MAC awarded $100,000 from Cummings Foundation

Massachusetts Advocates for Children is pleased to have been chosen as one of 100 local nonprofits to receive a grant of $100,000 through Cummings Foundation’s “$100K for 100” program. With this grant, MAC’s Proyecto Acceso a la Educación Especial will be launching a parent training program in Chelsea in coordination with the Chelsea Collaborative to meet the needs of Latinx children with autism and other disabilities while continuing to provide training and legal assistance to Latinx families in Suffolk, Middlesex, and Essex counties.

Proyecto Acceso a la Educación Especial is a MAC project focusing on outreach, training, and legal assistance to Latinx families that have linguistic and cultural barriers to accessing special education services. For the last 11 years, MAC has coordinated Parents Concerned About Autism in Lawrence, a parent-led group in which parents learn how to advocate to improve services for their own children with autism and also create systemic change so that all children with autism in Lawrence receive the high quality special education programs and services to which they are legally entitled.

“MAC’s parent training program in Lawrence has supported dozens of parents in becoming strong voices for their children and communities, standing up for the rights of Latinx children with disabilities,” shared MAC Senior Attorney Diana Santiago, “We are so grateful for this Cummings Foundation grant, which will allow us to expand those intensive efforts to Chelsea while continuing to provide training and individual legal assistance to Latinx parents in the broader region.”

Cummings Foundation’s $100K for 100 program supports nonprofits that are based in and primarily serve Middlesex, Essex, and Suffolk counties. Through this place-based initiative, the Cummings Foundation aims to give back in the area where it owns commercial buildings, all of which are managed, at no cost to the Foundation, by its affiliate Cummings Properties. Founded in 1970 by Bill Cummings, the Woburn-based commercial real estate firm leases and manages 10 million square feet of space, the majority of which exclusively benefits the Foundation.