March 11th
So… This is a blog. I'm blogging. I'm a blogger. This is the first time I have ever put those words together and I am glad you're here to witness it!
As that witness, that means you are now an official Autism ASK-er! You have navigated successfully through our many carefully crafted (representing hours and hours of mostly Stephanie's late nights) website pages to come to this spot. In your travels here at Autism ASK I hope you have picked up on our very real sense that this is really YOUR website, too! I invite you to help make this site into what you need it to be. Know of an event? Have an idea for a service? Heard of a good organization not on our site yet? Long for services closer to your place? I think we have forms for all of those! If we don't have a form for your specific need, the info@autism-ask.com will do the trick just as nicely.
At the risk of sounding old, I have been part of the autism community for 16 years. (Don't worry… those of you who I know have been around just as long or longer… I won't out you as old, too!) Not to bore you with the "Back in my day" …..but….. back in my day, the internet was not yet a standard tool. The incidence rate was four or five in 10,000 with a diagnosis. I could have subsidized a lot of interventions for charging a nickel for every time I had to explain to a perplexed face as to what autism (not artism or… my personal fave… altruism) was.
Fastforward to 2010…. I cannot state my job field to someone without hearing of their connection somehow to ASD. This has made our "community" much larger and almost dictating it then, by sheer numbers, less connected. Less strength. Less cohesion. Less of a voice of one that can collectively make system changes.
It is our hope that Autism ASK can help give a little more shape to our Southeast Michigan autism community. Over the next few months we will continue to roll out ideas and opportunities that keep in mind our main objective of Advocacy, Support and Knowledge (the ASK of Autism ASK) while building a stronger networking amongst all of us who make this community…. individuals, families, parents, siblings, professionals, colleagues and the community at large.
Something to grow on: I have never been especially impressed by the heroics of people who are convinced they are about to change the world. I am more awed by those who struggle to make one small difference after another. Ellen Goodman
American journalist (1941 - )
Keep making those small differences!
Beth
