Partnering with Global Autism Project!
When we first opened in November 2015, we made it a part of our mission to invest in stories. The stories of each vendor we represent in our store are of passion work and how their products are made with human hands and hearts in mind. This year, we took a big step in expanding that philosophy of telling the good stories and worked tirelessly on our first partnership! We've teamed up with Global Autism Project this holiday season to bring our shop to Brooklyn and help tell their story to our audience. We spoke with CEO Molly Pinney to hear how her passion project turned into a incredibly successful non profit that does amazing work in Brooklyn and around the world.
So what is Global Autism Project? How did it come to be? Well, Molly's story begins in Ghana. After a few years of working privately for a family with a child with Autism offering teaching aid and support, she came to a glowing realization that very few people in Ghana even knew what Autism was and the few who did, sought her out fervently. In the United States, education and societal understanding was widely spread. Molly found quickly that there was a huge vacuum of services that were actually available to students when locals kept knocking on her door looking for the woman who knew what autism was. Instantly, an idea came to life.
Global Autism project started as a passion project and has grown to service, educate, and collaborate with students, parents, and teachers for children around the world. They've expanded their reach to 14 partnerships in countries like China, Kenya, The Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Nigeria, India, and Indonesia. The pillars of their work aim to change the stigma of autism around the globe and do so by creating partnerships with local communities where they send teachers and ABA therapists to offer education and support. GAP has set a goal of securing six more partnerships come 2018 and to do that, they are promoting their monthly giving program, Compass.
We've been working with them this month to not only spread our wings in a big new city, but we want to help them reach their dreams, we want to help them tell their amazing story. What is universal in their work is that autism truly knows no borders. It is devoid of language and it is so full of heart. The heart of their work also exists right home in Brooklyn. In a domestic effort to further promote the rights of adults with autism, Global Autism Project employees adults with autism through their R.A.I.S.E program. We've been so fortunate to get to learn each and every member of their staff as a part of this experience. Day in and day out they emulate love and work hard for a disability that some so often misunderstand. If you want to learn more about their work you can find them at www.globalautismproject.org. A certain percentage of our monthly sales will be donated towards their non profit. Every gift counts! And thanks for supporting us this month.
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