CWF grant helps save lives of autistic children

Since January 2015, 28 individuals affected by autism - ranging in age from 2 to 26 - have died due to wandering away from the safety of their homes or schools. Wandering is "basically their form of communication– I want something, I need something, or I need to get away from something," said Wendy Fournier, president of the National Autism Association (NAA). "When they are missing, when they are lost, they are at extreme risk."

With the assistance of two American Legion Child Welfare Foundation (CWF) grants, NAA addressed the wandering issue in 2011 to save the lives of kids with Autism by creating the Big Red Safety Box initiative. The first grant allowed NAA – a parent-run advocacy organization in Rhode Island – to produce 1,000 Big Red Safety Boxes. NAA put them online for free, and they were gone in less than six hours.

"That is the level of need for these types of resources," said Fournier, who spoke to attendees at the Legion's National Children & Youth Conference on Sunday. "I'm so grateful to you. This initiative was a dream; it was something we wanted to do but didn't have the money for it. You helped us start it, and it has become a hell of a program since then."

Before creating the Big Red Safety Box, there wasn't any data regarding the wandering issue; Fournier said it was anecdotal or personal stories. After research, NAA discovered that 49 percent of children with Autism engage in wandering behaviors, with 35 percent of the children wandering at least once a week; 42 percent of wandering cases involving a child nine years or younger ended in death; and 91 percent of wandering-related deaths were from drowning.

NAA's Big Red Safety Box includes several educational materials for caregivers on wandering, as well as:

• Two wireless door/window alarms.
• Adhesive stop signs to place on windows or by doors since children with Autism respond to visual objects, Fournier said.
• Emotion cards so children can express how they are feeling.
• Safety alert window stickers for car or home windows to notify first responders that a child with Autism is in the car/home.
• Safety alert wristband to show the child has Autism if they are non-verbal and cannot communicate with individuals trying to help them.
• Personalized shoe identification tag with the child's emergency contact information.

With the help of the second CWF grant in 2013, NAA created 5,000 more Big Red Safety Boxes. Since then, NAA's distribution of the boxes has tripled.

"Because of all of you, we were able to start this program, and we have been able to provide resources to 6,000 families throughout the United States," Fournier said. "In addition to that, because you helped us start this program, it was seed money, it helped us build it, it helped us fundraise in other ways. We have now given a total of 18,000 families one of these boxes because of all of you.

"You are supporting a worthy organization; we work hard to help families."