Taylor’s Friends: A Positive Youth Program for Individuals with Autism 1

Taylor’s Friends: A Positive Youth Program for Individuals with Autism Spectrum
Disorder

Amanda Buttrum

Stevenson University
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Mission

This proposal is for a youth organization called “Taylor’s Friends.” The

organization will be a dedicated resource to adolescents on the Autism Spectrum. The

mission of Taylor’s friends is to provide meaningful educational and social opportunities

by teaching and practicing strategies as well as developing a community of like-minded

people to create meaningful relationships. There is a major deficit in programming for

youth with ASD to develop life skills necessary for independence. Helaina Hovitz (2014),

writer for Forbes, discusses this topic in her blog post After Graduation, Support is

Scarce Yet Crucial For Young Adults With Autism. She writes:

According to parents, after high school graduation, options become scarce. While

there are programs out there that help individuals lead productive and rewarding

lives, there are too few available to meet the population’s need.

Because Autism affects a person’s ability to process information and understand

social cues, continued support is needed in a wide array of areas: paying bills,

maintaining personal hygiene, finding and keeping a job, and, most importantly,

socializing with others.

My hope for Taylor’s Friends is to become another resource in the community

that can assist those on the spectrum with life skill development through fun activities

while providing necessary accommodations for ultimate success and participation.

Age/Stage

Taylor’s Friends is an organization that is available to high school students ages

14-20. We are seeking a school in the community to conduct meetings for our
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organization after school once a week. The reason I chose this age group is because they

are approaching adulthood. They are in need of life skills necessary to gain

independence.

Program Goals

Our main goal for Taylor’s Friends is to provide people on the spectrum with the

information and education they need for their next phase of life. While in school, they are

generally focused on academics, afterschool with the Taylor’s Friends organization they

will focus on topics such as: College & Career training, How to interview for a job and

complete a resume, Banking basics, etc. These topics will be provided for our higher

functioning participants. As the Autism Spectrum goes, we know that there are many

different diagnoses and abilities. For our lower functioning members we will provide

programming topics for the following: Making conversation by engaging others in a

common interest, Team building opportunities, Advocating for myself, Safe practices

when I’m alone in the community, etc. Our goals are to identify the specific needs of our

members and provide necessary accommodation, training, and programming to meet their

needs.

Taylor’s Friends also seeks to provide Family Engagement opportunities that

begin with our “Meet us, Greet us” part of the program. This acts as an “Intake” to the

program in which families, and student member sit down with Program leaders to learn

about the student to identify likes/dislikes, strengths and weaknesses, potential sensory

issues, etc. Family members will be encourage to participate in program activities to

strengthen their and their child’s bond with the program as well as each other. Malone &

Donahue (2017), Authors of Growing Out of School Time Field, identify Family
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engagement as a crucial part of programming to underserved youth. They write: “…

connected family members could experience more opportunities to see their children

showcasing their talent or demonstrating character development via their contribution to

projects.”(p.50) With proper programming, a family member will be able to see their

child be successful and provided opportunities they may not receive in the academic

classroom during school hours.

Cultural Relevancy

Taylor’s Friends is an equal opportunity program that promotes to members,

volunteers and employees from all cultural backgrounds and religions. As part of the

Taylor’s Friends initiative, we seek to abstain from cultural biases by providing time

during our “Meet me, Greet me” intake period to speak with families about their child’s

condition and diagnoses. We seek to bridge the gap in understanding the proper

terminology for each member, recognize the exact outstanding disability as it is described

and identified by the family. By doing this we are taking time to understand the cultural

approach to the diagnosis of autism or autism like disabilities through a way that honors

the families and the way a person on the ASD spectrum learns to advocate for

themselves. Sarah Deeweerdt (2012), writer of Blog Culture: Diverse Diagnostics writes

about the importance of understanding the way Autism is approached throughout the

world. She writes:

Before they can assess autism worldwide, researchers must measure how often

various behaviors occur in different cultures and establish the norm, says Charles

Zaroff, a psychology researcher at the University of Macau in China. They will

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also need to work with parents of children with autism to identify how it might

manifest in a given culture.

Though our leaders and volunteers may be educated when it comes to working with

individuals on the spectrum, familiar behaviors in our western culture may not

necessarily be the same baseline behaviors in Asian, or African families for example, as

they may identify these behaviors differently than we do. This is why it is important to

understand the culture and wishes of the family when their student is under our care to

ensure that the best possible practices are being put into place. A youth from another

country may be unfamiliar with the diagnosis of “Autism” but may advocate for him or

herself as “Developmentally impaired,” we need to know this and honor it to serve our

youth well.

Inclusive Practices

Since our program is specifically designed for those on the spectrum, inclusive

practices are of the utmost importance. In regards to those with physical disabilities, the

Taylor’s Friends Program will follow best practices to ensure a completely inclusive

program. CDC partners, the National Center On Health, Physical Activity and Disability

(NCHPAD) recommend the following accommodations be considered when creating

inclusivity in the blog Activity For All Children (2018). These adaptations are based on

the NCHPAD tool GRAIDS: Guidelines, Recommendations, and Adaptations Including

Disability: Built environment, Equipment, Services, Instruction, and Policy.

During part of our “Meet us, Greet us” time when members join our program, we

will identify needs with families to create an individualized service plan based on these 5

categories. During this time we will identify any sensory issues a student may have to
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ensure they always feel safe and comfortable in the Taylor’s Friends environment.

Program leaders will be educated on these inclusive practices and receive specific

information and guidelines for each individual student.

Professional Development

Leaders of this program will come to us previously educated in working with

individuals with disabilities such as classroom teachers, special educators, as well as Para

educators. As part of their professional development, program leaders will be asked to sit

with families and student before they enter the program so that they are briefed on

specific accommodations that are needed. When developing programming, all leaders

will meet bi-monthly to assess program topics, plan programming and create specific

learning plans for each member. It is my hope that our program will accrue a volunteer

team who will also require professional development on learning how to work best with

youth on the Autism Spectrum. Our goal at Taylor’s Friends is to provide the same

education to volunteers as we do to program leaders. Malone and Donahue (2017),

Authors of The Growing Out of School Time Field, suggest in Chapter 7 that to

strengthen PYD programs, professional development should be focused on the whole

idea and not just small parts of the program. They write, “Specific workforce efforts

should continue while recognizing that professional development systems are part of a

larger quality improvement of systems.”(p. 98) In order to be successful we must first

bring our staff and volunteers up to the same level of education. As a whole, we will

continue to modify and perfect best practices in the fields by staying current with

professional development opportunities.

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Outcome Impact/Evaluative Tools

The Taylor’s Friends program recognizes the importance of evaluative tools,

outcomes, and data collection. We seek to critically analyze our program so it is

important that we receive feedback to ensure we are successful in our efforts. We

identified our goal of working with families to create invidualized goals and plans for

each student that reflected necessary accommodations. This is based off the IEP

(Individualized Education Plan) model that students receive in school. Our evaluative

method for this will be the same as conducted on the school level. Families and students

will create the individualized plan together, and there will be a meeting at the end of the

school year with families and student to discuss successes and goals that were met during

this time. Students and families will also have the opportunity to participate in

stakeholder survey which will provide feedback on which program opportunities they felt

were most useful for their student, students will reflect on their likes and dislikes of the

program. They will also have an opportunity to reflect on friendliness of staff, how

comfortable they feel in the program, and suggestions they have to make the program

better. The Survey’s will be created based on the Search Institutes 40 Developmental

Assets (2006). Due to accommodations that will need to be made for each student, these

assets will be presented to students in a variety of reading and language levels. If student

requires, a scribe and reader will be provided to assist with completing the survey.

Regarding a longitudinal study on the long-term benefits of the program will be

analyzed yearly as students move through the program, past high school and into

adulthood. Participants are welcome to attend the Taylor’s Friends program until age 20,

at which time they will participate in an exit interview that will review their future career
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goals, academic and social achievements in their time with the program, college plans,

and next phase of life plans. By interviewing our students we can gain an understanding

over time of how our program influenced their decision-making, independence, academic

achievements and more. Our hope is that the program will provide the enrichment people

with ASD can use to improve their lives in their adult future.
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References

Hovitz, H. (2014). After Graduation, Support Is Scarce But Crucial For Adults with
Autism [Blog].

Activity for All Children. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/features/fitness-

disabilities-kids/index.html

Deeweerdt, S. (2012). Culture: Diverse Diagnostics [Blog]. Retrieved from

https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/culture-diverse-diagnostics/

Janc Malone, H., & Donahue, T. (2017). The Growing Out-of-School Time Field (1st ed.,
pp. 87-131). Charlotte: Information Publishing, Inc.

Learn how to keep kids thriving!. (2006). Retrieved from http://page.search-

institute.org/40-developmental-assets