Parents/ adult aspies group brainstorming about the future.

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I'm finally putting it together in our area and people are actually responding. Any suggestions of what would make a group work are welcome.

Not a support group where people sit around and say, "wow, look at all these other people. I guess I'm not alone."

I'm develoing a group where parents and adult aspies discuss that parents are unable to be safety nets forever. I found some space to do that in a college and possibly a library. We need to brainstorm about what we all can do together to enhance our kids' lives and ensure secure futures. We'll be discussing jobs, housing, natural ways to socialize that isn't support group things, school, school clubs, business start up and anything else the evolves that can get us working toward good solutions. We'll be asking people to tell their stories about what's working and what hasn't worked,

I'm running the group (gulp) because I have no choice but I'm not a leader, just someone who scares myself about my kids' futures. My son wouldn't go to a group like this unless I told him to hang around in the background and play his DS. That's okay. Maybe other parents have kids like that, too and they can bond by hanging around in the background, passively listening and playing on their DS's, too.

I think it's great that you're starting such a group. I've thought very seriously about starting a support group for parents of ASD kids that I had hoped would branch into something like you're doing. It's a huge responsibility. The one thing that I have been told repetitively is that as a leader you should have a solid itinerary to follow at the beginning of each group, so that everyone stays on topic. Another thing that would be a good idea is that you could openly state on the fliers (or whatever your means for advertising the group) that you're looking for people to help you manage the group. That's about all of the suggestions that I have, sorry that I haven't been of much help. I mostly just wanted to post to encourage you. You're very brave for undertaking such an endeavor, and an awesome mom!

Your post is a big help. I think I'll post what happens as I move this along, where screw ups happen and what 's working and what kinds of issues dominate the meetings.

I'll need to practice how to keep things moving along but I'm so motivated to help my kids, I think that motivation will help me stay on topic. One thing I noticed while hanging around with spectrum people is, you don't have to feel self-conscious about social quirks. Everyone gets along, at least, in my circle of AS people. They're also very interesting. We just need to nudge all that aspy energy into solving problems together in ways that make us feel very good about ourselves.