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| The idea is to make assemblies about
autism and other learning disabilities available to local schools, with
the goals of educating students and staff on what it's like to have a
disability, that they are common, that they are nothing to be ashamed
of, and that you shouldn't pick on kids because they have one. Ideally
we can find and suggest existing assemblies to schools. If we need to
(and can find people willing) we could put together our own and perform
them ourselves.
Organizers: We need 'em. Contact Info: Volunteer Helpers: That means you. Initially we need people to do research on assemblies currently available. Other resources we need will depend on the outcome of our research. We could talk to local high school & college & local theater groups if needed. Requirements: You can talk all day to someone and they won't "get it" as much as they would with a 4 minute simulation. Simulations exist to demonstrate many of these disabilities. It has to be affordable, easily staged, and whatever the schools generally have for assembly requirements. I open to suggestions for further requirements. |
| Currently we are working with
WESELPA to produce a brochure listing good books for parents, teens,
kids, and educators affected by autism. Our plan is to distribute
the brochure to the county and school libraries. Another
possibility is to organize and run a fundraiser to buy the books as
well. I have an idea about a simple, easily done fundraiser and
am open to more ideas.
Organizers: We need 'em. Contact Info: Volunteer Helpers: That means you. The brochure is in the process of being assembled.
I don't know yet who is going to distribute it -- us or WESELPA.
To maximize it's distribution, both organizations' names will be on the
brochure. If we decide to fund the purchase of books we need a
few people work with the county library system to figure out an
acceptable fundraiser that we have the means to do. I'm thinking
we should try for corporate sponsors, which means a writing several
letters and speaking with local companies. Requirements: If we're raising funds, it's got to
be non-labor intensive. |
| We are sending a letter out to our
local doctors, dentists, and social workers. The main points of
the letter are going to
be:
Organizers: We need 'em. Contact Info: Volunteer Helpers: That means you. Currently we have a member who is converting a list of
addresses for doctors and social workers from a PDF file into an EXCEL
spreadsheet so we can mail merge it. We need someone to do the same for
a list of dentists. I'll write the letter. Eventually we're going to
need folks to fold the letters and stuff envelopes. It's going to cost
money to fund this endeavor, too. Requirements: TBD |
| Local cities, organizations, and
hospitals have "wellness fairs" and "resource fairs". Let's find
them, set up a table, hand out flyers, and talk to folks. It's a
great way to let people know that Asperger's and HFA happen in and
affect their communities; to meet parents who need our support; and to
meet folks who might be interested in helping us achieve our goals.
Organizers: We need 'em. Contact Info: Volunteer Helpers: That means you. We need someone to compile a list of fairs and handle
the registration. We need someone to schedule who's going where
when. We need someone to design and put together a simple table,
signs, possibly shade, etc. We need folks to spend a few hours
sitting at a table talking to whomever walks by and handing out flyers
and business cards. We need to fund this. Requirements: The table set-up has to be easy to
move, easy to assemble, eye-catching, durable, and inexpensive. |
| I'd like us to have some folks who
can give a 20-30 minute presentation about Asperger's and HFA.
You don't have to be good at public speaking to do this. We can
put together a standard presentation that you can modify to fit your
circumstances and audience. We can practice together until you
feel comfortable. We ask our kids to do stuff every day that they
are terrified to do. I think we can learn how to do this for them.
Our target audiences are service and social clubs, college students studying in areas that affect our kids (teaching, medical services, dental services, etc.), in-services for schools, groups that want to include our kids (scouts, churches, etc.), wherever we can find a soap box, let's spread the word. Organizers: We need 'em. Contact Info: Volunteer Helpers: That means you. Requirements: Please remember that one of our
main goals is to help parents and schools work together to help our
kids. We need folks with a positive attitude who are not going to
slam schools, teachers, SELPA, doctors, vaccines, etc. I'm
not saying your points aren't valid or that we don't value you.
We do. But nobody's going to listen to us or join us if our
message is negative. If in good faith you can't say you'll
project a "let's work together to build something great" attitude,
we've got a lot of other projects that could use your help! |