GiGi's Playhouse Rochester Receives $74,000 Grant from Golisano Foundation to Expand Amina Grace Speech and Language Program

Rochester, NY — GiGi's Playhouse Rochester, a nonprofit Down syndrome achievement center, is pleased to announce that it has received a $74,000 grant from the Golisano Foundation to support the expansion of the Amina Grace Speech and Language program for participants with Down syndrome.

Jennifer Bustamante, Gigi's Playhouse Rochester president and co-founder, said, "We are so grateful to have the support from the Golisano Foundation to continue offering our speech and language program. Our participants are eager to learn and grow into the empowered and independent people we believe they're meant to be, and with this generous grant, we are sustaining our goal of encouraging self-confidence and independence."

The Amina Grace speech and language program was first launched in Rochester in July 2019 thanks to a $50,000 grant from the Golisano Foundation. The grant was used to purchase program materials and help support a speech-language pathologist.

Ann Costello, Golisano Foundation Director, said, "We're pleased to help GiGi's fulfill its mission of promoting life and fundamental skills for the children and adults they serve by expanding this essential program."

The GiGi’s Playhouse Amina Grace speech and language program provides youth, teens, and adults with greatly expanded opportunities to evolve and refine their speech and language skills. Effective enunciation, clarity of speech, word order, and message meaning are paramount to fostering greater self-confidence, comprehension, problem-solving, school readiness, social skills, independence, and overall quality of life.

This program, like all others at GiGi’s Playhouse, is provided free of charge to all participants and families.

About GiGi's Playhouse Rochester

GiGi’s Playhouse Rochester is a non-profit organization that serves people with Down syndrome from prenatal diagnosis to adulthood focusing on achievement, belief and confidence. Open since April 2017, it is part of GiGi's Playhouse network of 53 Down Syndrome Achievement Centers and growing across the United States and Mexico — the only network of its kind that provides free, life-changing therapeutic, educational and career training programs for 30,000+ individuals of all ages.

Through free programs and the Generation G Campaign for global acceptance, GiGi’s helps maximize opportunities for daily achievement and lasting acceptance. The program helps advance a vital social impact goal by showing the world what individuals with Down syndrome are capable of achieving as students, co-workers, volunteers, friends, and valued members of their communities.

For more information about free programs, volunteerism, impact partnerships, events, and the many ways to support GiGi's Playhouse Rochester families visit: gigisplayhouse.org/rochester.

About the Golisano Foundation

The Golisano Foundation is now one of the largest private foundations in the nation devoted exclusively to creating a better world for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The Foundation works to open doors to opportunity, change negative perceptions and stereotypes, and forge unprecedented partnerships to ensure that individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities have pathways to personal dignity, independence and the best possible expression of their abilities and talents throughout their lifetimes.