Manos Unidas' featured program "Ayllu", an online learning community for Spanish speaking families, has been awarded a $170,240 grant by the Washington State Department of Developmental Disabilities to build out a video curriculum library of Education, Training and Advocacy courses for families of children with disabilities. This grant, funded from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021, is meant to supplement (not replace, supplant, or reduce) community-based supports and services for children and youth with disabilities in the State of Washington.
Project "Ayllu" plans to produce 10 video curriculum courses (approx. 60 videos) to launch the learning library created for Spanish speaking families with children with disabilities. The courses will be produced in the areas of Education, Training and Advocacy and use a combination of digital animation content, live video production with native Spanish speakers and real-world video footage.
The goal of this project is to improve access to evidence-based information and training for populations of families who are often marginalized in the community due to language and cultural barriers, socio-economic and even legal status.
Project "Ayllu" aspires to grow it's video library to hundreds of videos with content contributed by expert specialist in a variety of fields including family psychology, special education, child well-being, mental health, applied behavior analysis, music therapy, communication, social development, gross motor development and much more!
Licenses to access this library will be offered to individuals and community organizations serving marginalized communities across the country---and hopefully all of the Americas! But for now, we will start with this incredible grant which allows us to launch forward.
Stay tuned to watch us grow!