Providing Autism Links and Support

State Conference & Workshops: PALS provides the organization and financial support to offer a conference for parents, students, and professionals working with individuals with Autism. One of the major conferences that PALS supports is the Annual Statewide Conference which is a three day event. The number of attendees for this conference in the year 2022 was 664. . In conjunction with the above conference, PALS offer a comprehensive 2-day workshop called "The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS-2)." ADOS-2 has become the standard instrument for assessing autism and PDD (Pervasive Developmental Disorder) across age, developmental level, and language skills. For the 2022, 47 psychologists/psychaitrists and therapeutic professionals were certified to administer the ADOS 2. .

Social Programs: PALS provides opportunities for interacton of individuals with autism diagnosis in general community settings with support of facilitators. These programs are separated by age appropriateness (ages) are called Aspire (+18), U13 (8-12), Teen Time (13-17) and AEIOU (2-7). Typically, participants select to register for events at low to no cost such as bowling, picnics, bingo, corn mazes, miniature golf, karaoke, dancing, chat seessions, dinners, board game night, and trivia. These events are typically hosted at community vanues with PALS facilitators supporting individuals with autism to be successful in the community. Allthough some of the programs started to be held in person, some of the programs were still held online. Online events consisted of movie days, lunch and chats, or dinner and chats, Trivial Kahoot, Pictionary, Jeopardy, Charades, Name that Emoji, Sleuth Games, Bingo, Deserted Island, Scavenger Hunts, and Dance Offs. PALS facilitators still provided social input to assist with social skill growth. Any or all membership/software was purchased to make such programs continue. For 2022, the social programs PAL provided a total of 695 unique events with a total of 6,945 participants. . Family Events: PAlS provides family events for the entire family to attend. It is an opportunity for tpical siblings to meet others and parents network while individuals with ASD to work on social skills, being in groups, enhance communications skills and work on sensory issues along with behaviors. PALS hosted 4 family events in 2022 with a total attendance of 1,011. . ASPIRE (Asperger's Syndrome Pursuing Interests, Recreation, and Entertainment) is a 18+ adult social community group typically meets 1- 2 times a week at various community vanues for social interactions hosted by PALS facilitators. Participants have a choice to select which activities they wish to participated in. In 2022, PALS offered 90 unique ASPIRE events with 868 participants. . Teen Time is a group for individuals with autism between the ages of 13-17 to practice social skill enhancement in a safe, welcoming, supportive environment with PALS facilitators as support. Teen time meets typicall during the summer months and or school breaks and provided various activities listed above virtually. In 2022, PALS hosted 25 unique Teen Time events with 91 participants. . U13 is a group of individiduals with autism between the ages of 8-12 to practice social skills enhancement in a safe, welcoming, supportive environment with PALS facilitators as support. In 2022, we hosted 18 events with 99 participants. . AEIOU (Autism Early Intervenion Opportunities and You) is for individuals ages 2-7 with a diagnosis of autism to practice social skill enhancement in a safe, welcoming, supportive environment with PALS facilitators that incorporate play and meeting new friends. In 2022, PALS provided 4 AEIOU events with 112 participants. . Community Collaboration Programs: PALS collaborates with local community venues offering sports/dance and exercise programs for typical peers by providing autism awareness training, basic behavioral intervention techniques and facilitator support during programs. Programs PALS collabrated with was XL Soccer, Judo, and Martial Arts. PALS collaborated with XL soccer with 196 unique events and 2,175 participants; Judo collabration hosted 21 events and 281 participants; Tennis, and Pickleball had the paticipants of 169, and 160 respectively. Dance had 4 events and a total of 7 participants in 2022. . Diactic Sodial Enhancement Programs are programs designed to teach socials skills to individuals with autism spectrum disorders. These programs are active in the springs and fall for 16 weeks 1.5-2 hour weekly sessions with instructors teaching social skills, life skills, cognitive emotional regulations, executive functioning skills, and basic behavioral strategies, along with bullying and self-advocacy. Currently, PALS provides to age groups of 8-12 (Eight-12), and 13-18 (TAG) year old group. In 2022, PALS provided 97 unique TAG sessions with a total of 732 participants, 84 Eight-12 sessions with 598 participants. There is also a collaborative group with teen and adult, which had 7 events and 34 participants. TAG is hosted in Volusia, Seminole, Orange, Osceola, and Lake Counties. Eight-12 is hosted in Orange, Seminole, and Volusia Counties. . In addition to the aformentioned programs, PALS hosted Girls Club for 13-17 age group in 2022. It had 4 unique sessions with 32 participants. . In additioned aformentioned the group programs divided by the age, PALS also hosted other activities such as Balloon Making and Cook-It. There were 4 events for Balloon Making with 6 participants, and Cook-It had 4 sessions with 24 participants. .

Summer Camp Program: PALs provides support for Camp Two Can, which is a summer day camp program for children with and without ASD (Autistic Syndrome Disorder)in various Central Florida locations. Camp provides campers with natural environments to help build friendships, learn and use social skills, explore nature, make arts and crafts, participate in swimming/sports/games, and use various functional skills. Small groups of children are supervised by adults who are experienced in working with children with Autism. In 2022, "Camp Two Can" was resumed, along with Virtual Summer Camp as last year, and a new camp called "Career Camp." The total number of attendees for Camp Two Can and Virtual Summer Camp was 271 (for the total of 54 sessions)and that of Career Camp was 99 (for the total of 10 sessions) for 2022. .

Awareness Program - There was an Awareness event which had 136 attendees in 2022. .

Training and Convention programs In 2022, we conducted Empower PALS to help finance the gifts to activity attendees, as well as in-house staff traing to supervise and conduct all the activities. There were 6 staff trainings sessions with 58 total attendance in 2022. There was also Parent Training (Orientation/Interviews) for 346 parents in 2022.