Creating a social group for adolescents and teens

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(I am not entirely certain that this is the right forum for this, so if there's somewhere it would be a better fit please let me know....)

My eldest son is ten, on the spectrum, and has very very few friends. He's an extremely social kid, very outgoing and extroverted (very much the opposite of myself), but just doesn't know how to deal with his peers. He's seen as "weird", and generally is either teased or ignored by the kids at school when he talks at them about his obsessions (Minecraft and Pokemon, at the moment).

I'm a librarian, and I've been running a Minecraft club at my library for a few months now. In the course of this, I've had a lot of autistic kids showing up to participate (including my sons), and after a long conversation with another parent last week, I've come to the conclusion that I need to do more. We've both experienced a difficulty finding any social skills groups for kids in our area, or even just informal playgroups. I'm in a position to do something about that, and I'm working on a grant proposal so that I can get some funding to aid in the progress.

All I want to do is put together a sort of social group, where autistic kids can come together to talk and share their interests. I'm not a therapist, and I'm not going to try to be; the important bit is to give these kids (and their families) a chance to meet each other. I know all too well how isolated and lonely my son is feeling, and I know that he's far from alone in this. I'm hoping to run this at least once a month, maybe twice, on evenings between 6:00 and 8:00 PM.

I'm hoping on input on two matters:

1) Suggestions on some activities we can do. I'm going to pick up some board games (Settlers of Catan, Formula D, Eurorails, and Robo Rally to stat), but I'm certainly not going to assume that every kid has the same interests as mine. Participants will also be encouraged to bring games or whatever from home, at least once we've got a meeting or two under our belts. I'm wondering if I should try to establish more structure, or let things happen as they happen to happen. (I should not be proud of that last sentence, but I am. Sorry.)

2) A good name for the group. Everything that I've come up with is either too clinical sounding, or just plain terrible. I really want to emphasize in our flyers and such that is a group specifically for autistic kids, as I think that it's important to establish this as a safe and welcoming place. I do intend to consult with my son about this, but his taste in names tends to run to things like "The Super-Awesome Club For Cool Autistic Kids", which isn't quite the sort of thing that I'm looking for. Still better than what I've come up with, though.

Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated. I really want to create something good, something helpful, and I feel that there's a lot of potential here.

Thanks for reading, all.

"Mumble Club", perhaps?

It lacks a certain gravitas....

Having just asked Eldest, his suggestion was "Autism is Awesome, and So Are You"...which, honestly, ain't bad.

Well, that actually works out. I was thinking of starting something similar on my campus, and it would be awkward with two Mumble Clubs around.

It depends who your target audience is, both now and in the future. If you want to appeal to high schoolers, I can guarantee you that the majority of them would take one look at that name and start wincing. And even so, there's something to be said for brevity.

"We're on the Spectrum", maybe? WotS for short?

Have you considered reversing it? "Club Mumbles" has a certain euphony to it.

At this point, at least, the target audience is largely going to be parents...they'll be the ones bringing their 10, 11, and 12 year old kids. But you're very right that I need to have something that the teenagers won't shrink away from. "We're On the Spectrum" may well work for that!