Leading in Challenging Times

Maren Christenson Hofer (third from left; MNLEND 2018-19) is executive director of the Multicultural Autism Action Network. Her colleagues, from left to right, are Fatima Molas, Rufo Jiru, and Delia Samuel.

Amidst federal efforts to dismantle programs helping underserved communities, along with threats to several state protections for people with disabilities, Maren Christenson Hofer (MNLEND 2018-19) is part of a small but growing organization that is helping autistic children and their families to thrive.

She is executive director of the Multicultural Autism Action Network (MAAN), a non-profit organization that provides education and training, one-on-one and group support for families who have received an autism diagnosis, and advocacy on issues important to the autism community. Fatima Molas (MNLEND 2016-17, pictured at left) is a co-founder of MAAN.

The work includes providing training for families from a range of cultural backgrounds on navigating the individualized education plan (IEP) process or home and community-based services. During the pandemic, the organization formed partnerships with healthcare providers to provide vaccination clinics for children with autism. MAAN also provides professional skill development for schools, state agencies, law enforcement, healthcare providers and others who work with people with disabilities in multicultural communities. Legislative advocacy forms the third leg of the stool.

“Last year, I think I personally testified on about 20 state bills,” Christenson Hofer said. “It’s growing quickly, and a lot of what we’re doing right now is defensive work to hold in place the gains we’ve made over the past couple of years and make sure none of the good work that is done is repealed.”

The organization fought to keep some state IEP requirements in place, testified on school-discipline issues around seclusion of students, and advocated for using HCBS to cover swimming lessons for people with disabilities who are at increased risk of drowning as a result of their disability.

It also has added multilingual online training tools via YouTube to increase the organization’s scale and reach.

“The online videos are designed to give viewers the basics on a number of topics, like knowing your rights as a parent and what you really need to know in order to use them. They are a nice refresher for people who have come to our in-person trainings or can be useful to anyone. We are reaching a much larger audience now,” Christenson Hofer said.

The progress is tempered, of course, by today’s challenges.

“Sometimes it's painful to discuss where things in the system have gone wrong, and these are tough conversations,” she said. “We're here because we want to improve something that's not working very well for parents, for families, for students, and even for teachers and administrators.”

Acknowledging a shift in public rhetoric around disability and immigration, she said this makes what was an already difficult system to navigate even more so.

“It just feels incredibly important for those of us who know the value of these communities that we serve to really step up. We must use whatever platforms we have to knock down that narrative and talk about what's really going on in communities and what we need. I’m very grateful to have partnerships with organizations, including ICI and the LEND community. If ever there were a time for us all to step up and make our voices heard, now is it.”