Proposal

I did a proposal on for I organization I had to come up with . My professor revised something. I need to change the the name of it . instead of the rock autism center . I need it to be call The hope autism center . I need page 17 is correct. Also I would like a flyer to be made for this organization.

 

Program Proposal

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Executive Summary

The rising number of children with Autism calls for the need of an autism resource center that will support families raising children with this special need. Rock Autism Resource Center seeks support in terms of funds to establish the center in New Kensington, Pennsylvania. The area is among the places in the United States with a large number of children with Autism Spectrum disorder. The center will offer several services and allow children and their parents to engage in many activities that support their growth and development. For instance, family fun activities will be done monthly to allow parents of children with Autism to meet with each other and for their children to interact and have fun. The center will also have support groups, and this will mainly be for parents whose children have ASD. The center will also offer sibshops for siblings from eight years and above. Sibshops will be fun and energetic programs for siblings of people who have Autism. Having this will allow members to accept life-long concerns and meet their siblings in a relaxed and recreational environment. Rock Resource Center will also have a library with a broad range of books and DVDs that parents and professionals in the center can borrow and acquire more knowledge about Autism Spectrum Disorder. The center will also conduct community outreach, which will allow staff members and parents to increase awareness about Autism and how families can seek help if one of their members has the disorder. These and more services will help support families and individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder in New Kensington, PA. The overall purpose is to improve the quality of life of those with ADS ad their families so that they can have a chance to have a normal life.

For Rock Autism Resource Center to start and run effectively, it will need funds amounting to $434,300. The amount will help in acquiring resources and requirements needed to make the center a success. The center will improve the quality of life of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder and their families. However, it is not easy for the center to raise this amount hence, a funding request will be useful to make the center come to reality.

Vision

Rock Resource Center will allow individuals in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, with Autism and their families to improve their quality of life and increase awareness of the disorder through fun activities, community outreach programs, offering library resources, and support programs.

Mission

Rock Center’s mission is to provide support and services for children, adults, and families with Autism Spectrum Disorder in New Kensington, Pennsylvania.

Statement of Need

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a developmental disorder that affects communication and interaction. Research indicates that one in every sixty-eight children has been diagnosed with ASD, and it can occur to everyone regardless of their racial, ethnic, or social-economic background. The condition is known to affect more boys than girls. The number of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder in New Kensington and Pennsylvania at large has been increasing over the years. In 2000, 1.63 percent of children aged between three to twenty-one who received special education had Autism. The number increased to 9.81 percent in 2014-2015. Hence, it means that the cases of this disorder are on the rise, and there is a need for services to support individuals and their families. Individuals with the disorder have many challenges, including sleeping difficulties, anxiety and depression, epilepsy, attention problems, intellectual disability, among others. Hence, the lack of support results in a low-quality life among them and their families.

With enough support, individuals with this disorder can live a normal life. The support and services that Rock Center for Autism offers individuals and families in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, will allow them to develop and grow normally by reducing some of the secondary challenges of the disorder.

A need assessment survey was conducted to understand the level of support and services that residents in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, needed as far as ASD is concerned. The survey involved interviews with parents of children with the disorder, their siblings, and their relatives. The UPMC St. Margaret Family Health Center in New Kensington helped identify families that would participate in the survey. The survey randomly picked 50 homes with individuals with the disorder, and phone and face-to-face interviews were conducted to understand the needs and resources they lacked, and what they needed to enhance their quality of life. (See Attachment A for interview Questions)

Out of the two hundred families that were contacted, 167 responded and took part in the interview, making the response rate 84 percent. From the results, most parents revealed that they did not have much knowledge about Autism, which made it hard for them to raise their children with the disorder. They felt that a resource center with a library and support groups would help them gain insights about handling children with the disorder. Most siblings of individuals with ASD revealed that it was hard to interact with them at home; hence, they needed a fun environment with a number of activities, which they could engage. Most parents felt that Autism was not a well-known disorder in New Kensington, Pennsylvania. They made their children stay at home to avoid being stigmatized outside. Hence, a local outreach program would help educate the public about the disorder and give their children a chance to have a normal life. Finally, most respondents felt the need for a support program for adults with Autism who did not have intellectual abilities. Most thought that the resource centers in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, mainly focused on children and overlooked the need that adults with Autism may have. The following reveals the needs that people in New Kensington have as far as ASD is concerned.

Fun activities for families   90%

Library resources                 85%

Adult support                       90%

Support groups                      64%

Community awareness           95%

Online community                  60%

Mental health Services            67%

Table 1_ The support and services that individual with ASD and their families receive

Not at all (1) / Completely (5)	1	2	3	4	5
Resource Centers	9%	15%	8%	23%	0%
Community	45%	55%	18%	9%	2%
Support relatives and friends	12%	20%	29%	15%	60%

 

The table above reveals that individuals and families who have children with ASD in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, do not have enough support from resource centers and the community. Hence, there is a likelihood that the secondary challenges of autism compromise their quality of life and are severe among those with the disorder. Eighty-Three Percent of the respondents were aware that the resource center would improve the quality of life, but they could not find one in the area that catered to their needs effectively. Rock Autism Center would support ASD individuals and families to have a quality life by supporting their needs. Overall, the study revealed the need for an Autism Resource Center in New Kensington, Pennsylvania.

Program Design

The Rock Autism Resource Center aims to offer services and support activities that will improve individuals’ and families’ quality of life and reduce the burden of dealing with the disorder within the community. The center will be located on the outskirts of New Kensington in a 5-acre piece of land. The location is a donation by a community member. It had a two-story building and a residential home that will be restructured into a reception area and offices for staff members working for the center. There is a kitchen in one of the story buildings that will be needed to make healthy meals for everybody within the resource center. There is also a space to establish a library, but it will need a lot of renovation. Finally, the community member also donated a bus that will help the center for outreach programs. There is sufficient space to establish fun resources for children and parents. The community member who offered the facility has transferred the ownership of the resources he donated to the center. We signed an agreement will him to show that he donated the resources willingly, and he was okay with his resources being used to support children and families with ASD. All the legal processes to run a resource center have also been obtained, which will make the starting process easy.

For it to do that, it will integrate a wide range of activities and resources that will make support effective. The first and most important aspect of designing the resource center is finding a friendly environment that will allow individuals to thrive. The place should be free from excess noise that can distract activities in the resource center. The center will be far from the road to avoid traffic noise. The resource center will also need enough space to allow fun activities to happen effectively. The center will also have a “quiet room” where parents can retreat when their children become overwhelmed.

The center will have a support group room where parents can meet and have to share their experiences about raising their children with autism. A mental health practitioner will be available in the resource center to offer counseling services to parents who suffer stress and depression for having to deal with their children’s disorder. This approach will help parents to have sufficient support and not be overwhelmed in their parental journey, to avoid compromising the growth and development of their children.

The resource center will have community outreach programs that will involve community volunteers and parents from the resource center. The programs will aim at raising awareness about the program and make people in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, to be aware of the resource center. The community outreach program will bring onboard community nurses, mental health practitioners, public health officers, and parents of children with ASD. The resource center will provide them with training and the resources they need to reach out to the community and educate them about Austin.

The center will also establish a community online, which will offer autism education. Some online platforms that Rock Autism Center will use include Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The center will also incorporate YouTube as a platform where the support group sessions, fun activities, and workshops will be shared. This approach will help to increase awareness about autism not only in New Kensington, Pennsylvania but also in the United States and the world at large.

Program Timeline

Rock Center of Autism is intended to be an ongoing project in New Kensington, Pennsylvania. However, the estimated time before the resource center can run entirely after funding is committed is nine months. This time will involve mobilizing the community about the establishment of an autism resource center, hire employees who will work within the facility, renovating the center and tailoring it to meet the needs of children with ASD, creating a website, acquiring resources such as equipment, and furniture. The table below summarizes the activities that will take place within the first nine months.

Activity	1	2			3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Facility renovation	X	X			X
Installation of necessary equipment and furniture	X	X			X
Staff Recruitment						X
Staff Hiring							X
Staff Training								X
Website development/social media									X
Marketing								X	X	X	X
Launching the program											X

 

Staff Requirements and Responsibilities

The Rock Autism Resource Center will require seven staff members and five board of directors. The stuff members include resource center manager, a counselor, a director of community and family affairs, an autism activities coordinator, a librarian, and a driver. Each of these staff members will have their roles and responsibilities that they will need to fulfill to make the resource center runs effectively.

A volunteer board of directors will help in planning, strategizing goals and objectives for the long- and short-term success of the center. They will also approve the mechanisms that will monitor the centers’ progress against its objectives. Hence, it is important for every board member to understand the centers’ mission and vision so that they can tailor their decisions to meet them. The board of directors will have diverse expertise, knowledge, and perspectives, especially in the medical field. There will also be diversity in age, gender, ethnicity, race, and religion. Overall, a board of directors will be the backbone of the center’s operation since they will hire and evaluate the manager who will in turn oversee all the practices in the center to ensure that they meet the company’s objectives.

A resource center manager will oversee the daily activities that occur within the resource center. He/she will monitor other employees and ensure they have all the resources needed for the center to operate effectively. The manager will understand the center’s internal and external environment and collect information that influences the center’s success. The manager will listen to employees, noting their concerns, and ensuring they get what they need to execute their roles and responsibilities. The individual who will be hired for this position will have a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management and two years of experience in a management position. Importantly, the manager will possess soft skills such as good communication, teamwork, time management that will help him/her to interact with other employees, the center’s members, and other stakeholders.

A counselor will be an essential human resource in Rock Autism Resource Center. His/her role will be to offer counseling services to parents and children with stress, anxiety, or depression. The counsellor will have a degree in a psychology-related field and at least one year of experience in a counsellor position.

The manager of community and family affairs will be responsible for coordinating community outreach programs and support groups. The staff member will ensure that these activities run successfully. The staff member will have a bachelor’s degree in social work and will have two years of experience in a social work position.

A librarian with run the center’s library. The staff member will acquire the material needed for the library, will assign reading materials, document, and ensure that whatever resources members collect are returned in good shape. Notably, the librarian will keep the library in order by arranging the collection. An individual with a bachelor’s in library science will be required for this position and at least a year of experience in the field.

A driver will operate the centers’ bus and will be responsible for transporting stuff and resources during outreach programs. An individual who fits in this position willl have a driver’s license, without a history of traffic offenses and a year of experience driving a bus.

An accountant will oversee the centers’ finances, develop the budget and account for all the funds received to start and run the project. The staff member will have a degree in accounting and two years of experience working in an accounting position.

An autism activities coordinator will coordinate fun activities and workshops. He/she should be a games attendant with experience working with children or adults with autism. Finally, a marketing manager will do all the public relations activities such as digital marketing, traditional marketing, promotions, among others. This stuff member will also design and manage the centers’ online platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The staff member should have a degree in sales and marketing and have one-year of experience in the position. The person will possess good communication skills to communicate with center’s members, the community, and stakeholders. (See Table B for the organization’s Table)

Resource Centre’s Budget

The estimated budget is 434,300for the resource center to start and run for at least a year. Attachment C displays the allocation of funds to the project’s activities. The budget includes funds to renovate the donated facility, equip it with furniture and equipment, recruit and hire employees and create the website, among other activities. Once the center starts, the facility will carry out charity events, donations, gifts, and carry out other fundraising activities such as run and walk events. So far, a local church has committed $40,000, and parents who are friends of the resource center have committed $30,000. Rock Autism Resource Center is requesting financial support to run the center’s activities effectively.

Marketing Plan

A marketing plan is an essential tool for this resource center. It will help identify the target market and the marketing strategies that will help to build the brand and make people know more about it. The marketing goal that the plan will help to attain is to increase membership and attract more funding and support from the public.

Target Market

The target market for this Rock Autism Resource Center is families with children and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The services are specifically for families that want to improve the quality of life for their children by giving them an opportunity to thrive in an environment that understands their condition and offers support and services to meet their needs. It also targets people who want to learn more about Autism Spectrum Disorder so that it can be easy for them to interact with people living with the disorder.

Marketing Mix

Products

The resource will offer a wide range of support services to its target market. Some of them include support groups, workshops, library services, and fun activities. The community will benefit from awareness programs that will help them to understand more about ASD.

Pricing Strategy

Penetration pricing is the strategy that will be used for this resource center. This mainly applies to the payment of membership fees. The resource center will charge a low membership fee when the center is opened. The idea behind this strategy is to attract a large membership once the center is launched.

Place

For members to access the center’s support and services, they will have to visit the center. However, community awareness programs will involve reaching out to the community out of the center.

Promotion

The idea behind the promotion is to make people know that Rock Autism Resource Center exists and making people aware of the support and services it offers to people with autism. Advertising is the promotion method that Rock Autism Resource Center will use. It will incorporate digital and traditional marketing to reach a broad target market.

Regarding digital marketing, social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram will be useful for Rock Autism Resource Center. The sales and marketing manager will create social media pages and share information about the center. From there, he can share posts, events, and information about the resource center and interact with followers. The advantage of digital marketing is that it will reach a wide range of people, especially in this era, when technology has taken over, and there are billions of social media users.

Traditional marketing will complement digital marketing, and, in this case, the center will use television advertising. Even though people spend a lot of time on social media, they still get time to watch televisions, hence, the center has a chance to reach out to millions of viewers not only in New Kensington, Pennsylvania but also in the whole of the United States.

The center’s website will also be a useful marketing tool for the market. Through it, people can learn more about what happens in the resource center, ask questions, and interact with the center’s employees. A yearly website revamp will help to update information about the resource center so that potential members can keep up with whatever happens in it. Overall, a good marketing plan will help in letting a large target market know about the center and increase membership. The incorporation of traditional and digital marketing will help to meet the marketing plan’s objectives.

Evaluation

A year after launching the resources center, an evaluation will be conducted to assess whether it is in line with its objectives. The logical model (Attachment c) will be used to establish if the outcomes listed in it have been attained. Some of the outcomes that the evaluation will focus on include;

• The mental health of children and parents who enrolled in the resource center
• The effectiveness of workshop projects that will be carried out in the resource center.
• The effectiveness and impact of the fun activities that that children and parents will enjoy in the resource center.
• The level of awareness that people within New Kensington, Pennsylvania, will have about Autism Spectrum Disorder.
• How satisfied the members of Rock Autism Resource Center are with the support and services that are offered to them.

The resource manager will conduct the evaluation, and he will use questionnaires. The participants to participate in the evaluation process will be selected using random sampling, and they will be members of the resource center and other people within New Kensington, Pennsylvania. The evaluation will be useful since it will help to establish the areas that the resource center should channel more resources to meet the community’s needs. It will also help strengthen the quality of support and services offered in the resource center and improve outcomes. In other words, the evaluation will help the manager to find answers about fundamental questions regarding the resource center to establish the areas that need changes.

Once the assessment is done, the results should be brought to the attention of the Board of directors, the staff members, and the resource center members. The manager will prepare a report, which will be read to all stakeholders in the Annual General Meeting. Every member will also be presented with a copy of the annual report.

Interview (Attachment A)

Interview questions were formulated to understand the need for a resource center in New Kensington, Pennsylvania. Some interviews were done face-to-face, while others were done through the use of mobile phones. The interviewer sought consent from the interview and made them understand that the process was voluntary. Below is a set of interview questions used in this process.

We are conducing this interview to establish the need for an autism resource center in New Kensington, Pennsylvania. The process is voluntary and you may choose not to answer questions that you find insensitive;

1. For how long have you lived in New Kensington, Pennsylvania?
2. Do you understand what Autism Spectrum Disorder is?
3. Have you encountered any person with ASD?
4. Do you have a child with ASD?
5. If yes, what fun activities doe he/she engage in?
6. If you are raising a child with autism, do you have enough knowledge about the disorder?
7. Are you a member of any autism resource center?
8. If yes, I would you rate the support and services offered to you on a scale on one to five?
9. Have you ever had of an autism campaign or awareness program in this community?
10. What do you thing should be done differently in this community to improve the lives of children with ASD?
11. Do you think people in this community understand much about Autism Spectrum Disorder?
12. Do you think the state government of Pennsylvania is doing enough to support adults and children with autism?
13. Would participate in a charity event to support children and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder within your community?

 

 

Attachment B

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Attachment C

 

Rock Autism Center’s Budget for the First Year

                                   AMOUNT                             CASH

EXPENSES              REQUESTED                        MATCH                TOTAL

Non-personnel

Renovation                               50,000                                 10,000                         60,000

Furniture/Equipment                  40,000                                  15,000                        55,000

Web-development/                   10,000                                  2,000                          12,000

Social media

Legal Requirements                   9,000                                    1000                          10,000

Community mobilization             5,000                                      1300                          6,300

TOTAL                                    114,000                                  29,300                     143,300

 

Personnel Expenses

Manager                                  30,000                                     10,000                        40,000

An adult services specialist     30,000                                     5,000                          35,000

Autism activities coordinator   20,000                                   10,000                          30,000

An adult services specialist      35,000                                     8,000                         43,000

Accountant                                40,000                                   12000                          52,000

Driver                                        20,000                                    5,000                           25,000

Librarian                                 20,000                                    6,000                              26000

Sales and marketing                30,000                                   10,000                              40,000

225,000                                66,000                             291,000

Total                                         339,000                                 95,300                              434,300

 

 

 

Logic Model

Target Population	Program Services/Activities	Outcomes/Results	Indicators	Measures	Consumer Input
WE SERVE:	THE FOLLOWING ARE PROVIDED:	THE IMPACT IS:	WE WILL KNOW BY:	THE TOOLS, FORMS, OR MEASURES WE WILL USE ARE:	WHAT WE WANT TO KNOW FROM CLIENTS AND OTHER STAKEHOLDERS:
·         Families will children and adults with autism spectrum disorder and members of the community who want to understand the disorder. ·         Parents who need mental support due to the stress of dealing with the challenges of ASD. ·         Children and parents who need a serene environment to have fun and interact with others who share similar needs. ·         Parents who need educational resources such as books and documentaries about the disorder. ·         Adults with autism who need support programs to have a normal life.	Counselling ·         Parents and their children Fun activities ·         Sports and games ·         Music concerts ·         Pageant contests ·         Camping and hiking ·         Birthday parties ·         Indoor activities such as painting ·         Movies   Education ·         ASD workshops   Community Awareness through outreach programs that will educate the public about the disorder.	1.        Face-to-face report from members about their experience in the resource center.   2.        Parents and children will meet others facing the challenges of ASD, interacts and appreciate each other   3.        A happier community of people with ASD as a result of fun activities.	1.        A pre-post survey from members to inquire the impact of the resource center.     2.        An increased number of memberships from referrals.	1.        Report of interviews with parents of children with autism     2.        Report of interviews with community members about what they think of community awareness programs.             3.        Report of interviews with staff members about the observations they make about the attitude that members and the community have about the resource center.	After every six months, a phone interview will be conducted to know how satisfied the resource center’s members and stakeholders are with the support and services offered. The survey will also seek suggestions about what should be added into the resource center to increase their level of satisfaction.