Pioneering Autism & EcoFriendly Retreat

Problem: Autism is a lifelong developmental-disability that affects how people communicate/interact with the world. Sensory-Processing-Disorder is a condition where children has a difficult time receiving and responding to information from their senses.

There are many retreats across the country but they focus only on Sensory Improvement/therapies and have less focus toward involving these special people to learn from, act for and improve within natural environment as well. 

Solution:

Our major solution is to develop Ultimate Sensory-Friendly and Eco-Friendly-Retreat for People-with-Autism.  

This will be a state-of-the-art retreat using 100% green-energy and model of sustainable-ecosystem where these special people will rejoice the sensory environment through 3-D technology and as well as learn and act for environmental conservation, protection, promotion and sustainability. This retreat will be a life-improving-adventure with a friendly Staff,Therapists,Coaches and counselors to help with every aspect of our adventure while providing life-improving skills for people with sensory disabilities.

Problem: 

• Autism is a lifelong developmental-disability that affects how people communicate and interact with the world. 
• Sensory Processing Disorders is a condition where children has a difficult time receiving and responding to information from their senses. Children who have sensory issues may have an aversion to anything that triggers their senses, such as light, sound, touch, taste, or smell.
• For treatment and providing them enabling environment to self-improve, there are many retreats across the country but they focus only on Sensory Improvement/therapies and have less focus toward involving these special people to learn from, act for and improve within natural environment as well.

We have many programs designed to serve Autism Community in which the retreat is one of them. That is why below only the project pitched for this Solve Solution is explained. 

Pioneering Autism & EcoFriendly Retreat   

We don't just want to focus on the treatment aspect of the people with Autism but we want to provide them such an enabling environment where they will find every possible eco-friendly facilities, technology and resources as well they will learn, act and advocate for environmental sustainability through this retreat.This will be a state of the art retreat using 100% green natural energies i.e. geothermal heating, solar, wind, free wifi, filtered well-water, and as well as 3D-technologies to create the ultimate sensory environment for our special love ones with disabilities. The Autism 2 Tower Sensory Retreat will be a life-improving adventure with a friendly staff of Occupational, Speech, Physical and Listening Therapists, and Autism Coaches and counselors to help with every aspect of our adventure while providing life-improving skills for our loved ones and family members with sensory disabilities. 

As earlier mentioned Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that affects how people communicate and interact with the world. Sensory Processing Disorders is a condition where children has a difficult time receiving and responding to information from their senses. Children who have sensory issues may have an aversion to anything that triggers their senses, such as light, sound, touch, taste, or smell.

Scale:

• According to CDC, one in every 54 children is on the autism spectrum. 
• It is estimated that one in every 270 people has Autism. Autism Spectrum disorder was once considered a rare condition, but now it is the most encumbering and common childhood disorder. 
• Individuals with Autism appear similar to other people who are not suffering from Autism, which has caused them to have different treatment in the world. Complete research with statistics of CDC is given in the link as https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/aut...

Autism 2 Tower

Autism 2 Tower LLC is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization providing early autism awareness and life-changing empowerment skills teaching self-confidence and self-sustainability while providing the ultimate sensory-friendly environment retreat for our loved ones impacted by sensory disabilities such as autism or any other sensory processing disorder.

What we Do

Autism 2 Tower purpose is to give and make an impact on the autism community and to give autism a true voice.  Autism 2 Tower has a goal to bring real and tangible change to develop the ultimate sensory friendly environmental retreat called Autism 2 Tower Sensory Retreat, providing a favorable education environment for the Autism Community and through the help of technology and innovation, improve their quality of life, so that they can also equally enjoy with us this beautiful world.

The aim of this project is to develop a green, environmental-friendly and therapeutic retreat for people and children with Autism-Spectrum-Disorder to treat the sensory integration problems of people with ASD by designing 100% natural sensory facilities which will focus on therapeutic interference, treatment as well as learning from the nature so that this special community can act and practice the environmental friendly lifestyle and contribute toward sustainable development.

Please see the above under the answer to question, Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?" for detail alignment with this Challenge.  "

As earlier mentioned Autism 2 Tower is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization providing early autism awareness and life-changing empowerment skills teaching self-confidence and self-sustainability while providing the ultimate sensory-friendly environment retreat for our loved ones impacted by sensory disabilities such as autism or any other sensory processing disorder.

We are currently working in Arizona State and our organisation has been already working for last one year within the community, partners and stakeholders. Based on the combined consensus and decision making of the families, society, service providers and safety net institutions, we have developed different programs in which this natural retreat is one of them. 

I (Karl Coles) as a founder have expended my own fund on the startup of Autism2Tower nonprofit which is ranged to almost USD100,000 so far since mid 2020. We have design, planned and technically tested the idea with the help of experts and strong response of community. 

This innovation is enriched with the experience from mental health experts, technologists, environmentalist, sustainable development practitioners and is a  native led solution. Therefore we are proud of this solution to be first of its kind for treating Autism through nature and making these children as further generation having value for environmental awareness, conservation, protection, promotion and sustainability. 

Our focus is to serve the community with special disabilities. For this year we are targeted and already serving  at least 1000 people specially including children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. We are also working through the community in their education and awareness to cope with the challenges they face having people with Autism in their families. 

For coming year, once this retreat will be functional, we are targeting to increase this number to 5 Folds, which mean during the initial stage of the retreat, we will be serving 5,000 and will increase for next year when the capacity increase. 

These are the numbers for direct beneficiaries. The indirect beneficiaries will go almost 10 times to 100 times high because these people with Autism belong to families, societies and communities which will be indirectly served by such services. 

We will measure the results of this project through a proper monitoring and evaluation process. We have three Tier of Monitoring and Evaluation process. 

First Tier:

The Board Members will review the progress each quarter

Second Tier: 

The CEO and his team will be monitoring the activities on Monthly and Weekly Basis

Third Tier

Our Volunteers, Community Members and Leaders are monitoring the activities and also involved with our team in our day to day activities. 

How we will Measures

We already have set SMART indicators and targets for each of our projects. The most prominent is to serve the 1000 beneficiaries until June 2021, 1000 of Special Tablets for Autism Distributed for Digital Engagement and Education, the land for the retreat is owned and construction of facilities reached to the finishing stage, the technology of the natural healing processes is in place and working etc. 

Currently we don't have full time staff. We have around 7 member of core team, all volunteers, including myself and they belong to community leaders, mental-health workers, civil-society, freelancer and technical-experts. 

We also have a network of community activists and volunteers who are helping us on ground and in fundraising

We cannot deliver our work alone until we have a positive and effective team. Supporting Autism Community is a collaborative process that involves effective leader working between team of professionals. This is particularly important and helpful when identifying and planning support for an autistic learner.

There are many factors through which I can measure the interest and demand of me, my team, the community, the educational practitioners, and the volunteers, in which some of which are given below..

• The real motivation that drives them
• Their commitment to the vision of Autism 2 Tower
• Their strong collaboration for this initiative
• The voluntary time, energy, and efforts invested in our initiative.

The evidence is, we are growing day by day and hopefully, soon we will be among the leading organization working for the noble cause of supporting people with Autism.

Our team may be still small but we are very committed toward our goals and programs. Currently our team member are from diverse background, who are all volunteers belongs to Education Institutes, Mental Health Expert, Family Members from Autistic Community, Civil Society/nonprofit and Metal Health Network members. 

Our organisation has strict policy and under the law and legislation we are amid to strictly maintain and promote gender equality without discrimination on the basis of race, religion, ancestry, familial status, age, disability, etc not only in our team but in overall initiative. Equal opportunities to employees in professional growth will be afforded to all irrespective of any gender or racial/religious biases.

Because my proposed solution is fully aligned with this challenge i.e..

• Relevance: The solution uses 100% green and 3D and other therapeutic technology.
• Serving Community at Scale: The planned solution implementation has the potential to impact the life of people with Autism and the families linked to them.
• Applicability: This solution implementation is feasible as we have already have prototype.The team has a strong plan for financial sustainability based on our strong fundraising strategy.
• Innovation: This retreat includes a new and environmental friendly therapeutic technology, a complete new model of retreat, state-of-the-art and new approach for treating and improving the life-quality of Autistic-Community through nature.
• Inclusiveness: The solution is designed for Autistic community who are the people with developmental-disability, and this retreat will be serving everyone through inclusive approach without any discrimination, color creed or race. 
• Sustainability and Replication: The solution can be scaled up to affect the lives of more Autistic-people, will remain sustainable and also to be replicated in other states of United States and Globally. 
• Partnership: This solution is aligned with the SDG’s Goal “Partnership for Development” and that is why currently we are already in partnership with community, local public institutions, service providers and civil society. We are scaling the partnership further
• Technical Capability: We have already technically tested it and have worked on the prototype. The technology we are introducing already exists but we are using it first time in the retreat as an innovation which has been proven effect on the Autistic Community. 

We cannot deliver our work alone until we have a positive and effective partnership. Supporting Autism Community is a collaborative process that involves effective partnership working between professionals, families, and the community where possible. This is particularly important and helpful when identifying and planning support for an autistic learner.

At Autism 2 Tower, we understand the role and views of the parents, careers, and child or young person is extremely important and can provide valuable information to support assessment and monitoring. Learning targets are more likely to be reinforced at home if parents have also been centrally involved in planning. Planning is considered to be most effective when the young person's views are taken into account. There is a clear consensus that joint planning at the earliest possible stage is most helpful in meeting children's and young people's needs. Early and good communication between education staff, allied health professionals, and parents are more likely to lead to coordinated and appropriate planning, support, and monitoring for each individual child suffering from Autism.

We are still young but we are very focused on the identification of our strategic partners and stakeholder for our programs. Currently, we have few partnerships but our partnership strategy is to engage as many partners as possible to develop a strong collaborative system. Our current partnership channels are mentioned below

• Education Authorities
• Classroom Teacher
• Family Members
• Local, State, and National Government
• Civil Society Workers and nonprofit
• Mental Health Workers and Networks
• Technologists, Media, Experts and More Volunteers Network

We are also having close liaison and partnership with state government, housing authority and county's administration to keep our self updated with the regulation and environmental legislations for such projects.

For partnership we would like to be involved with MIT, organizations and businesses with same initiatives, Community Forums, UN-SDGs, Entrepreneurs Networks and advising agencies in such domains.

Our services are also having special focuses on caregivers from refugee backgrounds who have children with disabilities. Because we believe that displaced children with disabilities not receiving adequate support from social providers and they also don't have proper access to learn certain good practices to help their children with Autism Disorder. 

By working at the intersection of migration and disability, the project is supporting immigrant families in accessing social support and services for their children with disabilities and helps them navigate the social support system through this retreat.

Since our model is the First of its Kind and Model of Sustainability, which do not only treat people with Autism through natural healing processes using green technology but at the same time it will connect these special people with natural environment to first of all learn about the environment and then in the future act for the environment and become ambassador for environmental conservation, protection, promotion and sustainability. 

According to wikipedia, the prevalence ratio for Autism is often cited as about 4 males for every 1 female diagnosed. Other research indicates that it closer to 3:1 or 2:1. One in every 42 males and one in 189 females in the United States is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

But since female are more vulnerable in our society and have less access to these services and resources and at the same time our country is need to develop more women leaders and entrepreneurs, that is why special consideration will be given to women and keeping gender balance in our programs. 

In the design of retreat we have developed two fresh water lakes within the retreat which will be constructed during development stage. We will use these two lakes to promote about the environmental conservation of plant, fishes and marine environment. This lakes will include different plants and animal (fish etc) specifies and will be part of learning environment to learn environmental conservation. 

As explained in multiple areas above, this project is State-of-the-art and a Model of Sustainability that will not only focus on mental health education, Autism treatment but a holistic approach toward learning about environment and then practicing those learning in future life.

The natural healing process of Autism Community is based on treatment and therapeutic procedure under the trees and in green in we will focus on giving value of carbon free environment, natural technique to use carbon absorption procedure and how this will help in the natural treatment processes.