If you follow us on social media, you probably already know that Autism TN is a staff of seven diverse individuals who are passionate about autism. Some of us are on the autism spectrum and have found a workplace that gets us and wants to maximize independence for adults on the autism spectrum. Four of us are parents of children on the autism spectrum who have experienced a range of heartaches and triumphs over the years on our journey with autism and have relied on the community Autism TN provides. One is a clinical professional who found her passion in the area of autism.

When you get to know the team at Autism TN, you will find that we are Southerners, Yankees, Immigrants, Floridians (because Florida is NOT the south), East Kentuckians (because that’s too Appalachian to be Southern), and one confused Midwesterner.  We love soccer, golf, football, boating, traveling, hiking, meditating, exercising, coffee, wine, tea, and diet coke. We believe in people, community, God, prayer, tradition, Folk Medicine, Traditional Medicine, Western Medicine, Holistic Medicine and even superstition. We enjoy laughing, telling stories, watching movies, playing games, reading, dancing, eating good food, and loving on our pets.

Sometimes our challenges are overwhelming, our hearts are breaking, and we are utterly exhausted. We are baffled by setbacks, frustrated by lack of resources, angry with injustice, and appalled by the vitriol around us. We feel small, powerless, and futile. We struggle to find the silver linings in incremental progress when we can see how much more needs to be done. We have conversations about the lack of compassion and collaboration even within the autism community. Some days are just hard.

We are just like you. We want more, better, and different for our loved ones on the autism spectrum. We want hope, independence, and a joyful life for people on the autism spectrum. We have the audacity to demand awareness, acceptance, and integration for those with an autism spectrum disorder. We hope that our audacity inspires yours.

We know autism isn’t one thing. It isn’t a simply explained and understood concept. We know that autism is intimidating to those who are unfamiliar with it. Before we understood, we were intimidated too. When people talk to us, they assume that because we work at Autism TN, we are autism experts but that’s an amusing mistake. We aren’t even experts at our own journey with autism. We take each day as it comes, give it our best effort and then let it go. For better or worse, we trust that we did the best we could with the resources we had in that moment. Mistakes are made and we learn from them. No one uses the compassionate shoulder of Autism TN’s HelpLine more than our own staff! We are here for us, and we are here for you.

When you invest in Autism TN, you support programming that is authentic and local to Middle Tennessee. When you give to Autism TN, you give 42,000+ individuals on the autism spectrum access to a community of hope. Autism TN gives Middle Tennessee one door, one simple way to access any resource you could imagine. When you give to Autism TN, you promise Middle Tennessee that hope is just a phone call away.

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