The Luke Priddis Foundation
Luke and Holly Priddis have established the Luke Priddis Foundation, with the aim of the foundation being, to improve and maximise the service and opportunities available to Autistic and other special needs children, an area close to their hearts with their third child Cooper being diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder at the age of two.
They became caught in the whirlwind of meetings, assessments, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and early intervention the list continues. They found through their search for appropriate intervention programs that there was a definite lack of services in the Western Sydney area, with the majority of Autism programs located within central Sydney. Further to this, the services that were accessible struggled with lack of funding, along with a lack of provisions suitable to provide appropriate intervention for Autistic and special needs children.
The philosophy of the Luke Priddis Foundation clearly states their motivation:
To improve and maximise the services and opportunities available to Autistic and special needs children.
With this aim in mind their committee, currently consisting of five motivated members, are driven to work alongside members of the community to improve the outlook for these children. By providing them with the most effective forms of intervention possible within a safe environment fulfilling all of their sensory and emotional needs, the future for these children can only become more positive.
As parents of an Autistic child they understand the combination of frustration, grief and joy felt by every parent of a child with special needs. They felt they were in a position to help the community so they will. Their first target is to improve the Early Intervention services within the Western Sydney area. They are by no means limited to the improvement of these services alone, when the potential of what they can achieve in improving these familys lives are limitless. The Foundations overall goal is to improve all intervention services state wide, with the long-term goal of being able to improve these services on a national scale.
