Founded in 1982, Keshet provides educational Recreational, and vocational programs for children with special needs. Keshet’s impact beyond the schools and summer programs includes its national prominence as a premier training center serving thousands of teachers, students and parents in the treatment of autism through structured learning techniques.  For many years, Special Kids Network has supported Keshet’s Teen Camp which gives campers ages 11 – 21 the opportunity to participate in overnight programs that highlight vocational training with an emphasis on increasing levels of autonomy for these young adults.

Special Recipients

Equestrian Connection was cofounded in 2001 by a mother of disabled twins to fill the voids in social services and therapies for those with disabilities. Our original focus was hippotherapy and therapeutic riding. In 2005 we broadened our vision to add art therapy, massage therapy and equine assisted psycho therapy for those with disabilities and their families. In order to accomplish this goal, we built a 26,000 square foot state of the art facility located on 10 acres and including a three acre spring fed lake.

The Foundation for Retinal Research was founded in 1998 by Betsy and David Brint, whose son Alan was born with Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis, a genetic disease severely effecting the retina. The Foundation is paving the path toward a sighted future for visually impaired people of all ages. With the donation from SKN we will help families who cannot afford genetic screening so they can have their children’s gene abnormality identified. Then, as treatments and cures become available, we will know which children will be candidates. Funds will be used to support our National Conference. Families from ten countries will attend the four day conference where they can have their children seen by the leading doctors, they can meet researchers and hear the latest information, they will meet other families and attend sessions to help them learn about raising a child who is blind. You have no idea what that gathering does for the morale of the families.

The Gastro-Intestinal Research Foundation of Chicago. GIRF is a group of people from all walks of life; many are patients, all are friends, united in a common effort to support research on the causes and cures of digestive diseases. The donation from SKN will help us support the building of a center of excellence for Gastrointestinal cancer research, create a Midwest patient registry, support the current clinical investigators, recruit and support basic researchers, and provide seed money where no other funds were available to underwrite unproven but promising research for pediatrics.

The National Stuttering Association (NSA) is the largest self-help/organization in the United States for people who stutter. Our mission is to bring “hope, dignity, support, education, and empowerment to children and adults who stutter, and their families.”  With donation from SKN last year we were able to fund our Family Programs and help family’s get to the National conference. In addition we were also able to add additional staff to handle the administration of our family programs.

Rainbows is the largest international children’s charity dedicated solely to helping youth successfully navigate the very difficult grief process. Every day, children are touched by emotional suffering caused by a death, divorce, deployment of a family member, incarceration of a loved one, or any of a multitude of significant event traumas including natural or manmade disasters. And, while a few children are resilient, we know that most do not bounce back without help. Since our founding in 1983, over 2.5 million children and teens throughout 50 United States and 17 other countries have been helped and supported by Rainbows programs.

The Chicago Lighthouse for People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired is a non-profit organization located in Chicago, Illinois. The Lighthouse is one of the oldest social service agencies in Chicago. Among the many programs it offers are a school for children with multi-disabilities; job training and placement; a low vision clinic; and a manufacturing facility that boasts the nation’s sole contract to supply clocks to the U.S. government.

The Lighthouse is regarded as the most comprehensive agency of its kind in the Midwest and a model agency nationally. During its existence, the Chicago Lighthouse has improved the quality of life for people who are blind or visually impaired and has provided opportunities toward increased independent