Fingal Inclusion Week

3 ,2, 1 And we are off!

Official Launch that took place on the 12th November at Howth Yacht Club. We were particularly proud of the way we managed to showcase the wonderful talents of a number of our autistic community and demonstrate the collaborative approach we take to all our activities, in which everyone who wishes to engage has an opportunity to harness their strengths and interests and to shine. The feedback was phenomenal.

As approximately 140 people milled into the Asgard Room of Howth Yacht Club, they were greeted by some wonderful music played on the keyboards by teenager, Matthew Taylor Fallon. With Matthew playing in the background, and a beverage in hand, they were able to enjoy reading the posters ‘What is Autism’ created by Gillian Molyneux and Christina Knowles, with inspiration from Niamh Garvey’s wonderful book ‘Being Autistic, and What That Actually Means’.

Then on to Stephen Clery, who explained the Environmental Project being run by adults in our community. He was taking names of other adults who would like to join the team, so if you are an autistic or neurodiverse adult and would like to be part of this wonderful initiative, just get in touch by email to howthsuttonautismcommunity@gmail.com
He was also taking names of other people – children and adults – who would like to get involved in regular ‘community care-taking’ (aka litter-picking). We hope that home schoolers might add this into their weekly programme on a weekday so they can get out into the fresh air with other teenagers who are also interested in the environment. And we will have weekend sessions too. Of course everyone is welcome to join all sessions.
William Nestor from AsIAm had a stand where he had non-stop visitors asking him all sorts of questions about what AsIAm does for families, children and adults, as well as general information about Autism.

Samantha Flanagan, who is our facilitator at our Arch Club (the social club for primary-school aged children) set up 2 sensory tents filled with sensory and self- regulation tools for anyone who needed a little time away from the hub-bub. And many others enjoyed learning about the kinds of toys and equipment inside and how easy it is to set up a sensory space at an event like this. The yacht club also had their recently added sensory quiet zone available for anyone who wanted a breather.

Ian from the Yacht Club had the Asgard Room really well set up with the lights dimmed, as following his Champion Training, he is aware of the sensitivities of many people to bright lights. The event was MCed by our wonderful committee member, Christina Knowles, who is a pure natural at this kind of thing. She first introduced the Mayor of Fingal, Brian McDonagh, who gave us a lovely supportive speech and officially launched us!

Then on to Adam Harris, CEO of AsIAm, who, as an autistic person himself, set up AsIAm 10 years ago and has such an incredible vision for an autism friendly Ireland. Adam was really impressed by how much our community has already achieved in only 6 months – I think we all are! Later in the event, he supported the Champions Training Team by presenting AsIAm awards and certificates for Autism training – but more on that later in Dave Croft’s article below.

Then I gave a little background to our organisation and explained how we started as just a small group of parents who had found each other through a short CDNT programme and who kept in touch, meeting monthly to support each other. I presented our 3 year plan to achieve the official award ‘Autism Friendly Community’. There’s a lot involved, but we have certainly hit the ground running!

Next up was Adam Greenan, who stole the show with the ‘Voices of our Autistic Community’ video he created with the help of some very generous contributors – Laura and Toby Roche, Daniel and Gillian Molyneux and Gus and Jackie Bernstein. In this video, they demonstrated how life is for an autistic child, teenager and adult, respectively, living in our community. They also demonstrated the simple ways that accommodations can be made by businesses, clubs, public services and other organisations to help make the community more inclusive for autistic people of all ages with different challenges and different levels of support needs. Adam has recently completed a degree in Media Studies at Coláiste Dhúlaigh, so this video provided a wonderful platform for him to showcase his incredible talents. It will be available soon for all to watch on our YouTube channel.

Then on to Dave Crofts, who discussed our approach to the Champions training programme, and with Adam Harris’ help, he ensured that the Autism Champion organisations and trainees were appropriately acknowledged for their trailblazing efforts to become more autism friendly.

And finally, we were honoured to have AnnMarie Farrelly, the Chief Executive of Fingal County Council, speak at our launch. We knew that she had to move mountains to get to us, so we really appreciated the importance she gave us during Fingal Inclusion Week. Her speech completely endorsed our efforts, and she was blown away by everything she had seen. She said she learnt so much from the evening and particularly the ‘Voices of our Autistic Community’ Video. So impressed was she that she has asked for permission to circulate the video in order to raise awareness and support for our cause. Well, what better endorsement than that could we get! We are so proud of Adam and all the contributors to the video.
And to end the event, we said our thank yous, and Steve presented the guest speakers with a gift of a branded mug provided kindly by Richie at Reboot, an interim gift while we awaited the arrival of our eco-cups. We have them now, and one is on its way to each of the guest speakers to enjoy many years of sustainable beverage drinking habits!

Key moments of the launch were captured by Noelle Shannon of Peninsula Photography, who generously volunteered to be our official photographer for the event. A big thank you her and her team.