Last year we raised nearly $4200! Thanks to you we provided safety kits to over 100 CPS families of students with elopement tendencies, childcare, a speaker fee, and snacks for 8 autism family groups!
This year we’re keeping it going. As you know there are no extra funds so I’m reaching out for funds to provide childcare for our autism family groups and the BIG initiative this year is to pilot a program for water safety. This has been on my mind and I’m super excited to make this happen.
Please reach out with any questions and share! I can talk all day about the why your support is needed and where your support will go.
See below for last year!
2024/2025
Why not dream big to support families?
This GoFundMe is now twofold. The first $1350 raised is ear marked to support our autism support group specifically childcare and snacks. It is now being updated to support families getting necessary items to promote safety, specifically eloping (running away). The goal is to come back after our Thanksgiving break with as many safety kits as possible.
The new goal is to get every autism family in my public school (and eventually all of Cincinnati Public Schools) door chimes/alarms, printable resources, and visual supports to prevent eloping. After research, there are other organizations that offer safety kits but they are in high demand and have limited amounts and some have fees associated. We will also be hosting one of our family support groups with the topic on safety. We are hopeful that each family will receive a tile or airtag and bracelet from EmPath for Autism but in case that doesn't happen we will use any extra funds to provide tracking devices.
Original: Never have I ever created a go fund me. I've been racking my brain to find a creative way to support an important initiative, and it has landed me here.
If you know me then you know I'm a preschool autism teacher. If you don't know me, hello I'm Gretchen. I've spent my whole career (over 20 years) working with preschool age students with special needs and the last 8 years I have been a teacher in a large city public school system. I often get big ideas, and they stew in my head for a while until I get them out. Last year one of my ideas was to start an autism family support group for my families. Towards the end of the year, we had our first group meeting. The team rallied and we had a great turn out. Almost all my families showed up. I bought pizza and drinks, my paraprofessionals stayed to monitor the students so the families could fully engage. The topic was communication, and it was awesome! The feedback was positive, and the families wanted more.
This year the dream is for it to grow. To have one meeting per month! The issue is money. The issue with so many things often seem to be money. You see last year I paid (out of my pocket) for pizza, and 50 dollars to each of my paraprofessionals to stay and provide childcare. They would have done it for nothing, out of love, but one had to call off of her second job to stay and no way was I not going to reimburse them for their time. I don't want a pat on the back because it was my choice to use my money to help support this first family support group.
This year the dream is to have one autism family support group per month. I want to open it up to the wider district and host it at my school. My principal has already offered the space and time. All we need is funding.
One thing I've noticed is the isolation, confusion and frustration families feel at times when their children are diagnosed, display sensory needs, behavior concerns, communication concerns, toilet training, not eating, transitioning to another grade and so on. The other thing I've noticed is that when they have uninterrupted time to meet with one another they feel hope, joy and community. Last year the families quickly were able to say "me too" or "yes, my child does that" or "have you tried this? or "it gets better" or "give it time" or "go here when you need this."
Do you know how much paraprofessionals make per hour, you know those folks who directly support the students, classrooms, teachers and schools? Do you know what their job description is? Every single person in education knows it is not enough. It is not enough to support a family, not enough to work just one job especially if you are a single parent, not enough to build a savings, it's plain old not enough. Paraprofessionals are literally godsends to a well-run classroom. They are the backbone. I could go on and on about all they do!
Ideas are brewing and the first two autism family support groups are scheduled and ready to launch. The first one is a topic on helping families problem solve sensory needs and behaviors and the second one is about how to tap into resources beyond the school. Ideas are brewing for the rest of the year just hesitant to set the dates and secure speakers until I know we can have childcare.
If this go fund me gets funded the funds will go towards
1. Paying the paraprofessionals to provide childcare for the students during the support group time so their families can relax and fully engage. Afterall, without childcare during the group then in the two parent households only one parent will be able to attend, in the single parent households no parents will be able to attend.
3 paraprofessionals $50 dollars per support group=1200 per year if we have 8 support groups.
2. Transportation for families that do not have a way to get to and from the school but want to attend.
3. If there are any funds leftover than we will feed the children and families.