The Daniel Jordan Fiddle Foundation, for nearly two decades, has focused its all-volunteer organization’s mission on every aspect of adult life from employment to the arts to health and wellness to residential and recreational endeavors. An integral aspect of the Foundation’s mission has always been to recognize and support the love, care and challenges experienced by family members in the lifelong journey of autism.
In September of 2016, The Foundation will announce and launch the first endowed fund in the nation that will support the development of model programs, offer resources, and fund counseling services for family members and caregivers of adults diagnosed with autism. The Daniel Jordan Fiddle Foundation Adult Autism Family Support Fellowship and Resource Guide Fund will be established at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey and will be administered by the Rutgers University School of Social Work.
The purpose of the Fund is to train graduate students to work as clinicians specifically focused on improving outcomes for the family members of adults diagnosed with autism, and to create a web-based resource guide for families, organizations and agencies as they serve and support adults. The Dean of the Rutgers University School of Social Work will annually name a group of graduate level Fellows to be known as The Daniel Jordan Fiddle Foundation Fellows, who will work in the field as direct care clinicians for family members of adults diagnosed with autism. The Fellows will also be responsible for compiling a web-based resource guide to be known as The Daniel Jordan Fiddle Foundation Adult Autism Resource Guide, which will include statewide and national resources to assist families, organizations and agencies as they navigate the often confusing and difficult paths to employment and financial and healthcare information to name a few, will also be included in the website guide.
According to Dean Cathryn Potter of Rutgers University School of Social Work, some of the goals of the Fund’s usage will be to develop new service benchmarks, share resources nationally and shift public perception that autism only affects children. The Daniel Jordan Fiddle Foundation values these goals and is proud to add this newest endowed program to our university-based endowed programs that focus on specific aspects of adult autism. It is our intent that The Daniel Jordan Fiddle Foundation Adult Autism Family Support Fellowship and Resource Guide Fund will assure for decades to come that family members and caregivers of adults will receive the resources and clinical services they need.
Linda J. Walder is the Founder and Executive Director of The Daniel Jordan Fiddle Foundation. Currently Linda and the Foundation Board are using their expertise in the field of adult autism and their collaborative spirit to create endowed programs at the nation’s finest universities that will assure a focus on areas that impact the lives of the diverse population of adults diagnosed with autism for generations to come. In 2014, The Foundation established The Daniel Jordan Fiddle Foundation Adult Autism Research Fund at Yale Medical School and The Daniel Jordan Fiddle Foundation Transition and Adult Programs Fund that supports program development and implementation at The Foundation Transition and Adult Programs at the University of Miami/NSU Center for Autism and Related Disabilities.
