We nurture joy, self-love, and belonging in autistic children of all ages by creating inclusive social experiences in Asheville, NC and beyond.

We do this through:

(1) designing and hosting community events, affinity groups, mentorship opportunities, and outings.

(2) collaborating and consulting with other community-facing organizations to foster inclusion, accessibility, and social-emotional wellbeing for autistic and neurodivergent people across settings.

Vision

Asheville’s autistic communities will thrive.

Our autistic and neurodivergent communities will grow emotionally resilient through participating in fun traditions and developing authentic, unmasked relationships with ourselves and others.

People of all neurotypes will be welcomed and celebrated in Asheville’s community-facing organizations, including extracurricular programs, schools, museums, community events, and businesses.

Neuroinclusion and accessibility will be the norm in Asheville, NC and beyond.

Values

• Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

• We welcome and celebrate all people in our programs, regardless of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender identity, sexuality, disability, neurotype, or any other intersectional identity.

• We know that autistic and neurodivergent communities are not free from racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, and all of the other “isms.” It will take consistent effort, self-reflection, cultural humility and moral courage to build diverse, equitable, and inclusive programs. We are committed to this endeavor.

• Ingenuity & Systems Thinking

• We aspire to use innovative universal design principles in creating our events and programs. This means we hope to create spaces that care for everyone’s needs, allowing all of us to freely be ourselves— no “special” or exclusionary treatment needed.

• Ingenuity and systems thinking are necessary to deconstruct social conventions that limit us all as human beings. We seek to imagine new social norms and business practices that welcome and celebrate everyone. We believe visionary, artistic, and out-of-the-box thinking on micro, mezzo, and macro levels will generate a more inclusive and just society.

• Endless Learning

• When we know better, we do better. We strive to learn from the communities we serve through deeply listening to autistic and multiply marginalized people. We do this through actively seeking to learn about our communities through conversations, books, blogs, vlogs, podcasts, artwork, and more from autistic and multiply marginalized people.

  Despite our best efforts, as humans, we know we will make mistakes that harm others, including our participants at times.

• We value self-reflection, owning our mistakes, listening to those we have harmed, and making repair whenever possible. Rather than getting stuck in self-flagellation, excuses, shame, and blame, we approach our work with humility and openness to the real growing pains of “doing the work.”

• Playful, Accepting, Curious, & Empathic (PACE) Relationships

• In our relationships with participants, stakeholders, donors, volunteers and one another, we aspire to hold an attitude of PACE:

• We approach others with playfulness, good-heartedness, and levity whenever possible.

• Although some behaviors cannot and should not be tolerated, we strive toward acceptance of each other’s emotions, motivations, and inner worlds without judgement.

• We bring open-minded curiosity to our interactions, understanding that we’ll never know someone’s full backstory. Staying curious allows us to learn more about others, forging deeper connections while letting go of shame and blame.

• Relational empathy shines through all that we do.