New Greater Pike fund to assist autism community

A new organizational endowment fund recently set up with Greater Pike Community Foundation will not only provide financial stability to Pike Autism Support Services (PASS) but will assist families seeking help with much-needed services into the future.

Not a sprint, but a marathon

Jeannemarie Passaro, PASS executive director, has been a staunch advocate for autism support for the past 25 years, seeking to support a growing number of families in the region that need help finding services for those diagnosed with autism.

From a loosely knit parent support group at her kitchen table – her son was diagnosed with autism when he was three-years-old – to a nonprofit organization that serves hundreds of individuals annually, Pike Autism Support Services has now enhanced its ability to serve the community into the future by establishing the I Care About Autism Fund.

“We have been piecemealing together our fundraisers, donations and grants in order to keep up with the growing demand for services and responding to new inquiries,” Passaro said. “This is not a sprint, it’s a marathon.”

One in 54

Nearly one in 54 people currently are diagnosed today with a form of autism, Passaro said. She has seen a huge increase from 1 in 10,000 persons diagnosed when she started advocating in 1995, and this has resulted in long wait lists for services.

Having Greater Pike manage the new endowment fund will grow the investment and expose the organization to more donors and supporters. The goal is to create a community center and housing in the next few years.

“There will always be people with autism with varying degrees of need,” Passaro said. ‘There is an ever-growing population of adults with autism, and with that, greater needs to support them throughout their lives. It is our hope that persons on the spectrum enjoy a quality of life that provides them with such core life conditions as physical well-being, emotional well-being, interpersonal relations, social inclusion, personal growth, material well-being, self-determination and individual rights”.

Greater Pike is no stranger to PASS’s growing needs, having recently supported their “I Care About Music” program with funding from the Richard L. Snyder Fund. The program will provide instruments and lessons to special needs students in the Delaware Valley School District as well as adults in the community who have expressed an interest in learning to play a musical instrument.

Essential information

Online donations to the Pike Autism Support Services Organizational Endowment Fund can be made at https://greaterpike.org/fund_list/ Scroll down to the fund name for the link.

Greater Pike helps individuals, families, and local businesses to provide a permanent and personal way to give back to the community. For more information contact Jessica Zufall, Executive Director, at (570) 832-4686, jesszufall@greaterpike.org, or visit www.greaterpike.org, Facebook.com/GreaterPike and Instagram at greaterpikecf.