There are many national and local organizations focused on autism research, but almost none dealing with teaching and reaching children already affected by this disorder. The needs of children with autism are often not met in a traditional special education environment, and parents are unprepared to deal with the daily challenges of having a child with autism. POAC (Parents Of Autistic Children) was formed to help address these needs.

Founded in 1999, POAC's mission is to provide scientifically-based training to parents, teachers, and related personnel who provide direct services to children with Autism. In order to fulfill its mission, POAC offers targeted and sustained training to parents, professionals and paraprofessionals. This training focuses on Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), the only research-based treatment recognized by the U.S. Surgeon General for children with autism, and specifically B.F. Skinners analysis of Verbal Behavior (VB).

Because autism affects all those who provide services to children with the disorder, POAC serves not only the children and their families, but also the professionals who treat and teach them. Major goals are to:

• Provide information regarding effective interventions to the educational community through ongoing workshops, training and conferences
• Teach parents and families strategies for living successfully with autism through an ongoing free parent training series
• Increase the pool of individuals qualified to work with children with autism at all levels
• Bring best practices and teaching techniques to model classrooms throughout the country
• Increase public awareness of the disorder

Since its inception, POAC has provided training for thousands of people throughout New Jersey , across the country, and in Europe and South America . To date, thousands of parents, teachers, and other service providers have been trained, the majority at no cost to participants. Many have attended the Five Part Training series, offered free to parents and POAC members. In addition, POAC has reached out to colleges and universities and provided course work to students studying to be special education teachers. This organization has also provided training to law enforcement professionals, emergency services providers, and other members of the general community who come in contact with children with autism every day.

One of POACs long-term goals is to give every public school teacher in New Jersey access to the information needed to understand and educate children with autism. To achieve this, POAC developed Project Pipeline, a public school teacher training initiative, which provides 90 hours of training to participants at absolutely no cost to the teacher or school district. Thousands of children are impacted by this program alone.

For the tremendous services they provide to the Autism community, the Education providers, parents and families struggling with Autism, POAC receives no government funding. They rely solely on the support and contributions of people like you and fundraiser events such as this one.

Making a difference in the lives of children now is at the heart of everything we do at POAC. From our highly anticipated Annual Free Family Picnic to our ever-growing inventory of training opportunities, to the offerings at our on-line store, POAC has become a bastion of support and a beacon of hope to the autism community.

Thank you for your support.  - Gary Weitzen, President of POAC