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RDI® Program Scholarship Fund

Information/News about the RDI® Program Scholarship Fund

Companies sharing a percentage of their proceeds with the RDI® Program Scholarship fund

Get involved with the Scholarship Fund!

• To donate securely, on-line: www.FACTFamily.org - Donations page
• To apply for an RDI scholarship: www.FACTFamily.org - Info/Application page
• To contact Jen Gerson (Head of the Startup Committee): jengerson@cinci.rr.com
• To volunteer: Scholarship Program Start-up Committee On-line Group

News about the RDI® Program Scholarship Fund

January 22, 2008 Report from the Scholarship Fund Committee:

The Fund Awarded 3 Families Cash Scholarships
At the end of 2007, the Fund was able to award cash scholarships to 3 families. These very appreciative families plan to use their awards to help with parent training and consultant costs. One of them wrote: "Being a parent of a child with autism can be very difficult. I ponder daily what the future will hold for my son and pray that I am doing enough. RDI® has helped our family to learn techniques that have helped our son's progress and helped to improve our lifestyle ... We are excited about now having the funding to attend an RDI® parent workshop. We hope to take our role as parents/guides to the next level for our son and are looking forward to learning more about how to apply RDI® into our lifestyle and increase our son's developmental potential. I just wanted to express our heartfelt gratitude for awarding us one of the RDI® Scholarships. It was truly a blessing!"

28 Families Received "Do Something Daily" Calendars
We were disappointed we were not able to offer scholarships to all the families who applied. However, we still wanted to provide some encouragement and moral support to all the families along their journey, and decided to send each of them a "Do Something Daily" Calendar. These 365-day "perpetual calendars" include daily ideas to inspire parents and their children, and we received a very appreciative and overwhelmingly positive response from the recipients.

These very "RDI-friendly" calendars were designed and developed by Horizons Developmental Remediation Center, a team of RDI® Program Certified Consultants, founded by Director, Nicole Beurkens. Horizons very generously donated all the shipping and handling charges for this effort plus provided a discount on all the calendars, which were assembled and packaged by clients in their Horizons EmployAbilities Program. THANK YOU, Horizons Developmental Remediation Center!! Check out their Do Something Daily Calendar, their web site, or their blog.

What’s coming up for 2008!
We encourage anyone to apply to the Scholarship Fund and for those who applied last year, to re-apply. The amounts that will be awarded depend, of course, on the donations we receive, and this year we hope to do two award cycles, as a result of doing more fund-raising activities. Fundraising ideas have included an RDI® Program Scholarship Fund walk, selling t-shirts, partnering with companies, partnering with RDI consultants, etc. If one of your New Year’s Resolutions was to “volunteer to help others” (according to the US government, one of the most popular resolutions!) consider getting involved with the Scholarship Fund. We are seeking a new chairperson this year, as well as some volunteers who will serve on the scholarship selection subcommittee.

A Rewarding Experience
Heidi Hofer, head of the Scholarship Selection Subcommittee, says, "We could still use a few more volunteers to help us out, and these are actually very rewarding positions! Our volunteers this year talked about their experiences:

"As part of the committee, I felt privileged to be able to read so many stories of parents, their struggles, and truly to be able to do something about it. How many times do we all feel like our hands are tied? And when it comes to our children, it is refreshing to be able to be a part of something that will have a profound effect on another child and their family! I know we are all busy with our families, but with just some of our time we can have a sense of truly making a difference. For me, being involved with the committee on something that I can relate to so deeply was extremely rewarding, and I will never know the domino effect my small contribution has on many children with autism. I know first hand that one family who can start RDI® gives another family hope, and so on and so on... Reminds me of *pay it forward.* -Kathy Darrow

"This was the easiest volunteer position that I have ever done. You read through the applications and have a discussion among the group members via email. This position could be done by anyone. Then you get to see the reward of helping others along their RDI® journey." - Penny Rogers

"The fund was started by parents for parents. Started by people who know how tough it is to be a parent of a child with autism, even if financial worries are minimal. Started by people who believe that every child with autism should be given the best chance to live a meaningful life. I would second Kath's assertion that being trusted to learn about the lives of all of our applicant families has been an inspiring privilege. I think being part of the Scholarship Start-up committee has been a way for all of us to build a community of caring RDI® families that are helping each other." - Jen Gerson

December 4, 2007:
Report from Jen Gerson, Head of the Start-up Committee:
Through the F.A.C.T. Family non-profit* online donations, and the amount raised at the RDI® Annual Conference, the RDI® Scholarship Fund raised enough money this year to award two small scholarships. Many thanks to all those individuals and companies who helped make this possible. Our volunteer nomination committee has decided to award this money as two lump-sum scholarships to families who applied for general donations. The thought of the committee members was that the families whose applications we have received represent some families with extreme financial needs, and likely would receive maximum benefit from our limited funds. We will be notifying the two families soon, and will be sending them each a check before Christmas!

Applications are now closed for this year, but we encourage all to apply again next year and to volunteer to help with the fund. We are disappointed that we couldn't help many more families, and wish we could have awarded a scholarship to every family who applied. I am hopeful that for next year another parent might volunteer to take over the fund and be able to give it more fundraising attention. During the next year, we hope to do more fundraising for scholarships in addition to providing access to emotional support and other financial resources.

August 8 , 2007
Thanks to all those at the RDI Annual Conference who donated to the Scholarship Fund. The total raised on the Saturday morning was $467.00. To donate securely on-line, click here.

May 21, 2007:
The links for donating and applying for RDI® scholarships have now been posted on the RDI-Scholarship page on the F.A.C.T. Family site.

[F.A.C.T., (Focus on All-Child Therapies), is a community-based, nonprofit agency based in Los Angeles, dedicated to providing services to families of children with special needs. All members of the board are parents of children with autism and Asperger Syndrome, and the Chairman is Linda Andron-Ostrow, LCSW, who has been an RDI® Program Certified Consultant for more than three years. Visit FACT Family's website at www.FACTfamily.org for more information about their programs.]

February 2007:
We have been very aware of the issues regarding funding and making the RDI® Program accessible to all, however, this is not something the Connections Center can accomplish on its own. In September 2006, we suggested coming together as a community to get a Scholarship Fund up and running. We are excited to feature this interview with Head of the Start-up Committee, Jen Gerson. This interview first appeared in our newsletter last November and we will be providing an update soon. Jen is the mom of a 5 year old son on the autism spectrum, and has been doing the RDI® Program with him for almost two years. Read a story about her son.

Jen, tell us a little about yourself and how you became Head of the Start-up Committee for the RDI® Program Scholarship Fund?
By the time my son was a little over 3 years old, our family had already tried many "therapies" to attempt to address his challenges. I investigated RDI® after our Verbal Behavior consultant began trying to teach Rob to recognize emotions by showing him flash cards! RDI® became our new lifestyle shortly thereafter. While my professional life has allowed our family to afford our wonderful RDI® Consultant, I became aware early that many families could not afford a Consultant or to attend trainings.

At the Annual Conference last Augus [2006], I became convinced that a scholarship program was necessary to allow more families access to the evolving RDI® system. After contacting the Connections Center about my concerns, I was encouraged by Dr. Gutstein to work on establishing the scholarship fund. I know many parents have wanted to do the same--I think I was just the first one to actually volunteer to work on the project. Hence, I became the "leader" by default!

What progress has been made on the Scholarship Fund so far?
We have been able to work with a wonderful nonprofit organization called F.A.C.T. Family*, which is working to help us create a way to accept donations and subsequently award RDI® Program scholarships. By working with an existing nonprofit, it means we don't have to go through the sometimes difficult and time-consuming process of forming a new nonprofit organization. Hopefully, within the near future, those who want to donate to the Scholarship Fund will be able to do so on-line through both the RDIconnect and F.A.C.T. Family web sites.

Basically, the Fund will be run by parents with the help of F.A.C.T. Family. I have recruited a committee of parents (5 of us thus far) to get the Fund started and the next step will be forming a Selection Committee. We certainly would love to have input from any interested parent; anyone who wishes to join the Start-up Committee can either email me at jengerson@cinci.rr.com or go to the on-line yahoo group, RDIscholarship.

[*F.A.C.T., (Focus on All-Child Therapies), is a community-based, nonprofit agency based in Los Angeles, dedicated to providing services to families of children with special needs. All members of the board are parents of children with autism and Asperger Syndrome, and the Chairman is Linda Andron-Ostrow, LCSW, who has been an RDI® Program Certified Consultant for more than three years. Visit FACT Family's website at www.FACTfamily.org for more information about their programs.]

What kind of scholarships will you be funding to start with?
Although the actual specifics of the scholarships are yet to be delineated by the Committee, I would anticipate that the scholarships will initially be specifically earmarked for expenses incurred with obtaining a consultant. I believe that most families will favor using their scholarships for this purpose. As some consultants require their families to go to the 4-day Intensive Seminars prior to their initial RDA™, some families may need to use their scholarship for the 4-day.

What kind of fundraising will you be doing?
We will encourage both private and corporate donations, with specific fundraising events yet to be decided. We've already had our first corporate donor, Oceans of Emotions, who generously offered to donate 10% of all purchases made in the first two weeks of November [2006]. We are considering the idea of selling stationary made from our children's artwork, with the profits going to the Scholarship Fund, and we are definitely open to other ideas right now.

We have also been discussing the possibility of asking to be the designated recipient of funds raised from those doing home-demonstration/ personal sales, (eg Pampered Chef, PartyLite, etc.). One of our Start-up Committee members, RDI® Mom, Kathy Darrow, has just offered to donate 20% of her Mary Kay web site sales to the Scholarship Fund. (Just specify "RDI" on your online order sheet.)

How will people be able to apply for scholarships? When?
Hopefully, applications for the scholarships will be available via www.factfamily.org in the near future. [Click here for the application page.]

Will scholarships be limited to those in the United States?
We plan to make scholarships available to everyone, no matter where they live. People from outside the United States will be able to apply online.

How can people make donations?
We hope to make donating very easy -- through a link on the www.factfamily.org website. Also, for families that feel more comfortable mailing a check, we will be making an address available for sending money. As the donations will be made through the F.A.C.T. Family nonprofit, they will be tax-deductible for those in the United States. [Click here for the secure, online donation page.]

How can people get involved in the process?
Anyone who is interested in serving on the Scholarship Committee should email me at jengerson@cinci.rr.com or go to the on-line yahoo group, RDIscholarship. As of now, we may separate the committee into 2 sections: initial Start-up Members (those who contribute ideas to get the Fund established, yet may still be eligible to receive scholarship awards) and Selection Committee Members (those who help decide who gets scholarships, but are ineligible themselves to receive scholarship money).

Would you like to issue a fundraising challenge to other companies or families right now?
YES! Oceans of Emotions and Kathy Darrow (via her generous offer to contribute 20% of her earmarked Mary Kay sales) have gotten the ball rolling. Everyone in the RDI® community is now challenged to meet their admirable level of generosity! All of us should be thinking of ways that we can contribute to the Fund, whether we volunteer our time, profits from our own business, or some of what we get through fundraising events. Even a tiny bit of money contributed from an individual family could make a huge difference when we all pool our efforts. Think of the difference we could make for our RDI® family -- as so many of us have learned on this journey, when we help each other, all of us will benefit. If you have an idea about how you can participate in our "fundraising challenge," email me at jengerson@cinci.rr.com and we will create a list of all the efforts that we will share in our next update.

Many thanks to Jen Gerson for her leadership of the RDI® Program Scholarship Fund!

Summary of Links:
• To donate securely, on-line: www.FACTFamily.org - Scholarship Fund page
• To volunteer: Scholarship Program Start-up Committee On-line Group
• To apply for an RDI scholarship: www.FACTFamily.org - Application page
• To contact Jen Gerson: jengerson@cinci.rr.com

Mary Kay site
www.FACTFamily.org- Main page

Companies currently sharing a percentage of their proceeds with the RDI® Program Scholarship fund:

National Companies
Get discounts on dozens of different products and services through the power of group buying. Rana Burr, representative of National Companies, is donating 100% of her commissions and any bonuses to the RDI® Program Scholarship Fund. Just mention "RDI" in the "Comments Box" when you fill out the information form on her web site (bottom left of the menu).

Mary Kay
Order any Mary Kay product from this web site, and 20% of your sale will be donated to the RDI® Program Scholarship Fund. Just specify "RDI" on your online order sheet. Shop 24 hours a day! Visit me, your Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant.

Get involved with the Scholarship Fund!

Anyone who is interested in getting involved with the Scholarship Fund can email Jen Gerson (Head of the Start-up Committee) at jengerson@cinci.rr.com or go to the on-line yahoo group, RDIscholarship. As of now, Start-up Committee may be separated into 2 sections: initial Start-up Members (those who contribute ideas to get the Fund established, yet may still be eligible to receive scholarship awards) and Selection Committee Members (those who help decide who gets scholarships, but are ineligible themselves to receive scholarship money)