Yesterday, I soft-launched ‘Club Ausome’. This is what I am calling the work I am doing to signal-boost my friends who are neurodivergent or disabled, have a lot to offer, and are not getting the recognition they deserve.
‘Club Ausome’ consists of a weekly half-hour live event, with a different guest(s) each week, and a list of my website. I have drafted the initial ‘Club Ausome’ list, but it is still a work in progress and will be a working document, I will be adding more people to it and updating it. Many of these amazing guests are friends I met through Speakers Collective which is a mutually supportive group of emerging speakers about mental health and wellbeing. Please check out their page.
The first live event about Autism and Intersectionality featuring Ben VanHook went well, I think! It was emotional, as we both got talking about the impact of being bullied for more than one characteristic, and how isolating it can be when there is nobody who shares our blend of characteristics. I knew that talking to Ben would be easy, as we have been friends for about a year and he has many great insights on this topic, but I was nervous about the streaming platform (which behaved itself and streamed to LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube without a hitch, but I still need to figure out how to enable closed captions).
Here is the YouTube recording:
https://www.youtube.com/live/QRB3ht_1Y5w?si=YGPFPNcf5V_A7VIK
Watch this space for details of future episodes of Club Ausome, but I can tell you:
Episode 2 will be about accessibility for Deaf people (and those with hearing impairments, or Auditory Processing Disorder).
Episode 3 will be about Complex PTSD, and the different coping strategies for this.
#ClubAusome #Neurodiversity #Disability #Inclusion #Accessibility
Ausome Charlie 