A Global Voice for Autism: Democratizing autism support services
Example: Walk us through a specific example(s) of how this solution makes a difference; include its primary activities.
Impact: What is the impact of the work to date? Also describe the projected future impact for the coming years.
Spread Strategies: Moving forward, what are the main strategies for scaling impact?
Financial Sustainability Plan: What is this solution’s plan to ensure financial sustainability?
Marketplace: Who else is addressing the problem outlined here? How does the proposed project differ from these approaches?
Founding Story
Team
Our partnership will revolutionize approaches to autism in conflict-affected communities. The facilitation of culturally appropriate autism programs will increase access to services and decrease the lifetime cost of supporting a child with autism. In collaboration with BI we will rapidly expand to new communities and gain BI’s help in identifying communities with the greatest needs. Simultaneously, BI will gain insight into the health needs of conflict-affected communities in the U.S. and abroad and will increase its impact and recognition in the Middle Eastern Market beyond it’s program for stroke patients. We will connect BI to our government and NGO partner, make BI a leading company in autism support and universalize support for autism.
Relationships/New Contacts, Marketing/Communications Support, Legal Support, Public Policy Knowledge, Access to Capital.
Relationships/New Contacts-B.I. can help us identify and connect with partner organizations and families in need
Marketing/Communications Support-B.I. can help us raise global awareness about autism in conflict-affected communities to garner additional support and alter perceptions
Legal Support-501©3 process and for establishing international sites that need permits for ongoing operations
Public Policy Knowledge-Leveraging U.S. ABA insurance mandates to make services accessible to additional families
Access to Capital-Connect with funding sources to expand global community sites
Deep understanding of an unmet need in a specific market/context, Access to and established trust with customers/beneficiaries, Insights into behavior change.
Improving the affordability of healthcare (e.g., microinsurance, reducing the economic cost of care), Holistic solutions that work across the entire care continuum (including education, prevention, detection, treatment, management, follow-up), Remote care solutions for health management, treatment, and diagnosis.
A Global Voice for Autism and BI will leverage BI’s understanding of the population in Ingelheim refugee camp and A Global Voice for Autism’s understanding of autism support for conflict-affected populations to provide family training and support to autism families in Ingelheim refugee camp. We will be able to support families experiencing the added challenge of supporting a loved one with autism amidst their refugee experience while gaining insight into the healthcare needs of the rapidly-expanding refugee population in Germany and in Europe and collecting data that can be monetized through the improvement and implementation of future refugee healthcare programs.
a new service.
A Global Voice for Autism and Boehringer-Ingelheim will co-create an autism parent training cooperative that gives families in Ingelheim refugee camp the tools to support their children with autism. BI will benefit from this program by addressing an unmet need in a camp where it is already assisting and by collecting data that can be monetized through the development of future programs that meet the healthcare needs of refugee populations and transient populations.
A Global Voice for Autism exists to help children with autism in conflict-affected communities communicate independently. We do this through a holistic approach that addresses the emotional needs of all family members in order to create an environment that is supportive for the child with autism’s learning. This co-creation will further the mission of our organization by enabling us to give families affected by autism in Ingelheim refugee camp the tools to support their children with autism.
A Global Voice for Autism focuses on training the caregivers to help the children with autism. Boehringer Ingelheim could learn from this training the caregiver approach to improving the adherence of its medications especially in areas like Oncology where BI has a presence and caregiver support is very critical. Getting valuable insights on caregiver training from A Global Voice of Autism, Boehringer Ingelheim could offer value-adding counseling services to qualifying cancer patients in combination with prescribed Boehringer Ingelheim drugs(s). These services could be provided by specialized external organization(s) directly or in form of vouchers to support psychosocial needs and the patient’s ability to manage concerns and cope with stigma (similar to autism) and obstacles beyond immediate disease-related issues in their daily life, and beyond the scope of issues supported by their immediate family and caregiver networks.
The oncology bundled offer initiative could take Boehringer Ingelheim’s pharmaceutical offering to the next level of patient-centricity “beyond the pill.” This value- added service complements the prescribed Boehringer Ingelheim oncology drug treatment, as it:
• Supports patients in new ways by providing a professional local resource to help address immediate concerns, including psychological, social, financial, communication and workplace needs.
• Builds favorable support for prescribing Boehringer Ingelheim oncology drug(s) by physicians
• Positions Boehringer Ingelheim as a socially-responsible and patient-centric first-mover innovator.
A Global Voice for Autism will contribute it’s data backed approach to teaching conflict-affected populations to support their children with autism, a trained staff team of Board Certified Behavior Analysts and behaviour analysis professionals, evaluations, surveys and data collection methods that measure family healthcare needs, stress levels and program efficacy and curriculums for parent training, parent support and sibling support programs.
Boehringer-Ingelheim will contribute distribution channels within the Ingelheim refugee camp for program promotion, assistance in procuring translators for the program, any existing data and knowledge of families of children with autism/autism symptoms in the refugee camp (A Global Voice for Autism will create materials to bring in additional families), space for the training programs and any data collection tools that will provide additional valuable information to Boehringer-Ingelheim about healthcare needs and habits in refugee communities.
The co-creation will generate revenue through the collection of data that can be used by both organizations to improve the efficiency of their existing programs and to develop new programs for their target populations. A Global Voice for Autism can use this data to gain support from governing bodies in the future who will purchase A Global Voice for Autism training programs for their constituents and refugee populations under their care and BI can use these data and program insights improve the efficacy of programs offered to refugee populations in Europe, to integrate caregiver training programs into their approach to wellness as well as to identify and act upon unmet healthcare needs in these refugee populations.
The greatest risk is that the refugees might not be able to dedicate themselves fully to learning strategies to support their children with autism while they are struggling to meet basic needs. Additionally, if we are working with a linguistically diverse refugee population, offering the program simultaneously in multiple languages will be a challenge. However, even if the families are unable to demonstrate improvement in their children’s skills, they will still benefit from a community of support and shared experience and the co-creators will benefit from the data on what the population was able to handle and to what degree they were able to participate.
In many of the countries from which refugees are fleeing (Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan etc.) the autism stigma is so significant that many families choose to hide their child’s autism diagnosis from the community. This adds a layer of trauma for these families when they flee their countries and find themselves in close quarters with others, no longer able to hide their children with autism. Additionally, research shows that mothers of children with autism in the United States experience trauma comparable to that of a combat soldier. This reality combined with autism stigma and refugee trauma makes autism families some of the most vulnerable refugees and there is currently a needs gap in supporting these families.
I’d like to implement together.
Capacitar International Training Network-Teaches wellness techniques to individuals who have experienced trauma that can benefit both the staff and the caregivers taking part in the program.
UNHCR-they have extensive networks for supporting refugee populations and systems for evaluating the needs of refugees inside of refugee camps.
Handicap International-provides programs to people with disabilities in refugee camps and can provide valuable insight for this program.
Humans of New York or another news source that focuses on individual narratives and can tell the stories of the families we support through this partnership to raise awareness.