The Future: James Gordon educates Aucademy

Recorded and originally aired: 22nd, March 2023 19:05 London GMT; 11:05 PST: The Future: James Gordon educates Aucademy We created this video for free, but we would welcome a very small donation so that we may pay the speakers for their time and work. Please consider donating to our Patreon https://bit.ly/33Urana or donating via Facebook stars In this session, James talks about their work in the Autistic community and what is in store for the future. Speaker details: James Gordon (he/him): “I am a late 40 year old, white male. I am the single parent to a little boy who has an Autism diagnosis and learning disabilities. He is now a teenager. When parenting my little boy, and he got his Autism diagnosis, people would comment on how I understood him before anyone else, and what a bond we had. I came to see that this was because I shared more than just the bond of father to son, but that I had trodden the same path before him. This is the case with many parents of Autistic children. My own experience has been like reverse engineering. I was on a quest to understand and support my son. In discovering many of the things that I share with him, I saw a lot of my own experience and struggles in life had been grounded in Autism and Adhd the whole time. I self-identify as these, even though I have found barriers to diagnosis. When reaching out on Facebook, I came across the London Autism Group. Chris had founded it to connect with other parents of Autistic children. I began to post on there and Chris made me an admin. I said to him at the time I would help until someone who knew more came along. 9 years later we still run the Facebook group to support the Autistic community. A few years in, we found the same problems were coming up. Questions about ehcp and lack of support from parents of Autistic children. Lack of support groups, lack of training and understanding from teachers. Social isolation. From Autistic adults we also heard about their common problems, of dwindling of support the older you get, of discrimination in work and Society. After trying to find services, organisations or charities to signpost people to, we came to the conclusion that there is nowhere near enough existing support. The big charities in particular do not even understand the issues and therefore do not provide the services Autistic people need. Chris and I decided to form a charity to address the problems we were seeing. Instead of focusing on just one problem, we have the long term mission and goal of creating a fundamental shift in Understanding Autism in Society. We will do this by supporting the Autistic advocacy community in educating and training professionals and public services. At the moment, we have been running our small Charity for 5 years. We are at the beginning of our journey to bring positive Autistic-led change. As I am a full time carer, my time is more flexible, so with Chris’ support, and help from our volunteers, I run the day to day functioning of all the Charity’s activities. I have created a Theory of Change for our Charity. The goals may take decades to achieve, and require the work of Autistic advocates educating the rest of Society to bring about a shift in understanding.”   / londonautismgroupcharity     / lagcharity     / lagcharity     / londonautismgroupcharity     / admin   https://www.londonautismgroupcharity.... https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast... https://www.londonautismgroupcharity.... https://www.londonautismgroupcharity.... https://www.londonautismgroupcharity.... *Please note we are not clinicians or diagnosticians* Jaesic Wade (they/he) - Queer, disabled Autistic advocate, neurodivergent life coach, blogger, & community organizer facebook.com/thequeercult queercult.org/coaching Bobbi Elman (she/ they) Autistic parent, educator trainer, Autistic child/young people advocate, self-advocate. Bobbi Elman: NeuroDivergent Autistic Experience Support TM