Grant Awarded to Create a Community Room Designed by Autistic Teens

Clive, IA, April 30, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Grant to Help Create Community Room for and Designed By Autistic Teens

The Daniel Jordan Fiddle Foundation Awards $5000 to Metro West Kids Learning Center Foundation

Metro West Kids Learning Center Foundation has been awarded a $5,000 grant to support the development of Project Teen PLACE (People, Life skills, Acceptance, Community, Encouragement) from The Daniel Jordan Fiddle Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) national autism organization with the mission to develop and award grants to programs that benefit adolescents and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).

“We are thrilled to help create the opportunity for adolescents with ASD to socialize, develop friendships and have fun which is necessary for the well-being of all people and particularly difficult for individuals with ASD,” said Linda Walder Fiddle, Founding Director.

The project involves the development of a community room that will be housed within Metro West Kids Learning Center (MWKLC) in Clive. It will be designed for, and perhaps more importantly designed by, high-functioning adolescents on the autistic spectrum.

Project PLACE will provide a teen-centered environment for existing adolescent programming (180 programming slots per year for youth ages 13-18) including social language groups, educational support, community groups, social gatherings and transition planning. It will also result in the development of new programming focused on teaching adolescents the crucial skills needed to complete the PLACE and helping them generalize those skills to life outside the project.

“We are excited to give our kids an appealing place of their own to work on the skills they so desperately need to become independent adults,” said Toni Merfeld, Metro West Kids Foundation President. “This kind of project wouldn’t happen without the dedicated support of organizations like The Daniel Jordan Fiddle Foundation.”

For more information on Metro West Kids visit www.metrowestkids.net. For more information on The Daniel Jordan Fiddle Foundation visit www.djfiddlefoundation.org.

###