About Us
Our Mission
Share Your Blessings, Inc. (SYB) is a 501(c)(3) organization (EID 20-3980183) that is dedicated to enhancing and inspiring the lives of disadvantaged individuals and their families. Our goal is to offer programs and support that promote value, acceptance, and inclusion so that each individual and each child can address life’s challenges, achieve personal goals, and fulfill their potential to lead positive, productive, happy, and rewarding lives. Recipients of our services include special education schools and classrooms, therapist, families, and organizations that have or serve children and adults with a wide range of disabilities and special needs (such as down syndrome, autism, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, spinal cord injuries, visual impairment, intellectual impairment, physical impairment, and much more).
SYB was formed to pursue this mission in 2006. Since inception our Project Maestro program has reached many thousands of children and individuals with a variety of special needs that are struggling with various disabilities – helping these affected individuals learn and grow with their physical, cognitive, communicative, sensory and social/emotional skills while they are also having fun.
Listen to an interview with Janice Mollo about the Share Your Blessing mission.
Community Need
Children and individuals with disabilities and special needs represent a significant population with many challenging learning and therapy issues. Key statistics include the following:
- According to the CDC 61 million adults in the United States live with a disability – thus about 26 percent (one in 4) of adults in the United States have some type of special need. See https://tinyurl.com/35g4m8jk .
- In 2018–19, the number of students ages 3–21 who received special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was 7.1 million, or 14 percent of all public-school students. Among students receiving special education services, 33 percent had specific learning disabilities. See https://tinyurl.com/3s6w4jfj
- Scientists from the CDC and the HRSA found that 17% of children 3–17 years old had a developmental disability, and importantly, that this percentage increased over the two time periods compared, 2009–2011 and 2015–2017 See https://tinyurl.com/vpel4w79
- About 1 in 54 children have been identified with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) according to estimates from CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network.
- The National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs identified nearly 1 in 5 children ages 12-17 as having special healthcare needs, and the American Community Survey estimates that more than 1.3 million U.S. young people ages 16-20 have a disability.
Thus, there is a great need to support the growth and development of this unique and disadvantaged special needs population in the United States. This is compounded by the fact that: (a) life skills and other learning can be very difficult as traditional education methods and tools are often not effective; and (b) health care cost are quadrupled for individuals with special needs, estimated at about $1 Million to age 18 (USDA CNPP report). Thus, families that have children with special needs are often under a great deal of financial stress, and are continually searching for reasonably priced, cost effective tools and ways to assist their child develop and learn.
History
Share Your Blessings, Inc. is a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation that was formed in 2006 to help individuals and families with a wide variety of specials needs, disabilities and difficult situations, including visual impairment, intellectual impairment, physical impairment, and the like. In 2007, Share Your Blessings received its first donations from several founding Donors, nad has subsequently continued to receive additional donations from a variety of sources. In early 2015 we received more substantial donations, as well as commitments for further donations, that have allowed us to plan more substantial programs and services. Share Your Blessings operates on a strictly volunteer basis, and any miscellaneous expenses are funded by various donors – thus 100% of every dollar received goes to providing programs and services that support our mission. Our historical programs provided eligible individuals and organizations with an innovative therapy, teaching, and interactive music system that utilizes music and play to engage individuals with special needs. This program helped over 750 families and organizations that are struggling with the substantial cost associated with various disabilities, as well as helped the affected individuals learn and grow with their physical, cognitive, communicative, sensory and social/emotional skills.
Donation Recipients
Project Maestro has provided numerous eligible individuals and organizations with the above described Beamz Interactive Music System, along with a variety of related therapy, education, recreation, and support programs that utilizes music and play to engage individuals with special needs. Since inception, this includes donating over 750 Beamz Systems (reaching thousands of individuals with a variety of special needs) to families and organizations that are struggling with the substantial cost associated with various disabilities – helping these affected individuals learn and grow with their physical, cognitive, communicative, sensory and social/emotional skills. Recipients includes the following major categories:
