Executive Director Letter
Dear Friends,
It's been great to connect with many of you over the past year, one that at times has been so incredibly difficult. Thank you for continuing to reach out to us via email, text, social media, and phone calls to help us keep in touch with what you need, and how we can help. Hosting webinars and meeting so many of you in your living rooms - with sometimes multi-generations learning about autism together – has been heartwarming. Our community really showed its strength through the pandemic, and part of that strength includes knowing when to ask for help, and asking questions about confusing things. You did it!
I'm feeling fortunate getting to know some truly talented people as a small nonprofit inside the big nonprofit at Achieva. Arc of Greater Pittsburgh colleagues are super knowledgeable about education, adult legal issues, and health law related to disability. Having them as backup or to team up on cases really shows the benefit of our affiliation in action. It's also been great to bring our autistic colleagues into the mix who have participated on projects with the Achieva Family Trust, sharing their lived experiences related to personal finances, banking, and other money matters while teaching over 80 banking professionals about accessibility needs. Our participation in planning, policy formation, and strategic thinking by highlighting autism culture in a more focused way has shown the welcoming nature of our colleagues here. And as things start to open up, having a more convenient location for one of our original clients to stop in and meet people was fantastic. He coincidentally has benefitted from an Achieva embedded employment professional at work, so his visit was not only cheerful, it linked us to outside work in a personal way.
Every day presents a new challenge, along with a host of creative options for solutions. I just went through some old files - fliers advertising great in-person events we've held (remember rowing, early open tech talks at the Apple stores, Autism Outdoors, even Boys to Men at the Benedum!). ? The timing is right to recharge and plan to get together again. We are so looking forward to reconnecting with old friends, and meeting new ones, in the coming months.