Rant With Grant for The A.Skate Foundation

1 in 88 children in America has a form of Autism according to the CDC, 1 in 54 of those are boys. Chances are a child in your classroom being picked on for odd social behavior could possibly have a form of Autism. Stand up and be a voice for those who can't, autism or not.

We provide one on one skate lessons for persons with autism in an environment that is appropriate to their sensory needs in order to learn. We provide this service at no cost to the families who participate. We also provide the skateboard gear and safety equipment (helmets, skateboards, and pads) for the participants to use during their skate session. We strive to make the experience as incredibly successful for the participant as possible! We work with children ages 3 to adulthood. Please be sure to make a note of age and weight if your child is over 100lbs so that we can make sure to have 2 volunteers on hand to work with them! Anti-bullying is promoted and educated throughout our program in several forms. For persons with Autism and Aspergers, bullying may be difficult for them to identify, detect, and understand leaving them vulnerable targets for bullying. The impact of bullying can be significant forpersons with high functioning Autism and Aspergers and can include lowered self-esteem, heightened anxiety, depression, fear, refusal to attend school, isolation, suicidal ideation, and suicide. Askate offers a "safe environment" for persons with autism on all ends of the spectrum to not only learn a therapeutic skill but to learn it in a place where persons are accepting.

Awareness Mentor Program - Anti-bully education for Volunteers- Askate recruits volunteers via social networking and email list and has gathered a world wide team of over 8,000 persons. Our volunteers are mentored and educated to understand Autism and Aspergers, specifically language and social barriers, stimming, eye contact, "no-fear" syndrome :) and more. The age range for volunteers expands from pre-teen years into adulthood. They are educated on the common occurance of bullying within the autism community and learn to understand and accept the differences between the two worlds. Askate volunteers often times keep in contact with the participants and their families offering mentouring and a life long friendship. Both programs not only focus on individuals needs but also focus on anti-bullying by helping those with autism learn appropriate social skills in a mixed developed environment as well as our awareness mentor volunteer program which introduces typically developed kids, teenagers, and adults to a world of social awkwardness allowing them to work one on one with persons with Autism and Aspergers. The awareness mentoring program allows those who are neurologically typically developed to experience and help high and low functioning persons with autism gain trust, confidence, social skills, and friendship. By mentoring the volunteers to work one on one/hand in hand with individuals with high and low functioning Autism and Aspergers, the volunteers are exposed to what life is like for persons who are prone to developing depression, suicidal thoughts, uninviting behaviors, and anxiety. They are also exposed to how their actions can easily have a negative, even deathly impact on persons prone to developing depression, suicidal thoughts, and anxiety. We are honored to have a large database of individuals who request acceptance into our awareness volunteer mentoring program and take pride in changing the lives of persons affected by bullying, mentor kids and teenagers to avoid being a bully, as well as changing the hearts of those who bully. To inquire about volunteering please email us at info@askate.org