Looking to start an adult AS/Autism support group in my area

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cewfa
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13 May 2013, 10:27 am

Hello, I am a 27 year old adult with Asperger Syndrome and am looking to start a support/educational group for adults with AS/ASD and the general public in my area. I am in the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek area of Michigan, United States. My vision for this group is to provide peer support and education to the general public in my area because I feel like this is something that is sorely lacking in my area. Not only will this help me, but I feel it will help others as well.

I am looking to see what kind of interest there might be for such a group, I am also looking for a possible location to facilitate this group. If there is anyone on this message board who is also from my area that is interested in such a group, they may private message me for my information.

I appreciate the time and effort of you guys,
Chris



AardvarkGoodSwimmer
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13 May 2013, 12:41 pm

I wish you all the best! :D (I am very open to doing something like this in Houston, too.)



eric76
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13 May 2013, 1:26 pm

cewfa wrote:
Hello, I am a 27 year old adult with Asperger Syndrome and am looking to start a support/educational group for adults with AS/ASD and the general public in my area. I am in the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek area of Michigan, United States.


From what little I've seen of it, that's a very nice part of the country. About twenty years ago, an electrical engineer and I spent a few days in Kalamazoo doing some work on some equipment for the sheriff's department there. I would have liked to have stayed longer. I also had a short visit to Paw Paw on the Sunday morning while we were there.



Dox47
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14 May 2013, 12:26 am

You're going to run into a few problems, probably the very first one being finding a suitable meeting place that's cheap or free. Next is going to be getting consistent attendance, you're going to have to be willing to go months with little to no other people showing up before it catches on. I'd really suggest trying to find a co-organizer, it will make things a lot easier, and you'll always have at least one other person who's guaranteed to show up. Letting people know you're there is tough at first too, Craigslist can be effective, but the best thing is if there is any local autism resources that you can advertise in.

Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions, I've been running a group in Seattle for over five years now that has over 500 members, so I've learned a little bit about organizing Aspies.


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Bubbles137
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14 May 2013, 1:25 am

Good luck! We need more in the UK :/



glow
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15 Jul 2013, 5:45 pm

I wish there was more in my district. There should be one In every town but what I argued for was a centre to re-employ people back to work or from scratch I don't know, just so long as we get given the same opportunities as everyone else.



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26 Jul 2013, 3:27 pm

Bubbles137 wrote:
Good luck! We need more in the UK :/

its easy enough to arrange groups all over the UK using the likes of http://www.meetup.com but that will only be easy if are only interested in organising a area of interest each time rather than having a head quarters,as dox said it can be expensive.
am a member of a art,sensory and communication club for those of us who are low functioning and also for the parents or profesionals of us who have speech and language difficulties as the parents/profesionals room was headed by support staff,a learning disability nurse and the SALT of mine.
we have not been able to run for a while because of a number of issues common to all groups like this-
#the place we used to run it in has whacked the price up because of costs getting higher for them.
#we have a facility it coud be ran in but its in farmland in cheshire and inaccessible to anyone without a car,almost all local people are poor and dont have cars,this is what other people need to be aware of when making meet ups or a group HQ.
#autistic people generaly cant afford to pay for a group that charges unless its only a tiny amount.

people need to work out as well their criteria for the group.
-must members be diagnosed with an ASD or are self diagnoseds included? are parents included or not? what about siblings of autistics?
-must they only be high functioning or can anyone on the spectrum who feels a benefit come along?
-will there be a chill out area for any members to calm down away from the group?
-if its different activities will all be meeting up at instead of having a HQ, will everyones needs be considered; for examples sake- acute sound sensitivity.

-make sure to make it clear as well that anyone who needs support; such as lower functioning individuals, higher functioning individuals who may also have meltdowns or challenging behavior etc have a carer/support staff with them, otherwise there may be legal issues and risks to members if someone kicks off and have not got the staff and know how to control it.

have a look into meetup dot com if want to have a home for the group,its free.


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