2023-2024 Grants and Collaborative Projects
Encore Services - Cheyenne, WY
The “Finding Your Voice” project involves four facets: 1) Train participants with I/DD on voice acting tools and techniques; 2)Guide participants with I/DD in creating four lesson plans and content for four animated video about civil rights and engagement; 3) Hire the newly-trained voice actors to act in the animated videos about civil rights and engagement; and 4) Facilitate discussion and lecture groups where video participants teach the rest of the group using the videos they helped create.
The videos were produced and finalized June of 2024.
View the videos at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMiGQezVtGE or click the video above
Wyoming Institute for Disabilities (WIND)
Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in rural areas like Wyoming are in increased need of quality intervention based services to address the problems they may face. There exists a significant lack of resources around these individuals but also a general lack of other people with which they can connect with. One area of particular concern for adults with ASD is that of social isolation.
The project connected adults with ASD in two primary ways. The first recruited adults with ASD to participate in focus groups on the topic of social isolation. Groups of up to 10 individuals met virtually via an online video platform (Zoom) to be asked about their perspectives on the issue of social isolation.
This process will helped the program team to determine the extent of this issue for individuals in Wyoming as well as help to organize the topics that will be covered during the ECHO network.