Autism Partnership Foundation (APF) is a registered charity working to help children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in Hong Kong. We established the Foundation in January 2007 as we saw many children were not benefiting from their current placements. Either the placements were not autism specific or the students were languishing in mainstream classrooms without any real support.

With our many years of experience in consulting and training school districts in the USA, Dr. Ron Leaf, Dr. John McEachin, and Mr. Toby Mountjoy decided, in January 2007, to set up the first registered primary classroom to specially cater for these children who may not benefit from mainstream school placements. From one classroom with 5 students, our school has grown over the years and now, we are operating 4 English classrooms and 1 Cantonese classroom with 25 students. To many of our “graduates” who have later integrated into mainstream classes, our school had given them all the necessary training for a stress-free school life—from learning behavior and emotion control to how to make friends. As for those who continue require learning support, Autism Partnership School has become a truly meaningful school where we provide individuals with tailor-made, functional curriculum designed according to their specific learning needs.

An effective education for our children, however, requires a great deal of resources. While local special needs schools receive government subsidy on a monthly basis, our school is struggling to survive as we have no access to government subsidies or continuous support from the community. Autism Partnership Foundation thus has to find its own means of sponsorship.

Our future plans are to move to a bigger premise that can include a secondary school for the children when they get older and provide vocational training. In addition finding a premise that is provided with nominal rental will reduce the fees that our students have to pay which makes education even more accessible to children with autism. We are always delighted to work with companies who would like their employees to be involved in our project. This can involve assisting in outings or community projects or providing free expertise.

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