♿ Miami-Dade Disability News & Inclusive Events 🧩 Tuesday May 26 🦩


♿ Miami-Dade Disability & Autism Newsletter 🧩

Good morning, my fellow Miamians 🦩

Miami-Dade County honored Memorial Day weekend the way this country deserves to be honored, with family, with gratitude, and with the kind of heat only Miami can deliver.

Now let's get back to what we do every week, not just the weeks with a holiday attached. Our kids and our community are counting on us.

— Victor Antunez

Real Estate Professional 🧩 Autism Dadvocate

PS. If buying or selling a home has been on your mind lately, and you want to talk it through, feel free to text me anytime at (305) 401-6224 🔑


Today's Edition Includes:

  1. Best Buddies Travel: Explore the world, while building independence, confidence, and lifelong friendships.
  2. Monday Housing Q&A for Special Needs Families: Q: We don't have a housing plan. How do we know if we need one?
  3. Disability News Headlines: Stories that deserve our attention
  4. This Week’s Inclusive Events Calendar: Programs and gatherings for the disability community
  5. Hometown Heroes: If you work as a BCBA, RBT, therapist, or in any healthcare role at a PPEC, autism center, or school, there's a Florida program that can put up to $35,000 toward your down payment and closing costs.

* * *

Welcome to Miami 🏖️ Bienvenidos a Miami

Best Buddies Travel 🤘

Travel With Purpose. Inclusion Without Limits.

Best Buddies Travel is an inclusive, staff-led program that brings people with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) together to explore the world, while building independence, confidence, and lifelong friendships.

Upcoming Trips ✈️

📚 FREE Resource Directory 📚

Miami-Dade Special Needs Resource Directory

Comprehensive Guide to Scholarships, Grants, Schools, Healthcare, Therapy, and Recreation for Children & Adults with Disabilities

🏠 Monday Housing Q&A for Special Needs Families

Q: We don’t have a housing plan. How do we know if we need one?

A: If you’re raising a child with special needs, you need one.

That’s the whole answer, but here’s why it matters. Most families don’t think about a housing plan until something forces them to, a diagnosis gets more complex, a landlord sells the building, a parent gets sick, a sibling stops being able to help. By the time the forcing event arrives, the options that existed 2 years earlier are gone. The programs have waitlists. The equity that could have funded a move got spent on other things. The window closed while the family was busy surviving.

A housing plan isn’t a legal document or a financial model. It’s a set of answered questions. Where does your child live if something happens to you tomorrow? Is the home you’re in now set up for who your child is becoming, not just who they are today? If you own, does the equity you’ve built have a job to do, and do you know what that job is? If you rent, what’s the actual cost of staying in a home someone else controls?

Most families can’t answer those questions on the spot. That’s not a failure, it’s just where most people are. The difference between the families who end up with good options and the families who end up with no options is almost always time. The ones with options started asking the questions before the crisis handed them a deadline.

You don’t need a plan because something is wrong. You need one because something will be, and the families who planned are the ones who stay in control when it happens.

🏠 If you’re thinking about buying or selling a home, or you simply need experienced guidance, I deliver expert service and personalized support to help you reach your goals. 📲 Text or call me at (305) 401-6224

— Victor Antunez

Real Estate Professional 🧩 Autism Dadvocate

PS. I created a concise housing checklist that shows where plans break down when life changes.

Review the housing checklist

👇👇👇

📝 Disability News Headlines

  1. 1/3 of Adolescents With Autism Meet One Or More Criteria For Profound Autism
  2. 2 women have been charged in what officials are calling "largest autism treatment fraud schemes"
  3. 5 Takeaways From a Times Investigation on Autism Therapy Clinics
  4. 7 Early Signs of Autism Parents Often Miss
  5. 7 Things Insurance Still Refuses to Cover for Many Autistic Children
  6. 27 Years Strong: Haverford couple on the autism spectrum renews their vows
  7. AI Is Becoming the Front Door to Healthcare — But Millions of Patients Can’t Get Through It
  8. Amid School Techlash, Accessibility Advocates Worry About Exclusion
  9. Apple unveils new accessibility features, and updates powered by Apple Intelligence
  10. Autism and Psychiatry: A Dangerous Mix
  11. Autistic adults’ experiences of accessing and receiving mental health care
  12. Autistic students who make it through college face a bigger challenge: getting jobs
  13. Families raise concerns over delays, fewer autism service options
  14. Florida is the only state removing children from low-cost health insurance | The state also has delayed implementing a KidCare expansion that lawmakers approved in 2023
  15. Grieving family speaks out after 7-year-old boy with autism drowns in Miami-Dade canal
  16. Mother sues M-DCPS Police, school board for $1M after daughter with autism is charged with battery over school incident
  17. Teen with Autism Goes Missing After Boarding Flight to Miami Without Family's Knowledge
  18. The secret’s out about a trendy autism treatment — now it may be impossible to find
  19. "These criminals exploited vulnerable children": RFK slams 15 charged in the largest autism care scam in US history
  20. We’re building inaccessible products without realising it
  21. Why an off-label autism drug suddenly took off, despite limited large-scale evidence

🫶🏼 This Week's Inclusive Events

EVERY THURSDAY

Veterans Adaptive Fishing at Shake-a-Leg Miami

EVERY SATURDAY

We Can Sail Inclusive Day ages 7+ at Shake-A-Leg Miami

EVERY SUNDAY

Miller Ranch Inclusive Farm Day 10am - 12pm, planting, hay rides, pony rides, petting zoo, owned & operated by autism parents, 5375 SW 122 Ave, kids FREE


👍 Days & Times May Vary — Confirm Before Going 👀

🙏 A little help please. Do you know of events or resources in Miami-Dade that disability families should know about?

  • Sensory-friendly activities
  • Community events open to all
  • Adaptive sports or recreation
  • Workshops or classes for kids or adults
  • Resource or information sessions
  • School or therapy center open houses
  • Potential podcast guests

🎯 Hit reply and I'll include it.

If you work as a BCBA, an RBT, a therapist, or in any healthcare role at an autism center or PPEC, there’s a Florida program that can put up to $35,000 toward your down payment and closing costs, and most of the people who qualify for it don’t know it exists.

It’s called Hometown Heroes, and it was built for people doing exactly the kind of work you do.

The catch is that funding is limited and it runs out fast. If you’ve been thinking about buying a home in Miami-Dade, this is the conversation to have right now, not in the fall.

Text me directly and I’ll tell you in 5 minutes whether you qualify.

📲 (305) 401-6224

— Victor Antunez, Real Estate Professional

Have a great Miami week, I’ll see you out there 🦩

Victor Antunez • 305.401.6224

Real Estate Professional 🧩 Autism Dadvocate

PS. I help homeowners buy and sell homes in ways that protect long-term housing stability, financial security, and future independence. If you're thinking about buying, selling, or planning ahead, text me directly at 305.401.6224.

PSS. Your referrals are the biggest compliment you can give me.

PSSS. Let's connect on 👇 Facebook

Victor Antunez

This weekly newsletter is for parents, advocates, educators, therapists, service providers, policymakers, and anyone serious about better outcomes for special needs kids.

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