (D-Ashland) is the Majority Whip of the Oregon House of Representatives and was chief sponsor of HB 2918 in 2007, relating to services for developmentally disabled children; Janel Salazar is the director of the Oregon Autism Alliance and the mother of an autistic son; we are also inviting Rep. Chris Edwards (D-Lane County) and Rep. Sara Gelser (D-Corvallis), parents of developmentally disabled children and passionate advocates for this cause.