Hi Garry
I am based in Melbourne. On the odd occasion I am up in Brisbane and may be
able to touch base with you if I am up there but at this stage I can't
afford to come up there for free.
Also I try to talk more to teachers or employers to spread the word about
the positives of Asperger's and how to utilise strengths rather than
weakness so I generally don't talk to adult groups with Asperger's. I'd be
happy to but I generally don't focus on that area as there seems to be a lot
of people already talking about Asperger's to people with Asperger's and I
try to focus my energy on getting the message out to others who don't yet
know much about it.
Also you may be interested to know, although it will only be available in
Melbourne, is that through my Chartered Accounting Practice I am looking to
offer some kind of work experience/internship to people with Asperger's who
have finished uni or school and are looking for office work. The idea of the
program would simply be to give each person a short introduction to office
life, ie. I might ask them to grab a coffee with me, answering phones,
utilising computer skills, etc. So they don't need to come from or want to
work in an accounting background. The idea is simply that they are exposed
to a workday without the stress of worrying about stuffing it up. I think I
would be looking at offering a program of 4 weeks, working Monday, Tuesday,
Thursday, Friday. I am thinking about leaving Wednesday out as a break in
the middle of the work week. And I am also thinking about the hours being
9-3 each day.
I haven't started the program yet as I want to pay full office award rates
(I don't want this to be a free/volunteer program). I want them to be
properly rewarded for the job and I want it to simply be a safe environment
for an Aspie to learn some skills to take with them into an actual job in
the field they want to work in. I haven't seen much of this about but I'd be
interested if you had any thoughts on such a program and whether you would
have found something like that useful.
