Statement of work: The USC UCEDD has identified one of its long-time collaborators, Fiesta Educativa, as the Community Partner in this effort. Fiesta Educativa, founded in 1978, is the California chapter of the larger national organization, whose mission is to provide culturally sensitive education and advocacy services to Spanish-speaking families of children with disabilities, including a rapidly growing number of families of children with autism. Fiesta is staffed by bilingual/bicultural staff, many of whom are parents of children with disabilities. Fiesta, through its relationship with other Spanish-speaking parent organizations such as Fuerza, has access to thousands of Spanish speaking families of children with disabilities, and brings the community connection necessary for this project to answer practical questions surrounding the development of authentic partnerships between the research community and Latino families of children with autism and other disabilities. Fiesta plans to use the majority of its sub-award to identify and convene beneficiaries of the Center's research and key community informants to develop the strategies which are most likely to be effective in building the scientist/community partnership.
