Aspirations is a group for people with Asperger's and High-Functioning Autism. It is primarily aimed at adults however younger members are welcome.
We have "regulars" who show up at every meeting, though they are by no means compulsory. We circulate an attendance sheet for people to leave their names and contact information and if they would like to be included in the mailings (ie: receiving notices for future meetings). Aspirations is a support group for adults and mature teens, anyone from about 17 and older. I think a lot of our members have been diagnosed with AS, and some have not been diagnosed but believe they may have AS. Some are newly diagnosed and would like more information. Also, we welcome parents, family members, and friends of people with AS to the group - or if they believe someone in their family may have AS and came to our group for information. We've also had professionals (counsellors, speech language pathologists, therapists) attending.
Meetings are on the third Monday of the month, except during the summer months, and if there's a holiday Monday (ie: Labour Day that falls on the third Monday, then the Aspirations meeting is pushed to the week after). Meetings start at 7pm until 9pm, and we've had different topics of general interest to individuals with AS. Some well-attended meetings in the past have dealt with Social Skills, Effective Communication, Employment, and Budgeting, and may or may not include guest speakers (knowledgeable on a specific topic), followed by a Question and Answer session at the end. For example, a recent meeting was a presentation on the Autism Registry with guest speakers from the Ottawa Police. Some meetings are open discussions in large groups, or broken up in smaller groups to discuss sub-topics and then share with the whole group. There's usually one person who takes the lead, but a few other members have come forward to lead meetings as well. Additionally, if you have ideas that you would like to learn more about, or that would make a good topic for a meeting, you can suggest it to us and we can look into potential speakers on the subject.
We don't really have an agenda - a few people usually show up a bit before 7 (coordinate with someone in the Autism office to get a key to the room where we'll have the meeting), and help set up the chairs. We have a Book Exchange (members are welcome to browse the selection of books and magazines that others have brought in; they can borrow it for a time and bring it back; they can also bring in books they feel others may be interested in). We also have a break time at about 8:00 (snacks and drinks are available). Casual socializing is encouraged at break-time. The meeting gets back to the topic/discussion after about 15-20 minutes.
There is no fee to attend the meetings.
You can find more information on AS and Aspirations at the Autism Society of Ontario website and in selecting the Ottawa Chapter. In general, Aspirations members can send contributions to the newsletter (ie: personal interest stories or personal experiences, jokes, or reviews on books, movies, etc. that they would like to share with the group, or any news that they may have heard about, other magazine articles that could be re-copied in our newsletter - we try and contact the magazine editor for permission to reprint the article).
Please feel free to email us (ottawa@autismontario.com) if you would like more information, however no reservation is required and the easiest thing to do is just show up!
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For information on any of the support groups, please contact the Chapter at 613.230.6305 ext. 22 or at ottawa@autismontario.com.