Episode 2 | Real World Solutions: Organization for Autism Research

Overview

Episode 2 of FVCbank’s podcast “Beyond the Balance Sheet”, hosted by Vince Coglianese, WMAL On-Air Host, alongside Patricia Ferrick, President of FVCbank, features an interview with Kristen Essex, Executive Director of the Organization for Autism Research (OAR). OAR, founded in 2001 by parents and grandparents of autistic individuals, focuses on applied research and evidence-based resources to improve the daily lives of autistic people. Key programs include the Kit for Kids, which teaches K-8 students about autism to prevent bullying, and the Hire Autism initiative, which helps autistic adults find employment. OAR faces challenges in funding and community engagement but aims to expand its impact through revamped programs and new initiatives like a coffee shop concept to support autistic individuals in employment.

Prefer reading over listening? You can read the full transcript of the episode below.

FVC Bank’s Beyond the Balance Sheet Podcast – Episode 2 – OAR

Vince Coglianese (0:02): Hi. Welcome to Beyond the Balance Sheet, an FVCbank podcast where we shine a light on the people and the organizations who are turning compassion into action. I’m Vince Coglianese, alongside my co-host, Patricia Ferrick. She’s the FVCbank president, and we call her Trish. Hello, Trish.

Patricia Ferrick (0:19): Hi Vince, good to see you. Today, we’re honored to speak with an FVCbank customer and a remarkable organization that is transforming lives through research, education and practical support for individuals with autism and their families.

Vince Coglianese (0:33): Yeah, the Organization for Autism Research better known as OAR, stands out for its commitment to applied research, real world solutions and community empowerment, from military families to educators, employers to students, OAR is making evidence based support more accessible for everyone.

Patricia Ferrick (0:51): We’re joined by Kristen Essex, Executive Director for OAR, who will share the inspiring story behind the organization, the programs making a difference and how each of us can help build a more inclusive future.

Kristen Essex (1:04): Thank you so much for having me today. I’m very excited to join you on this podcast.

Founding and Mission of OAR

Vince Coglianese (1:09): Well, let’s dive in. Great to have you here. So what inspired the founding of OAR?

Kristen Essex (1:15): So OAR was founded in 2001 by parents and grandparents of autistic individuals. Their inspiration was their common vision, to use science to answer the daily questions and challenges faced by autistic individuals, their families, caregivers and educators. Our mission, then and now, is to apply research to the challenges of autism.

Patricia Ferrick (1:34): So what gaps were they trying to fill in autism research or advocacy?

Kristen Essex (1:39): They were really trying to answer questions faced by people in their daily lives, every day. How can we improve the lives of people today and really focus on research that answered those questions.

Vince Coglianese (1:52): Alright, when it comes to OAR’s place in the world of people trying to address autism, what sets OAR apart from those other organizations?

Kristen Essex (2:00): So it’s a great question. There are a ton of autism organizations out there, however, OAR is singular focus is on applied research and evidence, evidence based resources truly sets us apart. Everything we focus on seeks to have meaning in the day to day lives of autistic people. We aren’t funding research that looks for a cure or a cause we’re, we fund studies that have everyday relevance, such as education, transportation, communication, the list really does go on.

Involvement of Families, Educators, and Autistic Individuals

Patricia Ferrick (2:29): Can you explain how or involves families, educators and people with autism in shaping your research or resources?

Kristen Essex (2:35): Definitely, as I mentioned, OAR was founded by parents and grandparents of autistic children, so we’ve had families involved from the beginning. All of our all of our resources, engage the Autistic community. We do needs based analysis on what we can, what gaps we can look to fill in the community. Our Board of Directors and our Scientific Council, which approves and reviews all of our funded research studies have autistic representation, and we’ve also recently created a Self-Advocate Advisory Council, which seeks to meaningfully engage the Autistic community in our resources and programs as we expand in the future.

Signature Programs of OAR

Vince Coglianese (3:15): Okay, let’s get into some of those programs, then. Can you tell us some of OAR’s signature programs, the ones you’re proud of, I’m sure you’re proud of all of but you could share a few examples of the research projects or educational resources that you have.

Kristen Essex (3:28): Yeah. I mean, honestly, we have so many available on our website that I could go on for ages about this. But two of our biggest programs are our Kit for Kids Program, which is our peer education program. The Kit for Kids program seeks to teach kids in the K through eighth grades about their autistic classmates. So this is done through a booklet called What’s up with Nick that teaches about Nick and his autism and why he may have some differences. But at the end of the day, you know, they’re all children, and they all just get along. Studies have shown that an early focus on communication, understanding and social emotional skill building can really help prevent bullying. And that’s, you know, the key behind this program and to prevent bullying of autistic children. One of the great things about the story is, you know, we get some feedback here and there from these grants that we provide. And we had a parent share recently that their child was invited to their very first play date after this program was used in their classroom. And so we love hearing stories like that, because it really shows the efficacy of these.

Vince Coglianese (4:31): That’s great, and can kids understand that at an early age?

Kristen Essex (4:33): So that’s that’s the point of the program. It really is trying to teach this in at a level that they do get. The program involves friendship tip sheets to teach them how to be better friends. It has a classroom poster that really goes through, you know, what they’re learning and what they’re doing. Some of the things, the feedback we’ve gotten is, you know, kids will learn about it, and they’ll start using different language in the classroom immediately, talking about what they discussed and about autism and understanding of. Oh, that’s okay. He has an aide, or she’s just a little different, but it’s, it’s fine. They just, you know, they just need a little more support.

Vince Coglianese (5:06): Sure, yeah, that’s amazing.

Impact and Expansion of OAR Programs

Patricia Ferrick 5:08 How many schools are utilizing the program?

Kristen Essex (5:11): So that is a good question, and one I probably don’t have data on. We do have a peer education program, grant program that aligns with this program, where we award probably 30 to 50 grants a year for schools and local community groups who use the program. We are, we have recently engaged with some school districts in New Jersey last year, and then we have another one, I believe it was California this year, where we worked with school districts to use it across their school districts as well.

Patricia Ferrick (5:42): Can you share a story or two about a family, student or school positively impacted by yours work?

Kristen Essex (5:47): So one of our favorite stories is one of our earliest research studies focused on executive functioning for autistic individuals, and it created an executive functioning curriculum that eventually became known as unstuck and on target. So the, the real goal of OAR is research studies, is their pilot studies, where researchers can then go and get larger funding. So this research grant did that got larger funding through NIH, created this executive functioning curriculum that has been rolled out in many school districts across the country and crew, including locally at Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia. We had a long time or supporter and former employee who her son went through Fairfax County Public Schools and used this program and had great things to say about how it really helped him learn to self regulate, and, you know, helped change the behavior, and it’s just such a great example of applied research and the difference it really can make.

Vince Coglianese (6:46): I’m sorry, but just as a basic matter, can you explain executive functioning to me? What does that mean?

Kristen Essex (6:51): So executive functioning is essentially your ability to do the things. So you know, you’re laying out, you have a task list that you need to go get done, and your executive functioning is your ability functioning is your ability to go get those things done. And a lot of times, kids with autism have an inability to do that and to accomplish those tasks. And so it’s it’s tools and scaffolding to help them better manage their emotions, better manage those tasks and get those things done.

Autism and Hiring Initiatives

Vince Coglianese (7:20): Alright, Kristen, here’s a question for you about autism and hiring. Are there employers who actively seek autistic individuals for jobs?

Kristen Essex (7:29): In our experience, yes, there are. I mean, we now, through our hire autism program, have employer partners in 50 states, so obviously there are employers out there who are actively seeking autistic individuals, whether it’s, you know, part of their diversity initiatives, or they just want an employee, an employee who, you know, some research will will tell you that, you know, these employees are reliable and they like routine. So a lot of times, autistic individuals will come in and, you know, like some of these jobs that are very routine, that being said, there’s a quote in the autism community, if you’ve met one autistic individual person, you’ve met one autistic person. So everybody is very different. So that is, you know, kind of a mindset that people have, but it doesn’t necessarily apply to every autistic person. They can do tons of different jobs, but yeah, there are definitely employers out there who are actively seeking autistic individuals, and we’ve had some great success with the higher autism program. We have people who have been holding jobs for a while, from tech industry to we partner with a farm in northern Virginia to local driving range, things like that. So people have a wide range of interests and wide range of part of employers looking to hire them,

Vince Coglianese (8:42): and a great resource to connect.

Kristen Essex (8:43): Yeah, definitely

Challenges and Support in Autism Research

Vince Coglianese (8:44): Got it. Okay, so when it comes to conducting this kinds of research, and what are the challenges that you face in autism research and the support that you need in order to do it?

Kristen Essex (8:54): So the big thing facing the autism research community, and honestly, the research community as a whole right now, is funding. We’ve heard stories from a lot of our previous researchers who are now in other middle of other research studies, who have gotten funding pulled and finding ways to continue their research. Right now, we’re looking to find ways to better support the research community and find additional funding and increase our funding of studies, but that’s the biggest thing right now. But you know, common topics in autism research are really community-based participation, so really representing autistic individuals in those research studies is key and vital to getting great results.

Patricia Ferrick (9:39): How can listeners or community partners get involved to help?

Kristen Essex (9:44): There’s so many ways. I mean, obviously, like any nonprofit, financial support is key. We can always use financial support. But one of the things that we’ve really been working with OAR, OAR has been known as the best kept secret secret in the autism world, which is great, except that when you’re a secret, you aren’t, your resources aren’t getting into the hands of people who need them.

Vince Coglianese (10:03): You don’t want to be a secret! Yeah, I get it. No, let’s not be a secret anymore.

Kristen Essex (10:06): So, what we’re really working on now is, is, you know better, engaging the community, having a presence. We’re holding a lot of a lot more local events, community and fundraising events. So just you know, come out, attend events, check out our resources on our website, share information about us, share resources, share the social media posts. That’s really what we’re looking to do right now, is just better engage with the community.

Future Initiatives and Goals of OAR

Vince Coglianese (10:29): Love that. Okay, so when what’s next for OAR? Do you have upcoming events, initiatives, goals that are on the horizon for you?

Kristen Essex (10:36): Yeah. So we do have some exciting things we’re working on in the immediate future, our Kit for Kids program that I mentioned. So some of the feedback we have received on that is that the reading level isn’t necessarily always great for K through eight, which you can imagine, your reading level changes. So within the next year to year to two years, we are revamping that program to separate it into four different reading levels to better accommodate ages. So that’s really exciting, because that is such a meaningful program. And then we also have another program called our Hire Autism Program, which helps autistic adults find meaningful employment. That’s a great place to volunteer if people are looking out to volunteer. We have professionals who work with autistic job seekers, seekers virtually to work on their job search process and do resume, interview, prep, everything. So that’s a great thing, but in that program, within the next five years, we’re looking, we’re in the very early stages of looking into doing a coffee shop, or a similar concept, to really expand our employment opportunities and help training and get people in the autistic, autistic and visual job market.

Vince Coglianese (11:41): What do you mean, what do you mean by a coffee shop?

Kristen Essex (11:43): Literally, a coffee shop or a cafe, or something like that. We’re in the very early stages. We want to open up locally.

Vince Coglianese (11:49): Open up a small business.

Kristen Essex (11:50): Yup, we want to open up a small business here, likely in Northern Virginia, DC area. We’ll test it out here. Ideally, the long term goal would be something that could be replicable by other organizations in other parts of the country with seed grants or something like that. But that’s, that’s long term. Right now, we’re in the very early stages of, you know, doing that own coffee shop here locally. And then we’ll um…

Vince Coglianese (12:10): Sounds like a neat idea. I like it.

Kristen Essex (12:12): yeah, so you know that’s, there’s some local businesses already that hire autistic individuals, and so we want to help support that community a little bit more.

Patricia Ferrick (12:21): What an inspiring conversation. The work OAR is doing, bridging research and real life application is exactly the kind of impact we need more of,

Vince Coglianese (12:30): yeah, whether it’s helping a student succeed or preparing a job seeker for meaningful employment, or giving families the tools to navigate any sort of thing in daily life, or is definitely showing what’s possible, and research meets empathy.

Patricia Ferrick (12:43): If you’d like to learn more, get involved or donate. Visit researchautism.org. Your support helps expand these vital programs and bring even more hope to families across the country.

Vince Coglianese (12:55): Thanks for listening to Beyond the Balance Sheet. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Until next time, take care.

Check out Beyond The Balance Sheet Episode 1

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Overview:

David Pijor, CEO of FVCbank, discussed the impact of tariffs on small businesses, highlighting the uncertainty they create, which could lead to a recession. He emphasized the role of community banks like FVCbank in providing innovative financial solutions and building long-term relationships with clients. Pijor introduced Business Insights, a tool offering real-time financial data and cash flow forecasting, aiding small businesses in managing growth and financial planning. He advised small business owners to develop strong relationships with banks for better financial advice and security. FVCbank can be contacted at 703-436-3800 or through their website, FVCbank.com.

Transcript:

Prefer reading over listening? You can read the full transcript of the interview below.

Impact of Tariffs on Small Business

Intro (0:02): WMAL, making sense of the vote, because elections have consequences. Download the WMAL app to stream us for free.

Rick Fowler (0:10): It is the Saturday morning update on WMAL, I’m Rick Fowler. There is a lot of talk of tariffs and the impact on small business. And we’re joined this morning by David Pijor. He is the CEO of FVCbank here in the Washington area. We’ve talked to David before, and welcome back to WMAL.

David Pijor (0:30): Thank you, Rick. It’s good to be back.

Rick Fowler (0:33): We know that FVCbank specializes in serving small business in the Washington area, and there are stories out this week about the impact of tariffs on small business. What do you see as the landscape when it comes to small business and the impact of the tariffs?

David Pijor (0:51): Well, Rick, that’s certainly a very timely question, and I guess it’s fair to say that it’s hard to tell what the impact will be at this point, but that’s significant in and of itself. Small Business has one large component of business. Generally, the United States depends on certainty to make business decisions, whether to invest new capital, to expand, increase inventory, to grow its business, and the current climate has so much uncertainty involved in it. The tariffs are off again, on again. The kind of flip-flopping around, what’s going to happen with tariffs, in and of itself, lends uncertainty, which makes decision making a little bit harder for all business, including small business. The direct impact of tariffs, it’s too soon to tell, but there’s certainly a concern among a lot of economists that I read and a lot of our customers at the bank that an extended period of global tariff could increase the chances of recession. Many of our small business clients are retail or consumer based, and whether they’re B to C or B to B, there’s a concern that the economy pushing toward a recession will not help small business. Will not help any business, but certainly small business clients of ours are concerned about the potential of the tariff impact to lead to more recessionary trends in the economy.

Challenges of High Interest Rates and Inflation

Rick Fowler (2:22): Tariffs, just one issue facing small business. We’ve seen interest rates, they’ve been up. They’re coming down maybe a little bit, but still high. Inflation is coming down a little bit, but prices are still set high. You’ve got potential supply chain challenges with the tariff situation. So how does that affect access to capital? And what do you do when you specialize in small business to address these needs of the small business community?

David Pijor (2:51): Well, we do a couple of things, Rick, and as you well know, community banks are the bread and butter of many of the communities in the United States. And if small business is the engine for growth of the US economy, and it has been for the last 30 years, it’s community banks that are the fuel for that engine. As the community bankers, we try to provide innovative financial solutions to our customers, and we do that with small business especially by first of all, understanding the challenges of our small business clients, by getting to know them well. We are a relationship bank at FVCbank. We build long term relationships, which gives us the opportunity to know our business clients really, really well over multiple cycles, ups and downs. As such, we could become more than just a source of capital or payment rail. We become a trusted advisor in times of financial uncertainty, one of the things that community banks do really well is advise their business clients on simple ways to secure their payment stream, avoid fraud, as you well know, Rick in times of recession or even uncertainty, financial fraud, old fashioned check fraud and other more sophisticated kinds of fraud increase. Community banks like FVCbank are well positioned to help advise clients, small business clients, how to avoid, or at least mitigate the risk of financial fraud. So as a financial advisor with a long-term relationship with a lot of technology, tools and, other devices, we serve small businesses especially well, I believe.

Role of Community Banks

Rick Fowler (4:23): You mentioned the term community bank, and we’ve talked about it before, but for somebody that has not, you know, really heard the delineation of a community bank versus a different type of bank or different label on a bank, what is it specifically about a community bank?

David Pijor (4:40): Rick, that’s a really good question. And there’s no clear definition for what a community bank is. The way we define community bank, and I think the way the industry looks at community banks is, you know, a smaller, say, sub ten billion bank that’s focused on serving the needs, the commercial or, or some case, consumer needs of the communities it serves. A bank where every client is big enough to be important, and a bank that still nevertheless has the tools to provide a fairly sophisticated level of financial credit and payment solutions to their customer.

Financial Management Tools for Small Businesses

Rick Fowler (5:16): So, there’s not only the struggle for financing in small business, but what about financial management overall?

David Pijor (5:24): Indeed, one of the challenges of the many small businesses is not having the sophisticated suite of accountants, controllers, CFOs to help manage and forecast trends in the future, generally. FVCbank has a unique tool. We offer a tool called Business Insights, and it’s much more than just standard banking. It provides our clients and business owners real time financial data, cash flow forecasting, key performance indicators, essentially offering CFO level analysis, even without a staff CFO. Business Insights help business owners analyze cash flow, project financial trends and make informed decisions more profitably. That’s one of several tools that we offer specifically for small business

Rick Fowler (6:14): Now the program is called Business Insights. Where do you see that in terms of the importance to a small business. In other words, they may have choice of different programs to work with, but what do you see as the benefit over other programs?

David Pijor (6:31): Well, we find that small business generally struggle with cash flow management and financial planning. Business Insights is a helpful tool that can anticipate financial challenges and give them information to make data driven decisions for their growth, comparing their data with peer data, which can be very timely and helpful, certainly in an uncertain environment. How do you manage growth in the face of uncertainty? We think Business Insights is a really helpful and very robust tool to help small businesses manage their business in ways that they may not have the capabilities without the full suite of chief financial officers, etc,

Advice for Small Business Owners

Rick Fowler (7:10): And with the uncertainties that we’ve talked about, what advice would you have for a small business owner today?

David Pijor (7:17): I think one of the best advice I give our banking clients is similar to the advice I gave them when I practiced law for many, many years, and that is, develop a really good relationship with a bank. A relationship with a bank means not just having a 1-800 number, but having the telephone number of your banking relationship, as you can call on a Sunday night when something awful happens. Small business, like all business, is rarely a straight line to success. They have ups and downs, and having a relationship with the bank that knows you, that can give good, sound advice is especially important in uncertainty. In addition, FVCbank, like many of our peers, offers a lot of tools that help make banking safer, sounder, more secure, and provides more than just, as you said, loan and deposit services. We provide perspective because the fact we deal with 1000s of clients, small clients, small business clients every day to advise on strategies to help mitigate some of the uncertainty going forward.

Contacting FVC Bank

Rick Fowler (8:21): So David, when I called you Friday, I called and I got a live body at the switchboard who transferred me to your office. I doubt that would have happened in most of the banks around the Washington area. So, tell us a little more about how people can contact FVCbank, especially small business owners.

David Pijor (8:42): Well, Rick, we pride ourselves in our closeness with the community, and we can be reaching a number of ways. You can call the bank directly, 703-436-3800. You can access us through our website, FVCbank.com,  that’s FVCbank.com and we’ll be happy to respond quickly and responsively to any and all requests. We love hearing from our clients, both new and prospectives, and look forward to continue to serve our community.

Rick Fowler (9:13): And again, online, that is FVCbank.com, that’s Foxtrot Victor Charlie and David Pijor is the CEO at FVCbank. Thank you very much for the updates on how small business can address the tariffs and the current economic conditions. Much appreciated.

David Pijor (9:31): Thanks, Rick. Take care.

Rick Fowler (9:33): You too.

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Episode 1 | Making an Impact: Supporting Honduran Communities

Overview:

Vince Coglianese, WMAL On-Air Host alongside Patricia Ferrick, President of FVCbank, host the first episode of “Beyond The Balance Sheet” Podcast featuring Aaron Moore, Executive Director of Volunteers for Honduran Communities (VHC). FVCbank supports VHC’s mission, which has been active for 25 years, focusing on high-need areas in Honduras. VHC’s programs include international medical services, community development, and women’s health initiatives. Last year, they provided 151 free surgeries and saw a 25-26% reduction in malnutrition rates with their school lunch program. Challenges include funding and remote operations. They seek donations, medical supplies, and volunteers to expand their impact.

Transcript:

Prefer reading over listening? You can read the full transcript of the episode below.

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