Over the past several years, at Square Peg society, we have hosted the following monthly events: an Autistic Adults Conversation Group, an Autistic Women’s Conversation Group, a Movie Night Discussion Group, and monthly SPS Monthly Meetings which provide a wealth of information relevant to autistic adults and their families. Thank you for making these events possible!
For these events we have employed capable & caring autistic adults as facilitators for all of these groups, except for the SPS meetings. We did not have funds for a facilitator for this role. Looking ahead, we would like to continue with these groups, and to hire another facilitator for our monthly meetings. These meetings provide opportunities for all of us to learn, share and connect. Our facilitators, by hosting these groups and meetings, gain valuable work experience, build their resumes, and meet and interact with others who share some of their lived experience. To continue these programs, we require $5000 to pay facilitators to host these events for our Sept 2023-June 2024 season.In addition, we have employed an autistic adult to manage our social media accounts, and to post some of our events to our website. We would like to boost his hours from 5 to 10 per week, in order to give him more opportunities to post & manage our website pages & Zoom invitations. Funding his role for our next year, at 10 hours/week, would require $10,000.
All other roles at Square Peg Society are unpaid, volunteer positions, including mine. We are grateful to Francine for her thoughtful & gracious hosting of our Parents’ Social group! I am thankful to Mahmoud Rezaee, for the huge number technical & accounting support hours he has generously given us, and to Fred Michael for his work maintaining our charitable status, satisfying CRA requirements, and documenting our AGMs. Long-term, we require consistent funding in order to build a succession plan and to be sustainable. Please consider monthly, annual and legacy funding to support us in this long-term vision for Square Peg Society.
April is Autism Awareness & Inclusion month. Please donate to help us continue our programs September 2023 – June 2024!
Joette Heuft, Executive Director, Square Peg Society