This weeks’s blog post is a guest post from Nadene Clarke, the founder of  a new organisation, Voices for Autism. Nadene tells us about why she started Voices for Autism,  provides some background to this condition and shares her personal experience with autism. 

My name is Nadene and I am the founder of Voices for Autism. Voices for Autism is a non-profit organisation which supports parents/carers who care for a young person with Autism living in London. It was created for parents/carers to help spread awareness as well as create a community for parents/carers to feel a part of.

Autism is quite common in the UK affecting approximately 70,000 people. It is a lifelong developmental disability that affects how a person sees the world. It also affects how a person communicates with, and relates to other people. It is a spectrum condition which means people with Autism have a range of difficulties in common but it affects everyone differently.

Voices for Autism was born out of my personal experience with the condition. My son was diagnosed with Autism when he was 11 years old. When he was diagnosed, I felt that there was not enough support out there post-diagnosis in and around my community and whilst trying to deal with our new hurdle, I spent some time thinking of ways to build up the Autism community as it is a very sensitive subject.

My son was born prematurely so we were informed that he would have some difficulties in his childhood and it was not until he reached secondary school age that I felt I needed to do more as he was moving into a new setting so I requested for him to be assessed by a neurological team. Mainstream primary school was fantastic with all of the right support he needed but I knew it would be very different in secondary school……and I was right!

As parents we had never considered a special setting and went ahead with the mainstream secondary setting but this was a terrible experience in my eyes. He moved into a special setting soon after joining secondary school and we have not looked back.

At Voices for Autism we are striving to create a haven where we can come together to share advice, ideas, strategies etc. We want to echo the message that young people with Autism are unique and deserve the same opportunities as those without a disability.

I have been hosting coffee mornings on a monthly basis since the beginning of 2016 and they are proving so useful and are growing. We are a friendly bunch and can see that there is not enough support available for us parents/carers. The coffee mornings are set in a relaxed, informal environment where we are building strong, positive relationships and our group feels like one big family.

As a parent, it is important for me to empower and motivate others with the journey that myself and my son have been on, what a journey, but we are stronger because of it. It is vital for us to remember that we are our child’s biggest advocates and if we do not speak up for them, nobody will.

Let’s build a community, let’s build a voice!

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The Lake Foundation would like to say a big thank you to Nadene Clarke for sharing her experience with autism and introducing us to the great work that Voices for Autism is doing. If you would like more information about the support that they provide please visit their website: http://www.voicesforautism.co.uk or email info@voicesforautism.co.uk