Golden Hat Foundation

Results: Long term, the Golden Hat Foundation is committed to building a visionary campus for adults on the autism spectrum. The goal of our campuses is to empower these individuals to reach their full potential while simultaneously increasing awareness of their strengths. The Golden Hat Foundation works everyday to spread awareness, conduct outreach, and promote advocacy in our communities. Funds raised fuel these efforts by allowing Golden Hat to truly honor the intellectual capabilities of individuals with autism. The Golden Hat Foundation has successfully spread awareness of the intellectual capabilities of individuals with ASD through a variety of large-scale projects. The Documentary film, A Mother’s Courage: Talking Back to Autism, was the first such effort to reach the public with the foundation’s unique message; this film premiered on HBO in 2011. Following the film’s initial success and the involvement of celebrity Kate Winslet, the Golden Hat Foundation’s first project was a coffee-table book entitled, The Golden Hat: Talking Back to Autism, which features self-portraits of 100 A-list celebrities and cultural luminaries (including Leonardo DiCaprio, Oprah, Julia Roberts, and Ellen DeGeneres), who joined us as advocates to help spread awareness. Following the book launch, the Golden Hat Foundation co-hosted World Autism Awareness Day in conjunction with the United Nations. The foundation presents a high profile benefit concert annually at Carnegie Hall to share the message that despite the behaviors and communication difficulties of people with autism, we should assume intelligence first and then find ways to access it. For the 2013 benefit, Golden Hat partnered with local organizations in the greater NYC area to invite families and individuals affected by autism to attend the concert at no cost. As a result, over 250 families enjoyed the performance - http://goo.gl/90iPLu The foundation offers 'Golden Hat Kids: Friendship in Autism', a group open to the public that provides a supportive environment for socialization and play for those with autism and a place where autism parents, caregivers, and providers can meet to share autism resources and experiences in a relaxed atmosphere. Promoting self-advocacy and changing negative stigmas is important to the Golden Hat Foundation. On our website, we feature a new blog post authored by authored by an individual with autism every month. The posts are widely circulated via social media and our e-newsletter.

Target demographics: Individuals with autism and their families

Geographic areas served: Central Texas

Programs: In 2014, the golden hat foundation, in accordance to its mission, successfully spread awareness of the intellectual capabilities of individuals with asd and the need to provide those affected with the right opportunities and support so that they can flourish and be an active and integral part of their community and society in general. The golden hat foundation continued publication of its newsletter, started in 2013, distributing that to about 3,000 families every month. Alongside the newsletter the foundation published regular blog posts all written by autistic authors, family members of autistic individuals or others that have unique insight into the plight of autistic people. In addition to publication of the newsletter, the foundation reaches over 20,000 followers on social media with daily posting of content through multiple channels, spreading information and newsworthy stories that are related to autism. The foundation continued to increase its presence and reach through social media and participated in numerous events for autism both small and large.

in december the golden hat foundation held a third annual concert in carnegie hall in new york raising awareness of autism with a special focus on those more severely affected and their families. The concert was well sought and very well received giving autistic individuals and families of those affected an opportunity to attend a high profile event in a safe and autism friendly environment.