Past Grants

2004

2003
2002

Center for New York City Affairs

Milano Graduate School, New School University  

72 Fifth Avenue,  Room 618                                                                         

New York, NY 10011

$25,000
Contact: Andrew White
  212-229-5418 ext. 1506

Project Title:  Developmental Disabilities Watch

The Center for New York City Affairs is a non-partisan, university-based forum for analysis and dialogue about critical urban issues, with an emphasis on low-income neighborhoods and rapidly changing communities.  A grant from the FAR Fund will establish the Developmental Disabilities Watch (DDW), an analytic and investigative publication that will inform and educate individuals, families, practioners, public officials and others involved in the New York State and City systems for people with development disabilities, including those on the autistic spectrum. DDW will advance person-centered, strengths-based approaches for developmental disabilities services and encourage more effective supports for self-determination in both the public and private sector.

Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Arts

30 Cooper Square
New York, NY 10003

$15,000
Contact: Ronni Denes
212-353-4174

CUNY Law School Foundation
65-21 Main Street
Flushing, NY 11367

$40,000
Contact: Barney Pace
917-572-4865

Project Title: Project Equity

The project involves the collaboration of three organizations: Advocates for Children, CUNY Law School, and Hunter College School of Social Work.  With a grant from the FAR Fund, Project Equity will continue to provide fellowships to law school interns and graduate social work interns, creating advocates for autistic children and their families.

Department of Special Education Hunter College
695 Park Avenue , Room 1000 West
New York , NY 10021

$15,000
Contact: Shirley Cohen
212-772-4622

Project Title: Planning Grant: Center for the Preparation of Educational Personnel to Work with Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders

Hunter College Department of Special Education offers master’s degree programs in different areas of early childhood special education. A planning grant from the FAR Fund will be used to establish a center to train teachers to work with children on the autistic spectrum, to support and provide information to families of recently diagnosed children and to catalyze staff training improvements among other organizations that serve children on the spectrum.

Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities
1050 Forest Hill Road
Staten Island , NY 10314

$32,000
Contact Person: Steve Holburn
718-494-5338

Project Title: Evaluation of FAR Fund/OMRDD Person-Centered Planning Initiative

The New York State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities is a semi-independent research component of the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities that conducts research in developmental disabilities. The FAR Fund will support an evaluation to examine the extent to which lives in three agencies (Life’s WORC, the Shield and IAHD) become more individualized and the amount these organizations change to promote person-centered planning.

Job Path
22 West 38 th Street , 11 th Floor
New York , NY 10018

$40,000
Contact: Fredda Rosen
212-944-0564

Project Title: The FAR Fund Leadership Alliance: FAR Fund/OMRDD Initiative

Job Path assists individuals with developmental disabilities, including those with autistic spectrum disorders, to obtain and maintain work through supported work strategies.  Founded in 1978 by the Vera Institute for Justice, Job Path has been an innovator in the use of person-centered planning. For three years since September 2003, the FAR Fund provided grants to three New York City agencies to launch person-centered transition planning projects for people with autistic spectrum disorders.  A grant from the FAR Fund will allow Job Path to continue providing technical assistance and leadership development to these agencies.

Job Path
22 West 38 th Street , 11 th Floor
New York , NY 10018

$12,000
Contact: Rachel Pollack
212-944-0564

Project Title: Planning Grant: Accessing Services for Adults with Autistic Spectrum Disorders

Founded in 1978 by the Vera Institute for Justice, Job Path assists individuals with developmental disabilities, including those with autistic spectrum disorders, to obtain and maintain work through supported work strategies and has been an innovator in the use of person-centered planning.  The FAR Fund grant will allow Job Path to produce a comprehensive plan to secure public funding for assisting adults with autistic spectrum disorders to receive services they need from OMRDD and VESID to live independent and productive lives.

Life's WORC
1501 Franklin Avenue

P.O. Box 8165
Garden City , NY 11530

$45,000
Contact: Tina Miller
516-741-9000

Project Title: Pathways to a Dream

Life’s WORC is a parent-founded organization that provides services that foster independent and productive lives for individuals with developmental disabilities and traumatic brain injury. A grant from the FAR Fund will enable Life’s WORC to continue person-centered planning with ten individuals and to develop a “Life Without Walls” program for five additional people. This individualized planning will include establishing volunteer sites, investigating employment opportunities and encouraging increased independence in daily living.

New York University

Institute for Education and Social Policy
726 Broadway, 5 th Floor
New York , NY 10003

$35,000
Contact: Dorothy Siegel
212-995-5815

Project Title: Meeting the ChallengeThe Institute for Education and Social Policy at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Education engages in research and strategic support for community involvement in public school reform.  In partnership with the New York State Department of Education, a grant from the FAR Fund will support the replication of a model program in three New York City public schools that enables higher functioning children with autism to be educated in self-contained classes in neighborhood schools rather than in separate special education programs for children with autism.

New York University

Institute for Education and Social Policy
726 Broadway, 5 th Floor
New York , NY 10003

$17,600
Contact: Elizabeth Cecil
212-501-9044

Project Title: P.S. 32 Parent Project The Institute for Education and Social Policy at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Education engages in research and strategic support for community involvement in public school reform.  The P.S. 32 Parent Project supports teachers and parents of higher functioning children with autistic spectrum disorders at P.S. 32, a mainstream public school where autistic children attend self-contained classes. The FAR Fund’s contribution will expand the project’s parent-focused, psychodynamically-oriented interventions. It will also support separate parent and staff discussion groups to enhance the teachers’ and administration’s understanding of the parents’ perspectives regarding their children’s social and educational development.

The Shield Institute
144-61 Roosevelt Avenue
Flushing , NY 11354

$45,000
Contact: Joshua Skolnick
718-393-8364

Project Title: Creative Futures

The Shield Institute provides early intervention, day care, preschool and school age special education programs for children. It also provides day treatment programs, service coordination, day habilitation for adults, and clinical services for children and adults with developmental disabilities, including those with autistic spectrum disorders.  With a grant from the FAR Fund, the Shield Institute will work to ensure that individualized services are a permanent part of the overall agency’s operations.  They will continue to implement person centered planning for ten individuals and eventually expand these services to a total of 25 people, utilizing their innovative “community center” model that ensures safety while individuals engage in activities they prefer in the community.