ACE Institute

RPM Support is nonprofit founded to create a difference in the RPM community.  This given season we created a giving campaign for a local RPM family in need.    The Bashta family moved from Melbourne Australia to Green Bay, Wisconsin to give their son Isaac access to this life-changing method.   However, the financial burden has become more than the family is able to sustain.   They have gone without any financial assistance for the last two year while they have transitioned here to the United States.    Recently their physical and emotional journey was chronicled in a local newspaper.  Please read about their journey and Isaac's unique school situation here: From Australia to Green Bay, family moves to help autistic son with one-of-a-kind school  Please read these comments from Isaac's parents, Joe and Susan Bashta: At the age of 4, our son, Isaac, was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (moderate to severe).  In addition to that, he was born with a genetic condition where his DNA is missing elements that make up the frontal lobe, known as a “frontal lobe deletion”.Autism can make it hard for children to control their impulses but then throw in a large frontal lobe genetic deletion and he has more than his share of impulse control issues! We worked with him for many years using a scientific evidence-based program which had minimal results with very slow progress.  However, the program didn’t presume intelligence and mostly battled behaviours that never seemed to let up, which just meant moving from one thing to the next without achieving significant results. As his parents, the final straw was finding Isaac unable to breathe because he had shoved toilet paper down his throat to alleviate what we later realized was a sore throat (a side effect of doctor-prescribed drugs)  Many programs that we’ve seen focus on teaching the non-speaking person to tell you about their needs using an IPAD or some other communication device…. This doesn’t work for Isaac because technology links too quickly to obsessional thoughts and Isaac’s motor skills are very impaired. Also, as all loving parents, I want to KNOW who Isaac is, not just what he wants to drink, eat or watch on TV! Since adopting RPM’s approach, we are slowly finding out WHO he is and building a meaningful relationship with him instead of just being used by him as tools to get his obsessions met. We have a long way to go, but there is now hope… he has a voice to share his dreams. To quote Isaac himself, “when I was in Australia, I didn’t have hope for a future, but now I do because we moved to Green Bay for RPM” That’s the good news.  The challenging part of all of this is the financial burden of giving Isaac his new-found hope. Whilst the results for Isaac have been significant, so too have the costs.  We’ve been able to sustain the costs with no assistance for almost 2 years but it’s now at the point where we can no longer keep up with the payments. We are seeking financial help to allow Isaac to continue building on the strides that he’s made with RPM in Green Bay and actually living out his hope for a future.