Ground-breaking for the Island Autism’s Center is expected in April 2022. The Center will be a community for both school-age children, adolescents and adults over 22 year old living with Autism, serving about 200 Island residents in some capacity, including 56 school age children. The hub of the community will be the Hub House and surrounding the Hub House will be a micro farm, barn with livestock, farm stand and residential housing. Design work on the Hub House and residences has been completed by Union Studio, after months of weekly consultation with Island Autism Group and Derrill Bazzy, the Island Housing Trust consultant on the permitting portion of the project. The project will be completed in three phases: the first being the Hub House, barn and farm stand. We hope to be providing our day programs on site by the end of summer 2022. The residences will come in the second and third phases which will overlap funding permitted. Each structure has been painstakingly designed to provide a wealth of therapeutic enrichment programs and work opportunities for members of IAG and to encourage community involvement. We are also enjoying our continued deeper dive into the local farming community as we develop our farm. Lots of conversations are ongoing with Island farmers who will enrich our programs as we will enrich theirs.
Island Autism’s summer and after school programs continued to thrive in 2021 despite the continuing challenges of the pandemic. Our weekly activities continued through the summer and extended throughout the school year in the afternoons. In two groups, one including 5-11 year olds, and another with teens, we traveled to locations around the island in Moby, the IAG van. The activities included therapeutic drumming, photography lessons, visits to Polly Hill, music, yoga, bowling, fishing, swimming, horseback riding and more. Our list of program partners continues to grow, including Misty Meadows, Rhythm of Life, Melissa Knowles, Jen DeLorenzo, Polly Hill, SailMV, the YMCA, and the Barn Bowl & Bistro. We look forward to a new partnership with ACEing Autism and Vineyard Family Tennis to offer tennis instruction to our campers starting in March. Our participants included 8 “littles” aged 5 - 11 and 6 teens. Neurotypical students from elementary and high schools also regularly join in.
We are launching our summer camp to jobs program this spring. The program is funded for the next three years through a Tower Foundation grant. We are so grateful for all the support that is making this project possible and particularly grateful to MVYouth for the initial grant that is helping us realize the Hub Farmhouse. Stay Tuned!!