Autism Training for Emergency Responders

1 in 64 children are diagnosed with autism. One child every 20 minutes, 1 in 42 boys. 1 in 42 boys will soon be 1 in 42 men. People don't "grow out of" autism.

Autistic individuals are seven times more likely to interact with emergency responders. At this time, there is little to no training for these responders on how to recognize autism on the scene of a crime, fire, medical call or disaster, and the situation can escalate quickly if responders don't understand certain behaviors.

I'm a single mom of two teenagers on the autism spectrum, an EMT and a volunteer with my
local fire department. My co-trainer is an adult with autism and also a fire rescue volunteer. Together we have a unique perspective to teach responders WHAT behaviors to expect on scene, WHY those behaviors are happening and HOW to safely and effectively communicate and intervene. We have trained over 30 departments so far but we need to have a much larger reach in order to help keep both responders and autistic individuals safe. With this fundraiser we are developing train-the-trainer courses to spread our message as well as helpful apps responders can use on scene to get real time support and information about autism. Help us create autism awareness AND action!