State, local and private donors supporting �̾��ƵAutism Clinic

STARKVILLE, Miss.—In addition to recently receiving a new $157,000 grant from the Mississippi Council on Developmental Disabilities, the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Clinic at �̾��Ƶ is the beneficiary of two other summer gifts.

They include:

—$8,000 from United Way of North Central Mississippi, a volunteer organization providing a range of community programs and services to Choctaw, Oktibbeha, Webster and Winston counties. The check was delivered by Robyn Havard of Starkville, chair of UWNCM’s executive board.

—$1,000 from Quess M. Hood of Ripley. A 2000 College of Business graduate and current head football coach at Falkner High School, Hood is founder of HOPE for Autism Mississippi, a non-profit organization working to raise awareness and assist North Mississippi children with autism.

The campus clinic was created several years ago as an expansion of MSU’s School Psychology Services Center. Both are units of the College of Education and its counseling and educational psychology department.

The Mississippi Council on Developmental Disabilities is a federally mandated body of advocates appointed by the governor to promote a better quality of life for individuals with developmental disabilities, as well as their families and communities. Funded by the U.S. Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, the Jackson-based organization’s administrative and fiscal services are coordinated through the Mississippi Department of Mental Health.

“It is because of the support of these organizations, groups and individuals that we are able to keep doing the good work we do,” said center director Dan Gadke.

“Even if they do not get to see it first hand, the generosity of these funders positively resonates through the lives of these children and their families in ways they can’t imagine,” he added.

For more information about the campus clinic, visit .

�̾��Ƶis Mississippi’s leading university, available online at .

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