One mother says the autism services at Project Hope Foundation is the reason she moved here

GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - The Project Hope Foundation is holding their biggest fundraising event of the year. The non-profit helps families manage autism spectrum disorder. They offer various services including applied behavior analysis therapy, education, adult services and community engagement.

The prevalence of autism has steadily increased over the years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now estimates that 1 in every 44 children has autism spectrum disorder.

One parent who has a child with autism says this foundation is the reason she moved to Greenville. Connie Brown was living in Colorado at the time and struggled to find autism services that were affordable for her son Boone.

“You get that diagnosis and you realize: my child may never say my name,” mother Connie Brown said. “He may never move out of my house. My son doesn’t use utensils. My son doesn’t play with friends. And all those dreams tend to be, honestly, completely shattered.”

Brown says while in Colorado they spent around $40,000 out of pocket for therapies, with insurance. They decided to move across the country because they thought the services in the upstate were more suited to his needs. Boone is non-verbal or non-speaking.

“[Project] Hope was so great at taking Boone and creating an entire treatment plan completely for him and catered to him,” Brown said.

The Evening of Hope Gala will be Saturday Feb. 18th at the Greenville Convention Center. Cocktails start at 6 p.m. A dinner and program will follow. Throughout the night there will be a silent auction on more than 150 items, along with games including various prizes.

The Project Hope Foundation says they serve more than 200 children with autism in their therapy programs. They have eight campuses across the upstate and hope to continue serving as many families as possible.

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