Join us to learn about what CASDA's been up to in 2020 and get involved in the conversation about the National Autism Strategy!

We're diving in to alone vs lonely today. Why? Because there is a HUGE misconception for both of these words when it comes to the autism community. There's the perception that autistic people don't want relationships and prefer to be alone. Wrong! There's also the perception that people who prefer to spend time with themselves are lonely. Also wrong! Let's find out more shall we?

Asking for help needs to be thought about differently. So many people refuse to ask for help because of ego. More can't ask for help because of anxiety. Some just don't know how. We need to fix this. Asking for help needs to be seen as a strength. Asking for help shouldn't induce anxiety but give a sense of relief. Asking for help doesn't require a plan, just an ask. The ask of, "help me figure out what my ask is". Let's just start there :)

We're back with another discovery tool to help autistic individuals build a stronger plan for employment success. How can the Career Personality Profiler help? It focuses on strengths and how to tie that in to employment options. It gives you ideas for careers you might not have considered. It taps in to the areas you might need to work on in order to be successful at any job. It also gives you ideas about what you shouldn't do as a career ;) We're using it to help autistic clients and invite you to take a look to see if it would work for you!

The autism community has had little access to discovery tools which align their mental state and employment goals. We're trying to fix that. With a lot of research, we're using the Enneagram tool to help an autistic individual learn more about their strengths, how they might react under stress in the workplace and plan their job search strategy accordingly. Interested? Good! We are too ;)

What is the right level of support for someone with autism to reach their full potential? What is the difference between medical language and accepting / empowering language? We need to fix the way people think about the folks in the autism community as having deficits vs being differently abled and being amazing, different, fantastic folks. Let's reframe the stereotype.

What is autism? Excellent question. Overall, it's a set of characteristics that individually are manageable. Collectively in one person? They can create an existence which requires some serious navigation skills in a society which does not normally embrace those who can be considered "different". Our point during this session with The Future Looks Good focuses on how the spectrum presents in so many different ways and it's time to embrace that.

We've talked about what change is and how it can affect us. Now you're ready to make whatever change you're interested in happen! So what are the next steps? How do you do that? Excellent questions. We've got some answers.

Everybody struggles to make a change in their life. One way to make that easier is to turn to your network. See who is the right fit to help your change happen and make sure they don't have an agenda about helping you change. What does that mean? You'll have to listen to find out ;)

What happens when something in your life just isn't working? Do you let it continue to not work for you and hold you back OR do you learn how to take a step towards the life you'd like to have? Here's where you can start to learn how. This isn't because someone has autism and they HAVE to change. It's because someone is autistic and they've CHOSEN to change something that is no longer working for them. It's about your choice!