CARD-USF Board Member, Rachel Barcellona, honored as Lightning Community Hero

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE on Monday, March 22, 2021

CARD-USF receives $30,000 through Lightning Community Hero Program

Board member graciously selects CARD to receive gift in support of USF Autism Services.

TAMPA, Fla. (March 22, 2021) – On Saturday, March 20, the Center for Autism and Related Disabilities at the University of South Florida (CARD-USF) Constituency Board member, Rachel Barcellona, was named a 2021 Lightning Community Hero for her continued efforts in community outreach, autism advocacy and disability inclusion.  Rachel is a senior at USF majoring in English and a member of Chi Omega sorority.

CARD-USF, housed in the College of Behavioral and Community Sciences (CBCS) at USF is a community-based project that provides free resources and services to those diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders and related disabilities as well as instruction and coaching to families and professionals through a training and assistance model. What an honor it is for CARD-USF to be chosen as the recipient of this gift that, through CARD’s USF Foundation Autism Services Fund, will be used to directly impact the lives of individuals with autism spectrum disorder. 

“CARD-USF is very excited and grateful to be receiving a portion of the proceeds from the Lightning Community Hero Gift Program. We would like to direct the funds to areas of need including those in underserved and diverse populations. During such a trying year, this provides for our continued support of inclusion,” said Mindy Stevens, CARD-USF Director. “We are so proud of Rachel Barcellona. Congratulations and many thanks to Rachel and the Lightning Community Hero program for making a difference in our communities!”

More information about CARD-USF https://usf.to/autism or CBCS https://www.usf.edu/cbcs/    

https://www.nhl.com/lightning/news/rachel-barcellona-honored-as-lightning-community-hero/c-322724164?fbclid=IwAR1QweF_ro4UQ_UUP6VzvAxpXy5cTIu40O4xZInpYGoCtzBOpe9pKD_WUqc

CARD-USF’S Budget Cut by 6%

On Monday, September 14^th, the State of Florida directed all state funded programs to immediately make a 6% cut to their 2020-2021 budget. Due to COVID-19 and the economic impact to our state, these cuts have been a growing concern that we hoped would not come to fruition but unfortunately, we are now faced with the reality. CARD-USF remains committed to assisting individuals, their families, educators, and community partners within our 14 counties with the same passion and quality we have always provided. However, any further cuts will greatly impact our personnel and the ways in which we provide assistance.

Our leadership team responded quickly & worked together to comb through our budget for the current fiscal year. Some of the budget we had in place was either significantly reduced or cut all together. Even with these efforts we still faced a deficit. Fortunately, we have our Autism Services Fund to lean on. This fund is typically used for special projects such as our safety materials, Autism Friendly Business Initiative and several other projects and various needs whose costs are beyond our state funding.  

Now more than ever we are left to rely heavily on our Autism Services Fund. This fund is comprised of generous donations and money raised at events, such as Fiesta by the Bay. We want the ability to provide safety kits to families, visuals and resources to first responders, books and trainings to educators but we will need you and your support to do it. We are going to need our Autism Champions more than ever to support us and our work in the community.

So, our question is, will you be an Autism Champion?

CARD-USF Launches e-library

CARD-USF is excited to launch our OverDrive digital library collection. The new CARD e-Library will be available exclusively to registered CARD-USF constituents, families, and professionals and is specifically curated to include autism-related materials. We currently building this collection and we’ll announce the launch date soon! Visit our Facebook page for the opportunity to submit book recommendations to include in our collection.  

This new e-library is brought to you by the Karen A. Berkman Autism & Innovation Fund through the USF Foundation with generous support from the Florida Autism License Plate Grant.

Gifts to support additional digital content can be made here.