2021 Annual Report

Community Development and Inclusion

Throughout the year we worked with the Department of Education, Goodstart Early Learning,WACA, Western Australian Police, Art Gallery of Western Australia, sports clubs, Scitech, AQWA, Kmart,WA Museum Boola Bardip, Ocean Heroes, and several shopping centres to support a better experience for people with Autism and their families.

In the sporting world, we continued into our second year of collaboration with Ocean Heroes surfing program for children with Autism. We also delivered 2 intensive Sports Academy Programs this year. The aim of these programs is to provide children and teens with Autism an opportunity to try a selection of sports including netball, soccer, AFL, tennis, karate, NRL touch football, pilates and cricket. These programs are run by experienced sports-coaches with the support of Autism Association staff. Following our involvement in the Accessibility Panel of the new Museum of WA project in 2017, we worked with the WA Museum Boola Bardip to establish a quiet hour. This involved the development of sensory maps for an inclusive and accessible experience for individuals with Autism. The first session took place during Autism Awareness Month in April, with another in July and it was a great experience for participants to see the new museum up close. Events were held at shopping centres across Perth during school holidays with hundreds of children participating. In addition, over 250 individuals and families took part in our second Scitech sensory event, which took place during Autism Awareness Month. We also launched our third Underwater Adventure with AQWA and hosted over 100 individuals at the Latitude sensory events. The Palace Arcade first quiz night for adults with Autism was a great success, with gaming lovers and quiz masters coming together for trivia fun night and retro arcade games. We continued our partnership with Kmart to continue their ‘Quiet Spaces’ initiative, providing a positive environment for people with Autism and their families to shop in the store. It was also a busy lead up to Christmas, co-hosting the fifth consecutive year of Sensitive Santa sessions at Lakeside Joondalup, Cockburn Gateway, Belmont Forum, Garden City Perth and Karrinyup Shopping Centre. A total of 260 families attended these sessions with many individuals of all ages having their very first Santa photo. It was a good year with great first-time experiences for many of our young people.

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