About Friends of Autistic People
Friends of Autistic People is a parents' support group dedicated to raising awareness of services and supported living arrangements needed for autistic adults and searching for help within public, private and state organizations. We have support meetings, lectures by experts in the field, and we recently produced a Connecticut Access TV special on the needs of autistic adults. There are no membership fees, but we welcome contributions.
By building our membership base to a critical mass, we ensure our voice will be heard within the community and the state legislature. We encourage participation by families of children of all ages. Professionals within the field and other supporters of our cause are invited to join as well.
Friends of Autistic People was founded in 1997 by Brita Darany after her daughter, Vanessa, was discharged from the Greenwich Association of Retarded Citizens group home because they did not have the staffing to support someone with profound autism.
When autistic children reach the age of 21 most services stop for them, and appropriate placements are just not available. The profoundly autistic may find themselves in institutional type settings where they are kept sometimes for the rest of their lives.
The higher functioning autistic adults get even fewer services and often are taken care of by their aging parents. For example, in a nearby town there is a 44-year-old autistic woman who is incapable of living independently and is still being cared for by her 87-year-old widowed mother. Is she going to end up as one of the homeless roaming the streets when her mother passes away?
Another example is a non-verbal autistic adult male who lived in an inappropriate home for the retarded, whose complaints went unnoticed by the inexperienced staff. He finally ended up in full panic in the wrong ward of the local hospital where staff did not know how to communicate with him. And there are many other similar cases.
Autistic children have recently been noticed and through legislation and private funding many services have become available to them. Autistic adults, however, are completely forgotten.
FAP is the only charitable organization in Connecticut that advocates appropriate services for the entire spectrum of autistic adults. Our goals are to assure that adults with autism will have appropriate residences with trained staff and suitable work programs matching their abilities so that they can become contributing members -- rather than burdens -- on society. We are a parents' support group that searches for help within public, private and state organizations and we intend to use funds generated by us to augment services provided by others. Currently there are about 100 parents and professionals in our organization and we keep growing.
As a young organization we have already achieved a lot. We have been awarded non-profit 501(c) (3) status, our recently formed Board of Directors has had two productive meetings, and two nationally well-known authorities on autism have become advisors to our organization. In addition:
- We now have a web site!
- The Department of Mental Retardation (DMR) has committed to set up the first group home in Connecticut exclusively for autistic adults.
- We have gotten media exposure for the purpose of motivating legislative bodies to create legislation and funding of programs for adults with autism.
- We co-produced a TV Special on the special needs of autistic adults.
- Political personalities have taken notice of FAP's activities and expressed their support of our cause.
- Greenwich Hospital assigned a Liaison Officer to FAP.
Please give us a call at 203-661-8510 or send an email to bridaranyi@aol.com and we'll be happy to tell you more about Friends of Autistic People.
Interested in supporting our cause? We welcome contributions of any kind.