Alicia Canning introduced Maria Mascoli.
Autism Families CONNECTicut’s, Executive Director, Maria Mascoli oversees AFC’s daily operations, spearheads fundraising initiatives, coordinates annual grant plan, while mainlining the organization’s mission: “to provide fun social and recreational programs to our autism community”. Maria enjoys cultivating new community relationships to ensure the organization’s mission is shared throughout our community. Over this past year, Maria’s focus centered around keeping AFC’s virtual doors open, so that the autism community can find relief through AFC’s programs.
Prior to joining Autism Families CONNECTicut in January 2020, Maria worked for Avon Public Schools for nearly thirteen years where she served as K-12 substitute teacher and most recently as an intervention tutor at Avon High School. Maria also served as a mentor to many students, as well as an advisor for numerous high school organizations. Managing the Avon Little League Challenger Team, and launching the “For the Love of the Game” series at Avon High School, provided Maria the opportunities to develop valuable programs for mixed ability children and teens. She has over fifteen years of fundraising experience, including chairing local golf tournaments, overseeing live and silent auctions, and many other fundraising events, which have raised proceeds for pediatric clinical trials, high school scholarships, and other local charities. Maria and her husband, Greg, have lived in Avon for the past 19 years and their four children graduated from Avon High School.
Maria noted that today (April 30, 2021) is the last day of Autism Month. She further noted Connecticut has 8000 children affected by autism and that over 1 in 15 is diagnosed with it.
AFC is located in Newington and has existed for 11 years. AFC focuses on creating fun for their clients with fun programs held on weekends. This assists those children and their families by filling a gap created by their self-exclusion from the typical children's programs unaffected children enjoy. Currently they serve 48 towns.
While they've had to close their doors since the pandemic began, they quickly reacted to serve their clients. They began a Friday Night Hangout program for ages 3 to 30 as well as a monthly Saturday night program using virtual formats. They've found the virtual world has enabled many of their client's families to feel more comfortable participating and typically nonverbal children have become more verbal and interactive through this format. Further because families don't have to travel to participate, the stress on families related to participation is much reduced and that has enhanced participation as well.
Their 10th anniversary celebration was held last May, and while virtual only, was successful anyway. They do miss the in person interactions they had pre-pandemic, but are grateful that the virtual world held the silver lining of expanding participation. They hope to get back to in-person programming later this year. They plan to hold a golf tournament fundraiser also at Golf Club of Avon on 6/28/21. All are welcome to participate.
Q: Rollie asked if they have a relationship with Focus on Autism in Canton?
A: Maria: No direct relationship as they are two separate entities, though Lauren Gardner happens to be her neighbor. Lauren noted they complement Focus on Autism because, rather than a school, this is recreational and held on weekends.
Q: Rollie: then asked what causes autism? Do we know more today?
A: Maria noted many recent, new findings but it still remains incompletely understood. Genetics is believed to play the dominant role in the etiopathogenesis
("the cause") of autism.
Q: Jolly asked if direct support for caregivers and parents, such as counseling, is available? She noted that in Uganda they don't have that, and that is a need.
A: Maria agreed that the entire family is impacted, though they don't directly provide those services, but refer to others who do.
Maria presented the following slides to further clarify what they offer:
In person card games.
Holiday party.
Holiday party.
Virtual Lego participatory activity.
Virtual Bingo game.
Virtual shared activities.
Participating student designed Tee-short to build awareness and raise funds.
[Ed Note: This was the actual "Rain Man" car used in the movie.]
Participation in a race in partnership with Brett Favre's charitable organization.
Further information taken from their website:
About Autism Families CONNECTicut
Who We Are: Autism Families CONNECTicut was founded in January 2010 by a group of parents, grandparents and family members who recognized that there were limited weekend recreational and social activities specifically targeted to children on the autism spectrum in Connecticut. Initially, to fill that gap, the focus was on providing programming for children on the spectrum, ages 5-12. While still the focus, programming has since expanded to include preschoolers ages 3-5, teens ages 13-19, and young adults ages 20-29 on the autism spectrum, as well as siblings and parents when appropriate.
Programs are locally based, high quality, low cost, accessible to families and run by professionals. Every program is held in a safe, non-judgmental environment, designed to encourage children, teens, and young adults who attend to have fun, get active and make friends. Most programs are primarily on the weekends and are multi week long.
Autism Families CONNECTicut is registered as a non-profit, exempt organization as described in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Our Vision: A world where all children and teens on the autism spectrum have access to recreational, social and educational activities as an integral part of enjoying a full, balanced, well-rounded life experience.
Our Mission: We CONNECT individuals on the autism spectrum to each other by providing recreational, social and learning opportunities as we build a meaningful, active and engaged community for their families.
Our Core Values: We desire that all children and teens on the autism spectrum…
…feel a sense of belonging and are accepted within a group of their peers, where they fit in, are comfortable and seen as equals.
…increase their confidence and grow in the belief that they can accomplish whatever they set out to do.
…experience personal growth as they increase their skills and abilities through a variety of social activities designed to capture their interests.
…explore their creativity through fun activities where they can interact with peers and express themselves freely.
…express their playfulness by having opportunities to enjoy fun programs that promote a healthy, active lifestyle.
We desire that individuals on the autism spectrum and their families…
… build a supportive community and form valuable, lasting connections through a variety of shared activities.
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