This idea was stated before.  Take a building, say a small apartment, and have aspies move in. have a common meals and common activities. make it in the city so we can work and visit the world of the NT's. It woild be like a mini-commuinty within the community. sort of like aspietown.

What do you think?

This post was last modified: 10-19-2005 02:40 PM by Drifter.

Is he your canine pal, Drifter?>


I've been thinking about getting someone like myself from the lost dogs' home.

Stella

She is gracie one of our two dogs.

lovely!

Ok.  But I would want it smoke free and quiet.   We would have to have the same menu every week.  My husband would have to be allowed but I do not think he has AS.  

Maybe it could include a sheltered workshop for some people who have trouble finding or keeping employment.

If it was a holiday retreat, I think it would have a great chance.
There is already Autreat in the US, and Autscape in the UK (recently started).
They are conference like/short break.

Some of us were discussing in the chatroom the other day, James particularly, was interested to start a holiday retreat, that could lead to something more permanent.

Hi all,

The idea I was discussing the other day was "Autbase" - essentially a 24/7/365 version of Autreat / Autscape run as a communal cooperative under charitable status.

We would raise funds via charitable donations / lottery funding etc. and purchase a plot of land and buildings which would then be held in trust for unlimited use by all autistics as a break from the "real" world. Use of the facilities should be accessible to all income groups on a pay what you can afford basis.

Some key issues that need further thought are:

1. Would NTs be welcome too? (this hadn't occured to me but has been mentioned above and is an obvious point I had overlooked). Perhaps NTs could pay a market rate for use of the facilities.

2. Would we require people to have a formal diagnosis of autism. I would initially argue yes (and rapidly duck behind the sofa ;-).

Please let me know what you think,

Cheers,

James

I think a price structure would have to set under firmer guidelines eventually. Such as those on benefits paying one tarriff, and a higher rate for those who are working.

I personally think it's a slick idea. Trick is finding a place where it's feasible to actually have a very low volume of guests or have a specific week or two which you announce to be the time for it; that way it wouldn't just be one or two people at a time showing up and going home. In the next few years with awareness spreading I'd really like to think that the demographic challenges will shrink bit by bit but it may take at least another 10 or 15 years before you get more than half the aspies out there to know that they are as such let alone sell them on the idea that they want to meet other aspies.

Something else someone could do if they were seriously thinking about this would be to get together with other people who wanted to do this, who had the business savvy to pull it off, and actually start another business (aspie owned and run) to subsidize the retreat. Not to say that you'd want them to cover a huge ammount of the expenses but just enough to where the prices would be low enough so that you could have hundreds show up rather than a handful or two.

Housing for autistic people could be very feasible. It would be possible to set up a non-profit housing society with a mandate to administrate government rent subsidies to "disabled" members.

What we'd need then is some nice sized aspie investment banks, CPA firms, software companies, and engineering tech companies to keep the college grads busy bringing in the $$ and then maybe some aspie run bars, clubs, photo shops, or whatever. Seriously, if the gay community can pull it off like that why can't we.

I'd be in favour, so long as it didn't turn into an extended coffee morning for NT parents of Aspie children like most other resources and services seem to be  :roll:

Tbh, I've never met another Aspie.  I mean, I haven't met anyone who's been officially diagnosed.  (Actually, I haven't been officially diagnosed yet either).  I've had my suspicions about some people I've known though, but I don't think they've had an inkling because they're not really into psychology and stuff, whereas I learned a lot about AS through... I think my curiosity was piqued by some television programmes or articles that I recognised myself in them, and then I read more about it, because I was interested in psychology type stuff because I was referred for therapy due to being physically and emotionally abused in my childhood.

I have felt a bit isolated over the years because of not knowing anyone like me.  It would be really good to have a kind of retreat to spend time with people like me, or just to take some time out, when the pressures of every day life get too much.

I'm in a support group right now, still just me and 4 other guys with AS, and with respect to the concept of AS I'd kinda built I was pretty surprised. Not to say that they were nothing like I'd guessed they'd be, just that a lot of the things I thought would be common outward or behavioral identifiers weren't there.

All of us are dx'd as well and it's interesting to see that they and even the one other guy I met IRL before all this who was HFA would never have struck me as aspie. Unless they had told me something that was real indicative of their struggles, I never would've thought AS if I had met them on the street.

I think we are in a different position in the sense of working, financial stability, and being organized, than the gay community.

More gay people have financial independence, and disposable income. Before the gay rights movement started, there were already gay bars etc, although they were 'underground'.

As our community is based largely online, we will surely develop differently, how that will actually manifest itself, I don't know.
But to prosper we do need to establish more offline.