The Fuzz Foundation

Calendar of Events

This page will be a source for upcoming Autism events of significance that help families and professionals in the world of autism.

Highlights

• Autism One Conference
  May 21-25, 2008   
  The most informative conference in the U.S.
• Event Title
  Event Description
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Upcoming Events

• Conference
• Event Title
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Additional Resources

PLEASE ELECT JIM DONNELLY TO THE AUTISM SOCIETY OF AMERICA

 

Dear fellow ASA members:

I’m Jim Donnelly, the father of a wonderful 15 year old young man named Alexander. When he was diagnosed in 1996, autism was still so uncommon that most everyone I talked to didn’t understand what it was. Neither did I. Since then, Autism has proliferated at an exponential rate. We have come a long way since then, but have even further to go.

Over the years as I have worked with parents and professionals, it has become so prevalent that you can see it everywhere. Yet, it is still so misunderstood by the general public. I hope to discover ways to not only bring about greater awareness of autism but a greater understanding of everything it entails.

While working with local groups like FEAT of Louisville and the Autism Society of Kentuckiana, I found solace in getting to know many awesome parents who shared the challenges faced by my family and learned a great deal about not only the diagnostic criteria, but the physical, emotional, financial, and acceptance challenges as well.  During that experience, I experienced the efforts of many creative and dedicated parents who worked diligently to make a difference for all the families around them.

I spent five wonderful years with Autism One. While there, I planned and managed a conference to provide a wide breadth of information to parents and to stimulate innovative thinking between professionals such as physicians and researchers as well as educators and therapists. I also worked on forming legislation, developing research activities, helping families find resources, and other various advocacy activities.  Over that time, I found that treatment protocols and therapies began to take on a more consistent framework in their undertaking. To me, that means that we are establishing generally accepted methods to work with people with autism and are making huge breakthroughs in discovering even more answers for treatment. Not just medically, but therapeutically and educationally as well.

Through these experiences, I’ve found that parents are often the best resource for the information we all need. It’s through the interaction of parents that many of us have found valuable answers for the ones we love. The parents of autism are the most diligent people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. They are researchers, advocates, and innovators.

Many of the kids from the beginning of the sharp increase in the incidence of autism are of late teen and adult age. With that comes a new challenge that is facing all of us, the need for adult services, self-care, and life-skills training. Very soon, several thousand will reach adult age with little or no resources to assure their care and ability to live successfully in the world. That prospect scares me. I feel strongly that we need to be more proactive in seeing that we are ready for the days that are quickly approaching.

Over the last few years, there have been many exciting developments in the world of autism. Insurance legislation in several states to help families get needed therapies that were previously out of reach, discoveries of physiological markers such as Mitochondrial Disorder, and the opening of new schools just to name a few. Every new development draws us closer to finding the critical answers we so desperately need. I believe we should capitalize on that.

As a member of the Board of Directors with ASA, I have many goals:

• To enhance the Environmental Health effort of ASA.
• To work toward greater understanding of autism by the general public and professional community.
• To enable educators to better provide services to our kids.
• To create greater awareness of the needs for adult services.
• To further enable educators to provide the necessary services that the kids desperately need.
• To stimulate research into causal factors as well as clinical discovery of best practices in biomedical treatments.
• To establish greater recognition of autism as a ‘whole-body’ disorder as opposed to simply a mental disability.
• To seek more significant amounts of funding for education and research.
• To work toward better legislation that enables us all to provide for our loved ones and establish a safe and secure life experience.
• To work toward more comprehensive legislation that establishes greater participation by our schools in fulfilling the educational benefits so desperately needed by the kids and to which they are entitled by law.
• To seek ways to enable families to find financial relief from the dilemmas they are faced with daily.

 

As a parent myself, I’ve experienced many of our trials and tribulations. Having tried many different biomedical treatments, numerous tests for allergies and immuno-compromising components, I’ve seen successes and failures with my own son. I’ve dealt with agonizing IEP meetings and have even been through due process in which we experienced a modest degree of success.  Watching my son grow in his teenage years and nearing adult age, I’ve become much more aware of the immediacy of meeting his needs for his adult life. I know that I am not alone. These experiences are a big part of what I hope to utilize at ASA to further enhance their efforts to bring a greater impact for everyone living with autism.

Please think of me when the ballots are sent out on May 5th. There is much work to be done over the coming years. My hope is that my contributions to ASA will help improve life with autism for all of us.

God Bless,

Jim Donnelly.