The Miracle Project: Interview with Elaine Hall, Helping Kids with #Autism #ad

This is one of a series of posts sponsored by CVS Caremark All Kids Can, a commitment to making life better for children with disabilities. 

I’m excited to introduce you to The Miracle Project, an inclusive program that helps children and teens with autism and other special needs express themselves through creative arts, like music and acting. 

Founder Elaine Hall was inspired to start the program to help her son, Neal Katz, now age 18. At age 2, he was diagnosed with autism. The conventional therapies offered at the time were not working and Elaine, a professional acting coach, researched alternative options. She discovered the work of Dr. Stanley Greenspan, who encouraged her to follow Neal’s lead, and Dr. Barry Prizant, who helped her understand the sensory component that is difficult for many kids with autism.

Elaine entered Neal’s world by participating in his flapping, and then got her coaching students involved. She rallied her talent together training them in protocols recommended by Dr. Greenspan, incorporating performing arts, to help Neal. Her creative team trained 7-10 hours a day. A blogger recommended she start her own program, and The Miracle Project was born.

By 2005, her team had created a theater program with and for children with autism and other disabilities. They wrote a musical based on the kids’ ideas. A filmmaker discovered them and created the Emmy-winning HBO documentary, Autism: The Musical.

Word spread and CVS Caremark All Kids Can awarded a $50,000 grant to expand The Miracle Project programming to public schools in San Diego and San Jose. “Seven Keys to Unlock Autism,” began in April, 2012 with a community-wide presentation in both cities. Participants ranged from politicians to therapists to store owners. Seven schools in each area were chosen to participate in training, including 4-day intensives, webinars, and phone counsels.

Elaine was excited about their success. “We get marvelous feedback! Older kids with autism who have never been expressive now are. Nonverbal children are…doing things like creating mini-films.”

The grant from CVS Caremark allowed them to bring in both underserved and upper class kids and Elaine is thrilled that the program has helped so many from such a wide range of backgrounds. “The kids who are not impacted by autism love going!” One popular 14-year old girl said, “I’m more myself in this class than I am with my best friends.” Another teen said she realized that she’d been “disabling my own life” with poor choices and that The Miracle Project changed her life.

Elaine’s work helped her own son, Neal, become independent. Now, he is not only a successfully employed adult, he is also a self-proclaimed autism emissary and speaker, who has presented to the U.N. on World Autism Day and at Dr. Brazleton’s Profectum Conference.

The Miracle Project has created 9 plays for kids with special needs. At present, the program is only available in schools in San Diego and San Jose, and in workshops in New York City and Los Angeles, but a town in Missouri recently showed interest and is raising funds to bring the program there. Elaine and Neal want people with autism and other disabilities to be accepted for who they are, to follow their own interests, and to be their own advocates. The Miracle Project can help them do it!

For more information on how you can bring The Miracle Project to your town, visit http://www.themiracleproject.org/.

This is one of a series of posts sponsored by CVS Caremark All Kids Can, a commitment to making life better for children with disabilities.