Autism Awareness Month at our office in downtown Lafayette, Louisiana started a new campaign to spread awareness and support of the cause. We aimed to send out newsletters twice a week with educational resources, encourage donations to a local fundraiser called “Bowling for Autism”, and host a guest speaker. Let’s dive in and explore how we managed our campaign.

Spreading Autism Awareness at Our Office

Autism Awareness Month is a time for promoting understanding, acceptance, and support of autism. We do this through the use of personalized email subject lines that line up with our newsletter topics and promoting or hosting events that are fun or educational. For example, when my colleague and contributor, Katie Griffith, sent the newsletter for our “Employment and Austim” topic, she included in the email subject line “YOU got the JOB!” This personalization of subject lines has been known to drastically increase open rates and thus awareness.

Our newsletter topics this year were:

Understanding Autism
Education and Autism Society
Early Signs of Autism
Late Diagnosed Adults
Employment and Autism
Autism and Relationships
Autism and Mental Health
Autism and Healthcare

Bowling for Autism in the Community

Autism Society of Acadiana has started hosting a fundraising event each April at the Rock-n-Bowl in downtown Lafayette, Louisiana. All funds raised went directly to funding and supporting Autism Society Acadiana’s planned events and programming which include:

Support Groups
Autism related Law Enforcement and First Responder Training
Adult/Teen Cooking Classes
Adaptive Swim and Water Safety Classes
Participation in Annual Acadiana Diversity Job Fair
Autism Acceptance Member Celebration
Functional Life Skills Cafe Courses
Holiday Events
Member Stipends
Teacher Mini-Grants

As part of our campaign, we invited and encouraged colleagues to participate. There were three methods of donating:

be part of a bowling team for the competition
be a spectator
be an online donor

The perks of being a part of the team were:

1 game of bowling,
shoe rental
all-you-can-eat buffet
unlimited sodas
select wine and beer

The perks of the spectator were the same minus the game of bowling and shoe rental while the perks of the online donor were the ease of donating and anonymity.

Overall, the event raised $35,000 impacting Autism Society of Acadiana’s funding for its outreach services so that affected families can have access to resources and the needed support. You can read more about the event here.

Guest Speaker, Jennifer Perry, a Behavior Analyst

Autism Awareness Month usually sees us bring in a special guest speaker. This year, we reached out to the Behavior TLC, Behavior Therapy & Learning Center. Behavior TLC is a privately owned, applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy clinic in the Clear Lake area of Houston, Texas. They are passionate about providing support and care to those on the autism spectrum and other intellectual, behavioral, and developmental disabilities. Their clinic director, Jennifer Perry, answered our request. Jennifer is a board-certified behavior analyst from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She has experience working a variety of settings including day treatment, public and private schools, residential, and in home.

Jennifer was wonderful. She covered topics on the autism spectrum, functional levels of autism, appropriate vocabulary, the impact of autism on the individual and family, signs and symptoms, treatment, ABA, dangers and risk, stigmas, and counseling. She also fielded some questions our colleagues had during the event. Overall, Jennifer helped us get a better understanding on autism and how we can be more accepting.

Getting Involved, Support Locally, Raise Awareness

Again, our Autism Awareness Month campaign was a huge success that brought further understanding, acceptance, and support for autism to all of our colleagues. Raising awareness goes beyond knowledge—it’s all about creating a compassionate and informed environment for everyone. I would like to thank my colleagues, Clay, Katie, and Mitchell for their help organizing and contributing to this campaign. I would like to conclude by encouraging our community to get involved and support autism awareness locally!

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