Legal information

Introduction

Young people have to deal with a social world that changes fast. Being able to adjust and be flexible are two core capabilities.  For autistic teenagers this is a lot harder as they prefer structure, repetition and predictability. To connect with others is therefor a lot more challenging.

Improvisation is a form of theater that doesn’t use a script.  That said, there are principles that are part of this theater form that are applicable to the development of social skills and flexibility of autistic teenagers. From building on eachothers ideas to responding to other peoples emotions, improvisation skills are very applicable to daily life.

The goal of the foundation is:

• Designing and facilitating theater and improvisation programs for teenagers and young adults with autism and other communication challenges.
• Designing and facilitating theater and improvisation programs for parents, teachers and schools for teenagers and young adults with autism and other communication challenges.
• The foundations goal is not to make profit.

The foundation achieves these goals by:

• Offering improvisation classes by the teachers of the Boom Chicago Academy in the Boom Chicago Theater.
• Offering improvisation classes by the teachers of the Boom Chicago Academy at schools for special education.
• Speaking in public about this specific target group and the approach of the foundation.
• Offering advise to others and connecting to other experts in the field.

Main policy and activities InterActing

Mission&Vision

InterActing was founded from the ambition of Saskia Maas and Pim Donkersloot to apply their expertise from respectively running improvisation theater Boom Chicago and heading the ChildCenter, to the development of autistic teenagers and young adults aged between 13 and 22.  Both founders are parents of autistic children themselves, giving them first hand experience in what young autistic people need in order to thrive in a scriptless world.  Their mission is to give the InterActing students a place to develop, grow, have fun and meet friends.

Activities

• InterActing organizes 8 week courses that young people can sign up for. The classes are kept small on purpose, so a maximum of 14 students can participate. The courses are taugh in both English and Dutch.
• InterActing offers programs at highschools, colleges and universities for special education.
• The InterActing board speaks at conferences and meetings where knowledge and experience is exchanged.
• InterActing is developing the activities around the Julia Award, an annual prize for a teenager with a remarkable talent in the creative field.

Organisation

Board:

• Voorzitter: Saskia Maas
• Secretaris: Pim Donkersloot
• Penningmeester: Tomer Zakai

Advisory Board:

• Jill Adler
• Kevin Walton

Finances

The board does not receive any payment for their work for InterActing.
At the start of the foundation the board chose for an extended book year. The figures for 2018-2019 will be published here shortly.

The funds of the foundation come in through:

• The turnover from classes.
• Subsidies and other funding.
• Gifts in all forms.