The mission of NJABA has been to support our profession throughout New Jersey. This is especially important now because of the growth of our profession over the last several years and impending changes such as licensure. Although much of what we do as an organization is dedicated to our members, we recognize that it is important to engage the broader community. To meet this goal, the NJABA Board of Directors recently approved an initiative to engage and support ally organizations. In doing this, we expect to be able to tell the broader community what wonderful things our members do to make meaningful improvements in the lives of the people we support. Our first ally organization that we chose to support is the Autism MVP Foundation, where we sponsored their Sixth Annual Brewing Awareness for Autism in Oceanport, NJ. Autism MVP is a unique organization that provides scholarships to graduate students receiving training in supporting individuals with autism. To date, they have created scholarships for graduate students at Monmouth University, Rutgers University, and Temple University. We will continue these efforts by continuing to support ally organizations throughout the state.

President, NJABA