2024 Year in Review

December 30, 2024 —

As the 2024 calendar year draws to a close, we cannot help but reflect on all that we have achieved. The Miriam Foundation not only celebrated a milestone 50^th anniversary but continues to search for new sources of funding and opportunities for growth. The dedicated staff of both the foundation and the Gold Learning & Research Centre continue to push toward greater innovation and more opportunities to support individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and intellectual disabilities (ID), at all stages of life, as well as their families and caregivers, and professionals and educators in the greater Montreal area and beyond.

We would like to take this moment of reflection to thank the many members of our community who have contributed to our achievements this year. Our dedicated staff who continue to meet any challenges that come their way, with grace, a positive attitude, and great professionalism. Our many generous donors, who allow us to support so many children, adolescents, and adults with ASD and ID, and allow us the honour of watching our clients thrive in our programs. Our partners and collaborators, who allow us to do more than we could on our own, whether it is by providing material goods, human resources, expanding our reach and more. Our volunteers, who give so generously of their time, often coming back year after year, and support our mission so devotedly. We are deeply appreciative of all of you.

Gold Learning & Research Centre

Intervention Services – Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) and Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Programs:

Emma Veteau was named Clinical Director of the Gold Centre. Previously the clinical manager for the ESDM program, Emma joined the team in 2017 and has since demonstrated exceptional expertise and dedication. As a result, the ESDM team was reorganized, with Chloe Giroux being promoted to Clinical Manager of ESDM, and new supervisors being promoted from more junior positions.
107 clients served in ESDM and ABA programs, totalling over 18,000 hours of one-on-one, personalized intervention services, both on-site at the Gold Centre and in the community at homes, daycares, and schools
Both ESDM and ABA teams have continued to grow, with 5 new supervisors joining the team
We offered free adapted crossfit, thanks to Deka Crossfit
We worked on new alternative and augmented communication methods, via specialized iPad applications, thanks to a donation from Axxys Construction
We continued to offer the latest training to staff on many elements of their work, from ESDM basics to communication, sleep, feeding, and more, thanks to a grant from the Canadian Red Cross.

Parental Coaching Early Start Denver Model (P-ESDM) Program, offered thanks to a generous donation from the Azrieli Foundation:

113 families received free coaching over 16 sessions, whereby P-ESDM coaches work with families with children up to 4 years of age to give tools to the parents so that parents can improve their connection with their children and help target certain behavioural challenges as they wait for public health services.
The P-ESDM program collaborates with public health service agencies and clinics to see families that are on public service waitlists. These collaborations are critical to be able to reach those families most in need of services, when early intervention can have the most impact. This past year 2 new collaborations were established, with the Programme Déficience intellectuelle Trouble du spectre de l’autisme et Déficience physique du CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, and Programme régional d’accueil et d’intégration des demandeurs d’asile (PRAIDA.)
Phase 1 of an ongoing research project with UQAM concluded this year.
2 team members completed their advanced ESDM training. As with all of our teams, ongoing training is given throughout the year to ensure high quality of care.

EmploymentWorks, offered in partnership with the Sinneave Family Foundation:

EmploymentWorks is an employment coaching program for adults with ASD, which not only prepares participants to look for jobs, but gives them workshops on their rights as employees, offers opportunities to try different types of work and coaches them through the various challenges they encounter in their employment, as well as helps workplaces become more inclusive for neurodiverse individuals.
In 2024 we offered the program to 6 groups, 3 in English and 3 in French, to a total of 27 participants
Of those that participated, we helped 6 individuals find employment, while 2 decided to return to education.
We developed 2 new partnerships for job sampling this year, with Jem workshop and Intelerad Medical Systems Incorporated.
We continued to work with the following partners for both job sampling and potential employment: Santropol Roulant, Share the Warmth, Best Simcha, T.O.P. Marketing, Jean Coutu, MateriaTech
We partnered with CNSSST to offer essential training to our participants on their rights as an employee

Azrieli Adult Leisure Program, offered thanks to the generosity of the Azrieli Foundation:

This important program for adults with ASD and ID offers many different activities and clubs, so that everyone can find something that they enjoy. This allows them to socialize with their peers, build community, practice various life skills (such as cooking, social etiquette, ordering, conflict resolution, and more) and fill their schedule with enjoyable activities. We offer this program at a minimal cost to support the daily activities and well-being of mostly Miriam Home residents.

In 2024 we had 108 unique participants across 27 activities.
Some of the most popular activities this year were: Bowling (46 participants across 2 evenings), Good Rockin’ Tonight, a Saturday night dance party complete with DJ (32 participants), Coffee club (28 participants), Cinema Outings (20 participants across 2 days), and Bingo (20 participants.)
Two new activities were added this year: museum visits and spectator sports.
This year, a shorter summer session was added to increase activities available over the summer.

Creative and Therapeutic Arts Program, offered in collaboration with the Bitton family:

Two highly skilled co-coordinators took over this program in the spring, Rachel Chainey and Mélissa Sokoloff.
The Miriam Art Hive was established. This is a free, drop-in, intergenerational, inclusive space that is open to the public where everyone can be an artist.
A new summer camp was launched for adults, running for 8 weeks in 2-week blocks from June to August. Each week it offered a variety of activities, including visual and digital arts, music, dance, and culinary arts. The need for summertime activities for adults was evident, with the camp filling up very quickly.
We began offering regular programming in music, dance and theatre, songwriting, and digital arts for both children and adults.

MateriaTech:

We began offering free MateriaTech membership to all current ESDM and ABA clients. All Miriam Home employees also have free access.
We exhibited at various conferences and events, such as the Autism Fair and Autism Speaks annual walk.
We organized a one-day “back to school sale” to further support the specialized needs of the community.

Miriam Foundation

We celebrated a significant milestone, with our 50^th Anniversary Benefit Evening on November 7^th. This celebration was not only an important fundraising event, raising $600,000, but brought together so many from our community of supporters, including many who have been with us since the beginning of our history. We were thrilled to be able to honour Norm Cohen, one of the signatories on the incorporation of the foundation in 1973 and a past president, as well as past presidents Bernie Pollock and David Black.
We launched the Tony Meti Endowment Fund for Neurodiverse Individuals. The goal is to raise $50 million for this fund to ensure the long-term sustainability of our programs. Raising the funds needed to continue to offer subsidized services exclusively with private and corporate donations is challenging in many ways, but necessary. We wish to be here to continue to offer critical supports at all stages of life for another 50 years.

The much beloved and long-standing adult supper program was relaunched this year, thanks to a generous donation from Sharon Azrieli. The newly named “Rafi Azrieli Supper Program” was launched in partnership with the English Montreal School Board at Wagar Adult Education Centre.
We hosted our 57^th annual golf tournament, one of the oldest in Canada.
For the first time since moving the foundation and all of our programs into our new 26,000 sq. ft. building in 2020, we hosted an open house in April, as part of our Autism Awareness Month activities.
Our fundraising team doubled, growing from two to four people. We were thrilled to have Geneviève Prévost join as Director of Development and Noah Josephson as MF Coordinator.
In collaboration with Toronto’s Geneva Centre for Autism, we began to offer Sonderly, an online training platform.
We partnered with Lighthouse Immersive to offer sensory friendly viewings of their Immersive Disney Animation in Montreal from January to April 2024, to allow all families and all children to attend and enjoy the magic of Disney.
We secured funding to create a sensory room at the Gold Centre, thanks to a new partnership with the Amal Foundation.

None of this is possible without the generosity of our donors. Every dollar helps us provide community, tools, hope, autonomy and more to our clients and their families. Every day we can see the impact of the services being offered at the Gold Centre. Time and time again, we hear especially from parents of young children, who knew that their development was atypical and wanted to address it quickly. Being able to offer free programs like P-ESDM and comprehensive and personalized services like ESDM and ABA, that address the specific needs of each individual child at a subsidized rate, opens up a world of hope and possibility to so many families who could not otherwise afford private services.

Francis’s family, clients of our P-ESDM program, shared the following:

“During the time when our son did not have access to therapy yet, we became increasingly worried because we have observed some unwanted behaviors emerging and we felt that he was getting worse. But all our worries went away when we started with the P-ESDM program of Miriam Foundation. In just a few weeks our son was able to express himself by pointing at the things that he wanted; we also felt that he was beginning to understand us better when we noted that he was able to follow some of our instructions.

He is turning three years old soon and he can say a few words now. Not so much for his age but we’re happy for him. We’re happy for his progress. Ever since then, we felt hopeful for our son and it eases the emotional burden in our part knowing that there’s someone like the Miriam Foundation who is there by our side with the same goal for our son as we do. Right now, even though we’re still in the waitlist for free government services, we no longer feel worried about our son because we know that we are doing something about it with the help of the Miriam Foundation. We hope that Miriam Foundation can help more children with their mission. Your subsidized programs are indeed a blessing to a lot of families like us. So thank you very much Miriam Foundation for being there for my family.”

There is much to look forward to in 2025 and we hope to see you at one or more of our various activities. As many plans and partnerships are in the works, please stay tuned to announcements and invitations to come. These include the following confirmed upcoming events:

April 11^th at our Creative Arts Centre: an exhibition and panel on the creative process of the autistic mind, including autistic artists, their families, and varying professionals and academics who work with them.
May 14^th at Estiatorio Milos: “My Big Fat Greek Fundraiser”.
August 11^th at Golf Saint-Raphaël: the 58^th annual golf tournament.
November 6^th at Maison Alcan: Annual Art Auction for Autism.

You can still give a donation online for 2024 and help support our mission. When you donate online, you will immediately receive your donation receipt. Donate today at miriamfoundation.ca.

Thank you for your continued support! Looking forward to sharing more wonderful moments together in 2025.