The Respite Services and Social Skills Program are two of Geneva Centre for Autism’s most successful initiatives, and they work because of our unique volunteer program. Funded entirely by donations to the Foundation, our volunteer program is based on the knowledge that people with autism respond best to individualized support. That’s why we have an extensive network of trained volunteers. Without that network, we would not be able to provide sufficient levels of support in these programs to ensure successful learning in a safe environment. And without those volunteers, program costs would be untenable. Consider this: last year, the dollar value of the 30,000 hours of additional support we received from our volunteers was worth $300,000.

Every year, we have over 320 volunteers work on weekly services or help out at special events. Most are students and about half will go on to a career in autism. The minimum commitment is six months, but most stay four times longer than that. As a result, they are not merely add-on support to the Centre’s programming, but rather, highly trained volunteers with important intervention responsibilities that prepare them for staff positions.

But people aren’t the only thing we need. As one of Ontario’s largest direct support volunteer programs, we need to fund the on-going professional management of these volunteers, not only to ensure our clients get the right service, but also that our highly-qualified volunteer base get the experience they have come to expect.

Our initiative also serves as a clearing house that places volunteers in community agencies lacking their own volunteer programs, or lacking one targeting autism.

The Centre has a proven record of supplying volunteers to the City of Toronto’s Childcare centres as well as to classrooms in the Toronto District School Board. Without such support, neither organization would be able to provide specialized 1:1 support of children with autism to implement specialized intervention plans developed for them.