For parents of children with disabilities, getting the support their child needs is complicated, time-consuming and expensive — and it’s particularly tough for low-income families. For nonprofits like Unlimited Possibilities, which works with these families, getting funding to support their work is almost as challenging.
Unlimited Possibilities is committed to treating every child that needs its services regardless of diagnosis or economic status, providing early intervention and pediatric therapy to 450 low-income children and families across Orange County and beyond. It just received a boost in the form of a $25,000 grant from the S. Mark Taper Foundation. It’s a relatively small grant, but a welcome one for an overlooked field.
The safety net for low-income families with disabled children is riddled with holes — and philanthropy isn’t doing enough to fill in the gaps. As my colleague, Paul Karon, reported recently, even though 1 in 4 Americans lives with a disability, new analysis by the Disability & Philanthropy Forum found that support for disability causes receives only about 2% of philanthropic funding.
The Ford Foundation stands out as a rare major funder championing disability causes. Ford and Borealis Philanthropy, another disability rights funder, recently created a $1 million fund to support disabled-led groups working to promote technology access for that community, as IP’s Martha Ramirez reported. Other funders that have supported disability causes include Conrad Hilton Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, but the number of philanthropies that make it a major priority remains alarmingly small.
The recent gift from the S. Mark Taper Foundation is the first grant that Unlimited Possibilities has received from the Los Angeles-based funder. Originally from Poland, Taper started out selling shoes and became a successful financier; he moved to California in the 1930s. He and his wife funded efforts to help hundreds of Catholic and Jewish children escape Nazi Germany, according to the New York Times. Taper, who died in 1994, was a major supporter of the Los Angeles Music Center (the Mark Taper Forum carries his name), and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The private family foundation was created in 1989 and is “committed to grantmaking that aligns with the values of diversity, equity and inclusion,” according to its website.
For Ramin Baschshi, Unlimited Possibilities president and CEO, and her colleagues, the gift is not just an affirmation of its work, it’s an acknowledgement of a population that is too often neglected. “I think that if it doesn’t affect you personally, it’s very hard to understand the challenges a family faces when they have a child with a disability or a teenager with a disability or an adult with a disability,” she said. “Even though we’re a very open-minded society, I think there is still some bias, and unless it affects you or someone in your inner circle, many people would rather not think about or address the challenges so many of our families face.”
Care from birth to end of life
Unlimited Possibilities, which was established in 1953, is affiliated with United Cerebral Palsy, a national organization with headquarters near Washington, D.C. In 2022, Unlimited Possibilities changed its name to reflect its broadened focus. The population they serve in Orange County has expanded to over 160 disabilities and conditions.
“That’s why we decided to change our name to better reflect who we are and what our programs can offer,” Baschshi said. Other supporters include a variety of philanthropic and corporate foundations, including the AbbVie Foundation, Epson Focused Giving, the Glen and Dorothy Stillwell Trust, the Goodwin Family Memorial Trust, and Pacific Life Foundation.
The types of services Unlimited Possibilities provides — including early intervention, physical, speech, and occupational therapy, recreation, respite care, and family support services from birth to end of life — are out of reach for many low income, under-insured families in Orange County, where the organization is based.
In recent years, many treatment facilities in Orange County stopped accepting low-income families with disabilities because the reimbursement rate from Medi-Cal, California’s implementation of the federal Medicaid program, is so low. “Many for-profit centers are turning away from providing that kind of care, because from a sustainability perspective, it doesn’t make sense for them,” Baschshi said.
Without access to affordable care, many families with disabled children have no option but to forgo care, even though there is abundant evidence that early intervention can be transformative.
“Research has continuously shown the importance of early intervention and addressing challenges at an early stage, when the brain is developing and the body is developing,” says Baschshi. “Early treatment can mean the difference between a disabled young adult being dependent, versus being able to live on their own, communicate, hold a job, and be able to contribute to society.”
Baschshi described one of the families the organization works with: a single mother whose two girls were born prematurely. A doctor told the infants’ mother that the two girls would never be able to walk or communicate. Now eight years old, the girls can not only walk, they can run and dance and play soccer and perform at grade level in school. Their mother, who is a school teacher, has never missed an appointment.
Another little boy who has been coming to Unlimited Possibilities since he was seven months old is now two and a half. His father works full time and brings the toddler to Unlimited Possibilities for treatment after work. The family’s insurance recently announced that it would no longer cover the boy’s speech therapy, so Unlimited Possibilities agreed to subsidize it until the family can get their insurance situation straightened out. “This little boy is doing really well,” Baschshi said. “The last thing we want is for him to miss his speech appointments and have a relapse.”
The funding from the S. Mark Taper Foundation will allow Unlimited Possibilities to keep its focus on families that need it most. “This is a population that often has multiple issues — not just the inability to walk or say a sentence, but comorbidities that often make their cases very complicated,” said Baschshi, noting that families come from all over the county to access the array of services they offer. “They take multiple buses to get here and the services are often three times a week and as much as two to three hours a day. For my team, it’s important to make sure these families get the same treatment as families who have very nice insurance or plenty of resources.”
The next generation
For Unlimited Possibilities, the nod from the S. Mark Taper Foundation represents a rare “yes” in a tough funding landscape. Support for those with disabilities is hard to find in the best of times, as noted earlier, but Baschshi says it’s even more difficult since the pandemic because there are so many competing priorities. Her organization’s small fundraising staff doesn’t have the reach or the resources to compete with larger organizations vying for health-related dollars — hospitals, for example.
“We’re not a hospital, we’re an outpatient clinic,” she said. “Hospital fundraising is unique, it’s very targeted, and it’s extremely well funded. We have two fundraisers, while universities and hospitals have 200 people who are going out to make the ask.”
Unlimited Possibilities went back to the S. Mark Taper Foundation a number of times over several years before it received the $25,000 gift; then the foundation gave even more than it was hoping for. “We asked for a specific amount, and they believe in our mission and the importance of expanding our work, so they gave us more than we asked for,” said Baschshi. “In my 25 years in the nonprofit sector, I’ve rarely seen that happen.”
Baschshi and her team are hoping that more funders will do the same. She points out that it’s a cause with impacts that reach far beyond individual families and communities. “I want people to understand that this population is growing in a remarkable way,” she said. “Just in the last 10 years, for example, the number of kids on the spectrum has increased 20%. These kids are going to become adults, and these adults could be contributing to society if they get the support they need. This is the next generation.”
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