My name is Nadene Clarke and mum to two boys, aged 10 and 16. My eldest child was diagnosed with Autism when he was 11 years old. When my son was diagnosed, there was very little assistance out there and felt that I had to dig deep in order to find any information relating to Autism and also the support network was very slim. I was unable to find activities suitable for him and even families in my local area was not equipped with the knowledge about Autism so that my son could feel included in events, even his education would begin to suffer as a consequence. It was time to take matters into my own hands. The struggles for me was that there was nothing readily available for us to get involved in, my son was a teenager so there was either a handful of activities that he could get involved in and had to join a waiting list OR he was too old. In 2015 I faced redundancy at work and was weighing up what could keep me busy should I fail to find employment immediately. I toyed with the idea of hosting coffee mornings to meet other families who care for a young person living with Autism in London. I was keen to get something happening in and around my local area with a view to extend to other parts of the country later on. I had many conversations with my immediate family who championed the idea. I also done some research in my area and beyond to see what was available, when, costs etc. Next was focusing on the need for what we were about to do and why families would come to us as opposed to going to the big charities etc. I used my own experience as a driving mechanism, what would I want to do? Why does my story need to be heard? What change can I bring? Once I documented all of this information as well as choosing an appropriate name (with the help of my children). Things became more visual and Voices for Autism was born in October 2015.
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