Grants for Families of Children with Autism
If you are a family residing in the United States with a child on the autism spectrum aged birth to 18, you may qualify for the grant. The maximum you may request is $1,500. Money from the grant may be applied ONLY to biomedical treatments, supplements or therapies for your child with autism - and the money is paid directly to vendors (not to families).
Similar grants are offered to families by Act-Today for Autism, Autism Family Resources, and United Healthcare Children's Foundation. The important point to note is that money from these grants never goes directly to families - and it may be used only for autism treatments and related costs (not to, for example, keep the house warm in winter).
If you are in search of a grant for autism treatment, these grant opportunities are legitimate resources. Many advertised grant opportunities, however, are not. A Google search will almost certainly lead you to sites and ads for "free grants for autism." Many of these organizations will require you to pay in advance for your "free grants" - an absurd idea, since grant, by their very nature, are "free."
If any agency or individual requests money from you as part of a grant application process, run fast and far. Then, consider reporting that agency or individual to the police.
Do you know of other legitimate grant programs for families coping with autism? If so, please let us know! Know of any to be avoided? Your help is appreciated!
Comments
Autism Speaks also offers family services grants for projects in the areas of education, recreation/community activities, equipment/supportive technology, and young adult/adult services. Here is the link for more information: http://www.autismspeaks.org/community/fsdb/grants.php . Thanks for posting the others. I haven’t heard of these programs yet!
Nicole Caldwell of http://www.PositivelyAutism.com/
Thanks, Nicole!
Actually, there are MANY organizations that offer grants to support programs aimed at families with autism (Doug Flutie Foundation and numerous others). Of course, Autism Speaks is a major player in that arena.
But (unless I really misread their guidelines?) Autism Speaks does not provide grants directly to families for treatments, do they?
To be fair, most foundations do NOT provide grants to individual families for anything at all, thought there are a few foundations that, for example, provide grants to individual artists and writers… but the vast majority are interested in funding programs that serve families - not the families themselves. It’s no small project to manage such grants: I’m assuming that the foundation itself must cut individual checks to individual therapists and vendors based on individual bills from families…must be quite a project!
Lisa (autism guide)
Does anyone know of grants that can be requested by a therapy center that offers social skills groups for children with autism?
The Autism Society of Connecticut provides grants directly to families (in CT only) to help them pay for safety and security equipment (like fences, door alarms, specialized car seats) to help keep our loved ones with ASD safe and secure. Program applciations are available online starting in February of each year. ASCONN also is currently providing scholarship money directly to families (in CT) for social skills groups for Girls with ASD. Go to www.asconn.org or e-mail asconn@sbcglobal.net for more information.
http://merzenich.positscience.com/2007/05/01/ultrasound-and-autism/
this is the most interesting research ive read in my 23 years of parenting an autistic child. further research shows that graphs of the rise in autism correspond directly to the use of sonograms. jaymee
This is wonderful information because autism is expensive for families, especially the medical treatment. The other comments were very helpful also, so thank you for those, as well!
I am an adult who has been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome/High Functioning autism, and it is one of my pet peeves that people treat AS/HFA and Kanner’s as childhood diseases that pass like the measles. AND I loathe the fact that our government does the same. I get SSI but is so small an amount it is hard to believe. I can’t cover food, rent, meds and treatment. So do any of you know of sites that help all of who are growing older if not growing up?
Thanks.
I have a 15 year old brother and he is having a diffucult time in high school. I was wondering if anyone knew of any grant money to help me get him home schooled.