MiniGrant: A group of mothers/ parents of children and adults on the autism spectrum will resume a psychologist-assisted support group for mothers. They will also organize meetings with experts professionally dealing with girls and women on the autism spectrum as well as with women who are on the autism spectrum themselves.

 

About the group

The group was formed in 2023, when the Krosno library announced a call for grants for informal groups. We joined forces at an online group for moms and… we made it! We are motivated by powerlessness and a sense of strength at the same time. The support group we want to resume has been meeting for over half a year and honestly – this was the first time we felt truly SEEN and UNDERSTOOD..

Moms! We’ve got each other are a group united by parenting children and adults on the autism spectrum. In the face of discrimination and the lack of systemic support for people on the autism spectrum and their families, regular meetings turned out to be very necessary – they gave substantive knowledge, offered support in matters related to the diagnosis, choice of a specialist, educational institution, but above all they helped emotionally. They pulled the participants out from a sense of helplessness and a place where mothers felt marginalized, invisible to representatives of authorities and educational centers in their city. They want not only to continue the support group, but also to take up new topics – especially the topic of girls and women on the autism spectrum or during diagnosis.

We want to focus more on the topic of girls on the autism spectrum, who definitely receive less support than boys. Theoretically, there are fewer of them… because they are simply not well diagnosed. We want our daughters to meet other people in a similar situation and be able to hear – “I have it too, you are not alone”. We also want to better understand what our daughters feel and how we can support them during and after the diagnosis.

 

 

About the action

Thanks to the MiniGrant, Moms! We’ve got each other plan to restart the support group for approx. 15 mums/parents of children on the autism spectrum in the form of monthly meetings with a psychologist. They also plan open meetings with specialists and women on the spectrum – they know that the demand is high, because they receive requests for help at the stage of child diagnosis or in organizational matters. They see that this action has a huge educational value, and it also helps build allyship. They want other moms to feel the strength of sisterhood which they already know.

 

Grant amount: PLN 5,100

Photograph from the group’s own materials