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| KOMU News on Flickr |
The Oxford Dictionaries define awareness as:
- Knowledge or perception of a situation or fact
- Concern about and well-informed interest in particular situation or development
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| Hepingting on Flickr |
Other than letting the public know that autism exists, is there a substantial effort to educate and inform the public about:
- Interacting with a person with autism
- How to tell that someone might have autism
- Employing people with autism
- The capabilities and talents of people with autism
- Practical help that families of people with autism need
- The help children and adults with autism need in education, health and housing
I don't think so.
Think of all the money that is spent organizing autism awareness events, designing and printing autism awareness materials and getting buildings to use blue lighting - would that money be better used to directly benefit people with autism?
Don't get me wrong. I support efforts to make the world aware of autism, but sometimes it seems more like a public relations stunt for organisations instead of an effort to help people with autism.
Autism Speaks is the largest organisation I am aware of that promotes April as autism awareness month. How much is it spending to promote this awareness? What is it spending to help families affected by autism? Get ready to be surprised!
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| Screen grab from YouTube |
According to its most recent accounts, Autism Speaks spent over $76 million
in 2013 on "Awareness and Other Services." To put this number in perspective, Autism Speaks spent nearly $19 million on salaries and just over $4.5 million on "family service grants and awards" in the same year.
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| Extract from page 4 of Autism Speaks' Consolidated Financial Statements for Year Ending December 31, 2013 |
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| Extract from page 5 of Autism Speaks' Consolidated Financial Statements for Year Ending December 31, 2013 |
How many people would benefit if $76 million was spent helping people with autism and their families? When people donate to Autism Speaks, do they realize the disparity between the amount of money spent on families and research and the money spent on salaries and awareness?
I didn't start this post to write about Autism Speaks. A lot is already written about Autism Speaks' finances as well as its depiction of autism. You can check its accounts and make your own decisions. My question is this:
Is there a better way to use the money and other resources currently used for autism awareness month?
What do you think?
I think that one of the good things about Autism Awareness Month is that it encourages posts like this : most of the really good autism awareness and acceptance work is done for free by parents and advocates
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I think some people who do not have autism are making a lot of money from autism awareness campaigns. So much money is being spent, but most of it is being spent on people's salaries, which if they have autism would be a good thing. Imagine if all those millions were actually being given to individuals with autism!!!
ReplyDeleteVery good point. It would be great if awareness was promoted in the context of projects to help people with autism and their families. For example, using resources to set up respite centres, provide training to help young adults with autism find jobs and/or pursue further education - blue lights are not enough.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely true in some organisations and unfortunately, people continue to support them.
ReplyDeleteI think we are all learning more about autism but I must agree that there is an awful lot of waste and inefficiencies around and money wasted which could be much better used.
ReplyDeleteWhat an great post. Food for thought. I do think the more aware we all become the better, as only then will more money come Autisms way, but I'm not sure we are being 'educated' in the right way.
Agreed. Awareness is important for fundraising, but there should be a balance between publicity and funding spent on families and autism research.
ReplyDeleteSadly I think this is a very common thing in the world of
ReplyDeletecharity. The staff at the top earn so much money, you wonder just how much of
your donation has gone to where it needs to go. I think a lot about autism is known, but not enough
when it comes to dealing with it. Hopefully, posts like this (and lots of
others I read about autism journeys) will help. Unfortunately, I don’t think
those earners are going to stop earning so I guess all we can hope is that they
spend the money they do have appropriately. Thanks so much for linking up with #TwinklyTuesday
Thanks Lisa. I think in some cases it is necessary to pay a decent salary to someone running a large organisation, No matter how motivated the founders or volunteers of a charity are, they may not have the business skills necessary to run a multimillion dollar organisation. However, there must be a limit and it must be in proportion to the funds spent on the people the charity was set up to help.
ReplyDelete