PROVO, Utah--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Vivint Smart Home, the leading smart home services provider in North America, today announced a sponsorship for the National Autism Association (NAA), the leading organization for autism-related wandering prevention and response. As the official corporate safety sponsor, Vivint Smart Home has pledged $75,000 in 2017 to support NAA’s programs that provide direct assistance and free resources to help families, schools and first responders keep individuals with autism safe.
The NAA will use the donation primarily to fund its safety programs including the Big Red Safety Box, a free toolkit for families who have children with autism. The toolkit helps educate, raise awareness, and provides vital safety tools to help caregivers prevent and respond to wandering-related emergencies.
One in 68 children in the U.S. has been identified with autism spectrum disorder.* Studies show that nearly half of children with autism attempt to wander or bolt from a safe, supervised place, with a substantial number at risk for bodily harm.** The NAA encourages parents with children on the spectrum to implement a multi-layered approach to safety and to diligently monitor their children’s attempts to leave home unexpectedly.
Smart home systems can alert parents when children with autism attempt to wander from safety. By monitoring key exit and entry points with smart sensors and cameras, smart home technology provides parents peace of mind and greater capacity to keep their children in a safe, supervised environment. Vivint Smart Home offers discounted smart home systems for families who have children with autism, providing an affordable and effective solution for those in need.
“Vivint Smart Home is dedicated to helping families keep their loved ones safe and secure,” said Holly Mero-Bench, director of charitable giving at Vivint Smart Home. “We are champions of families with autism at Vivint because we know a smart home is equipped to address their unique challenges. We look forward to working with the National Autism Association and furthering their mission to respond to the most urgent needs of the autism community.”
“We are thrilled to welcome Vivint Smart Home as our official corporate safety partner,” said Wendy Fournier, president of NAA. “Together we will host a nationwide webinar March 30 at 7:00 p.m. ET. With 58 percent of parents identifying wandering as the most stressful ASD-related behavior, this webinar will educate caregivers on how smart home technology can provide an added layer of security to their efforts in preventing dangerous wandering incidents.”
To register for the March 30 webinar, please visit: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4732762421145515010
For more information about how a Vivint smart home can benefit families with autism, visit vivint.com/autism.
* https://www.cdc.gov/features/new-autism-data/index.html
** http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/130/5/870
About National Autism Association (NAA)
Founded in 2003, NAA is a parent-run advocacy organization and the leading voice on urgent issues related to autism safety, autism abuse, crisis prevention, and autism-related wandering prevention and response. Over the last several years, NAA has provided $100,000 to law enforcement agencies for personal locating devices and training through its FOUND program, distributed over 30,000 wandering-prevention safety boxes to autism families, and created AWAARE.org. Please visit awaare.org for wandering-prevention resources.
About Vivint Smart Home
Vivint Smart Home is the leading provider of smart home services in North America. Vivint delivers an integrated smart home system with in-home consultation, professional installation and support delivered by its Smart Home Pros, as well as 24-7 customer care and monitoring. Dedicated to redefining the home experience with intelligent products and services, Vivint serves more than one million customers throughout the U.S. and Canada. Since 2008, Vivint employees and owners have donated more than $10 million and 150,000 service hours to local communities, as well as those in need around the world. For more information, visit www.vivint.com.
