Submitted By: Jessica Wisdom
Family Initiative, an autism and child welfare community services organization based in Cape Coral, Florida received a $14,680 donation from Reliabilityweb.com’s annual International Maintenance Conference. Reliabilityweb.com, based in Fort Myers, is committed to discovering effective approaches to making asset managers, reliability leaders and maintenance professionals safer, more successful, and more sustainable.
At this year’s International Maintenance Conference, Reliabilityweb.com chose to support autism awareness and partnered with Family Initiative to support ongoing autism acceptance programs. Reliabilityweb.com sold IMC-2021 Special Edition “No Failure” t-shirts and accepted cash donations. Three years ago, Reliabilityweb.com raised just over $5,000 for Family Initiative at the same event. This year’s total tripled the goal of matching that first gift.
“We are so thankful to Reliabilityweb.com and their team for helping to raise awareness and acceptance for those with autism spectrum disorder. We currently have over 100 families on our waiting list for services and this gift goes a long way toward supporting more families, expanding opportunities and raising awareness for autism,” said David Brown, president and co-founder of Family Initiative.
“Not only did the Reliabilityweb.com community show their generosity by buying the IMC-2021 Special Edition “No Failure” T-Shirts [100% of the proceeds were donated],” stated Reliabilityweb.com’s CEO and Conference organizer Terrence O’Hanlon, “but several individuals, including Luis and Ana Wang, challenged my matching challenge of $1,000 and greatly exceeded it. Others took advantage of our matching offer as well. I was both humbled and moved by the how our community opened their hearts and their wallets for an important cause at a critical time of year.”
Reliabilityweb.com’s gift comes just after new CDC data was released suggesting an increase in prevalence of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) from 1 in 54 children to 1 in 44 children. The new data, collected in 2018 and from a dozen states, showed an uptick in autism diagnoses from the previous data set collected in 2016. The CDC also reported children in the U.S. are being diagnosed with autism at younger ages. Children were 50% more likely to be diagnosed in 2018 than 2014 by age 4.
As populations continue to grow and early signs of autism are diagnosed, the need for additional services also increases. Family Initiative works with children and young adults on the spectrum and provides Applied Behavior Analysis, Occupational Therapy, social skills training groups and more.
To Learn More about all of Family Initiative’s programs, visit FI-Florida.org.
ABOUT FAMILY INITIATIVE
Established in 2015, Family Initiative, Inc. is a Southwest Florida-based 501(c)3 nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to supporting children with autism and strengthening their families. Its team of clinicians serves children from a humanistic approach through Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and Occupational Therapy (OT) services, and also offers autism play groups, teen meetings, parent education, community conversations, and more. In addition, the organization provides child welfare caregiver training and support through its Family Impact Program. Find Family Initiative on Facebook and Instagram @FamilyInitiative and on Twitter at @FI_Inc.
