Prior Grant Requests
Organization Name: Ability to Include, inc.
Organization Website: Abilitytoinclude.org
Year Established: 2021Â
Mission Statement:
Leveling the playing field in education, recreation, and advocacy for children with special needs and their families.
Contact Name: Chris Collins Years in Position: 5
Contact Email: chriscollins@abilitytoinclude.org
Contact Phone: 9417051849
Address: 5016 72nd St E
Bradenton, Florida 34203
Have you previously received a grant? No If yes, please indicate the year(s): NAÂ
How did you hear about our organization?
Jessi Nietzel of Lakewood City Lifestyle Magazine
What do you believe we can provide your organization?
Beyond a monetary grant, we’d also love to include members in our volunteer opportunities so they can see first hand the impact that recreation and advocacy has on our children with disabilities, their mothers, and their other family members. Seeing is believing, and one of the greatest gifts your organization can provide is to share our story with the belief you’ll have after seeing the programs for yourself.
We are also having our inaugural luncheon April 18th, and while it may be too short notice for that, we are incredibly grateful to have grown and become an in-demand organization that requires more support for families. Attending or sponsorship at these fundraisers is also an incredible way to both create impact, and hear from our parents and volunteers how meaningful our work is.
What will the grant be used for?
Recreation and Advocacy
Ability to Include is uniquely positioned to meet this need. Our organization has built a recreation-driven learning model that integrates physical activity, social skill
development, and family empowerment. Programs such as our adaptive sports initiatives and caregiver advocacy workshops are designed not only to provide direct
services but also to build long-term community capacity for inclusion. By combining hands-on recreation opportunities with structured advocacy training, families develop the confidence and skills needed to pursue self-directed services, advocate for inclusive spaces, and create lasting change in their communities.
We’ve recently begun positioning our recreation programs such as Braden River TOPSocccer to include services for parents as well. For many families, including my own growing up, soccer is not just where I benefiting from my health and social skills, but my parents also made lifelong friends. Raising a child with a disability is incredibly isolating, and opportunities to participate in organized recreation are few and far between, and no other recreation program in the area also provides free advocacy and case management to families.
This grant will support both 40 children with a disability, such as autism or down syndrome, and 30 caregivers. Children are provided with a bag, soccer ball, and jersey, play organized games and activities with a 1 on 1 buddy from LECOM Medical School. This is a chance for children to practice communication and behavioral skills they learn in school and therapy, in a new environment. It is also a chance for parents to connect with each other, including sharing information around schools, clinics, and other resources. Uniquely, our families are given access to advocacy, workshops, and case management from a third party not connected with their school or therapy clinics. This is a crucial role we play as case management is not unique to Ability to Include, but it is unique in that there is no appearance or actual conflict of interest where the the child spends the majority of their time (school or clinic).
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Provide the grant amount you are seeking: $4,000.00
Do you provide services to Sarasota and/or Manatee County? Yes
What is the financial impact per individual/program this grant will provide?
Typically, parents are paying $100 per hour for an advocate, often with $2500 minimums/retainer, and otherwise go without support when navigating the disability community to find and ensure proper services for their child. On average each year, we provide general case management, education, and advocacy for around 40 to 50 families at no cost to them, saving them approximately $20,000 in costs. Further, we have generally 6 cases that require more specialized attention, requiring 25+ horus of work. As we still provide this at no cost to the family, and those savings are around $15,000 for those 6 families, the financial impact is in the hundreds of thousands as the financial and therapeutic support they receive in the home, community, clinic, or school is directly tied to what is called a matrix level.
Example, and the basis for starting this program, my son Gavin was labeled a level 3 support, but my family was able to advocate on his behalf as both his mother and I are in the special needs world with the necessary expertise to advocate accordingly. His support was brought up to a level 5, the highest. The impact of this, from Kindergarten until he will turn 22, is the difference of receiving $8,000 per year to $38,000 that goes toward behavioral, occupational, speech, and physical therapies, his school tuition, communication device, and other medically necessary equipment. That is a difference of $510,000 over the course of his education, from kindergarten to 22 years of age.
There is no greater ROI on a charitable contribution than helping a family navigate their child’s services at the crucial point of enrolling in school for the first time, which unfortunately means when the child is young, and the parent is at their least experiences and knowledgeable about the disability community.
We are also happy to accept a lower grant amount and adjust the total impacted families accordingly. For reference: it costs approximately $255 per family, and 30 parents and 40 children. This is around 20% to 25% the cost of comparable programs and services.
Please provide the estimated number of women, children and families impacted.
40 children with disabilities and 30 mothers or caregiver to a child with a disability. While we do not require the parents we assist to be women/mothers, currently our advocacy program and primary caregiver listed is 95% the mother.
Is there a matching grant? Yes If yes, indicate donation source: Donor
May we tour your facility? Yes
What reciprocal benefit can you provide our organization:
We’d feature you on our website both under partners and on both the advocacy and recreational activity pages; multiple newsletter features (summer, fall, and winter/spring), regular social media acknowledgments along with posts about the program in action, and logo on player’s jersey sleeves. This is the first program to combine recreational opportunities for children while addressing parent/caregiver education in this region, as such, I believe this will be a fantastic benefit to be the primary grant making group to support this initiative.
Proof of Non-Profit Status https://tlcwcf.org/wp-content/uploads/formidable/15/Ability-to-Include-Determination-Letter.pdf
Organization’s Logo https://tlcwcf.org/wp-content/uploads/formidable/15/AbilityToInclude_SecondaryLogo_Tagline_1-150×150.png [110 show_image=1]
Project/Program-specific budget: https://tlcwcf.org/wp-content/uploads/formidable/15/2026-rec-and-advocacy.pdf
Guide Star Profile/Rating (if applicable):
Anything else you would like to share with us?
I want to note that the Miter Foundation’s support is not in itself contingent on a match, but they did give permission to solicit matching grants to put toward it. Additionally, it is specifically for our Braden River TOPSoccer, so sole recognition for this novel and unique programming, recreation and advocacy, would be for the TLC Women’s Giving Circle.
Our first fundraising luncheon is on April 18th, noon to 2:30, at Lakewood Ranch County Club. Tickets and sponsorships are available at abilitytoinclude.org/rsvp and is supported by our media/presenting sponsor Lakewood City Lifestyle Magazine. We also begin soccer programming in April if any members would like a tour of the program, and learn more about our other offerings and projects coming up in 2026 including the region’s first disability accessible and friendly soccer pitch.