
Supporting Our Community
April 2020
Click here to view the full PDF.
In March 2020, with the onset of the COVID-19 Coronavirus outbreak, Autism Ontario conducted a survey in English and French to determine what services it should offer to help children and adults on the autism spectrum, and their families and caregivers.
The survey received a total of 182 responses, which we are using to inform our ongoing communications, programming, and resources for our community.
The survey contained three questions:
1. How can Autism Ontario best stay connected with you at this time?
2. Share your ideas of online resources we can create and share.
3. Are there particular needs or challenges you foresee?
1. How can Autism Ontario best stay connected with you at this time?
All 182 respondents answered this multiple choice question. Respondents were allowed to select more than one answer.
2. Share your ideas of online resources we can create and share.
Here, we asked for your ideas. This question was open-ended and allowed you to write down specifically where you most wanted our help. 125 people answered this question, and many of your ideas had overlapping themes or were suggested
more than once.
We grouped your ideas into three subcategories.
Activities & Resources for Autistic People and their Families
Online Support for Parents
More General Needs
In Your Own Words!
3. Are there particular needs or challenges you foresee?
This was another open ended question where we sought your specific thoughts. We grouped your responses into four types of need, with many replies counting toward multiple types.
Thank you for sharing your ideas!
We are listening.
Supports available from Autism Ontario
We continue to speak directly with government and community leaders to bring
the best ideas together to assist people on the autism spectrum and their families
during this time of social and physical distancing.
Here’s how we are helping during this time:
We have something for everyone! We are working with local businesses and shops to provide take home kits – from ceramic painting to birdhouse making, there are lots of choices. We’re also hosting online trivia events, meet ups and support groups.
Our webinars are designed to be an interactive, easy-to-understand, resource for parents, professionals, educators, and people on the spectrum. We have plenty of past webinars available online and more webinars on the way.
Our Service Navigators are available by phone or video conference. They are here to provide information about the Ontario Autism Program and help connect families to service providers and resources available in their local communities.
Our 25 Chapters located all over the province continue to provide online support to people of all ages on the spectrum and their families. You can join their mailing list and follow them on social media to hear what they’re up to.
We will continue to remain in touch and accessible through our website and our quarterly magazine, Autism Matters.