Autism Delaware provides bilingual family support
Autism Delaware has announced the expansion of its statewide family support program. Families who now call for help and resources are connected to a support team that includes new bilingual family navigators Heidi Morales in southern Delaware, and Ivanka Carbajali in northern Delaware. They join Dafne Carnright, family service coordinator for southern Delaware, and Heidi Mizell, longtime resource coordinator for northern Delaware.
The new navigators’ goal is to provide more outreach to the Spanish-speaking community in addition to greater access to support for families affected by autism. To contact Heidi Morales, southern Delaware families may call 302-644-3410.
Managed by Autism Delaware family support Program Manager Annalisa Ekbladh, the family support team is also offering expanded parent education. For the long-running speaker series, the team is scheduling more experts to talk about subjects that are important to the autism community. Plus, the family support team has created a workshop in partnership with the Delaware Autism Program that addresses many questions and issues faced by families of children who are newly diagnosed.
Called Autism 101, this ongoing workshop can be attended in either of the Autism Delaware offices or on Facebook Live. Autism Delaware's family support program continues to offer parent packets filled with up-to-date information and resources, support groups, parent coffee hours, respite opportunities such as summer day camp and Lego club, and social recreation, such as junior golf, swim club, the annual beach picnic, holiday parties, train rides, Blue Rocks games and sensory-friendly bowling, movies and roller skating.
"Family support was able to expand this year thanks to two important collaborative projects led by the University of Delaware's Center for Disabilities Studies, a federal grant program called Health Resources and Services Administration and the newly created Delaware Network for Excellence in Autism,” said Autism Delaware Executive Director Teresa Avery. “Collaborating on both of these projects were the University of Delaware's Center for Disabilities Studies, Autism Delaware, Nemours/A.I. DuPont Hospital for Children, Family Voices, the Department of Education and various other nonprofits and state agencies. All worked together to create and improve the support system for individuals and families with autism in our state."
For more information, go to www.AutismDelaware.org.
