Welcome to the Hope Project Homepage

Please help our project!

We hope you saw the short film on TV3 in the past few weeks, which gives some idea of how autism affects children.

Mission Statement

The Hope Project aims to bring hope to people struggling with a disability and to their families. The Hope Project was designed to reach, inform, assist and motivate parents to ensure that their disabled children get appropriate help and get it as early as possible, thereby giving them a much greater chance of taking their rightful place and playing their part in society. We also aim to inform government and society about the needs of the disabled and their families whom we serve.

The Hope Project offers assistance to persons of all special needs, ages and locations.

Since the Hope Project started, our most important work has been to talk to and keep in touch with parents and with persons with a special need, many in deep distress through the Hope Project Help line. We try to offer a wide range of supports (advice, mediation, advocacy, networking, professional placement, etc) and the fruits of our research into issues of health, education, benefits and care. We are national and are contacted from all over Ireland and internationally.

Since our establishment, we have been inundated with requests for help from parents of children and adults within the Autistic Spectrum. We have as a result developed particular expertise in this area.

In the area of Autistic Spectrum Disorders, the Hope Project holds one major Conference and several workshops/seminars every year to bring the most up to date and relevant information to this country. We host a SIT therapy facility, summer camps, and integrated kindergarten. We assist parents in forming local support groups, classes and home programs.

We are presently negotiating three new initiatives:

• an integrated junior primary school,
• a class for teenagers with attention deficits and
• La Pilar.

La Pilar Integrated Learning Centre is a 15 m capital project. La Pilar is a one-stop shop for children experiencing developmental difficulties. The centre is designed to coordinate medical, nutritional, therapeutic input with teaching and family training and support in a way that will be effective in normalising a child's development.

In addition to the early intervention facilities, La Pilar includes an integrated school that will cater for both primary and secondary students.

As part of our public awareness efforts, our secretary speaks at school, meetings and conferences throughout the year.