SHARE

CONTACT:

285 Old Westport Rd.
North Dartmouth, MA 02747
508-999-8482
www.share.umassd.edu

Les Cory, President, Professor

DESCRIPTION:

SHARE designs, adapts, and provides computer technology to disabled individuals, primarily those who cannot move or speak (e.g., people with cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, Lou Gehrig's disease, accidents and strokes), so that they can express their basic wants and needs, control their immediate environment, communicate with others, and even obtain education and employment.

SHARE is an incredibly austere volunteer-driven organization, affiliated with the Center for Rehabilitation Engineering--a working laboratory at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. It employs one administrator and one technical suport person, to supervise more than two dozen engineering students and community volunteers, under the volunteer guidance of three professors who originated the technology in 1981, and rather than setting up a profit corporation for themselves, founded SHARE as a philanthropic benefit institution.

SHARE's work is of the highest quality and originality. Its founders have received: The President's Volunteer Action Award from President Reagan; the National Jefferson Award from the American Institute for Public Service; and the Governor's Outstanding Service to the Commonwealth Award.

SHARE's reputation is spreading fast; since 1981 more than 2,300 children and adults in 35 states have been helped, over 200 of those in 2003 alone; it now has a waiting list of about 30 clients, for an average wait of 2 months. What this organization needs is a structural upgrade and transformation: an Executive Director, a technical officer, and sophisticated planning and fundraising. You can help provide these.

(1997: HUMAN SERVICES: Health and Aging: Disabilities and Children's Disease)