Do you want to be an autism trainer in Leeds?

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If so, Autism Plus (http://www.autismplus.org/) want to hear from you:

What's the pay? Two croissants and a bag of dolly mixtures?

The phrase "autism trainer" has me stumped. I'm assuming that it's British for something like an aide or someone who helps teach appropriate behavior, etc but my mind goes to two places. 1. training people to act autistic for movie and tv roles, or 2. being a personal trainer for people with autism like at a gym or something to get them in shape.

I didn't know there was such a thing as Leeds Pale - I wouldn't sup anything with the name of dirty dirty Leeds on it.

From reading the comments below, I agree that the email circulated was not very clear, but the poster is calling for people with autism, or carers of autistic people, to "be the voice of autism" for this training programme - so I think they are looking for autistic people like us to help raise awareness amongst the professionals who are trying to help and support us - IF I'm right, this could be a golden opportunity to have autistic people Doing The Training rather (than having other people trying to change us in unhelpful ways). I'm trying to get over there to check it out for myself.

If you look at the poster you can judge for yourself. Sorry I can't assist you further as I've not done five posts yet . . . I'm a bit shy of posting stuff online - but I am also NumberNine and attended the Manchester Meetup on Saturday with a group of 20 . . . TequilaGB will vouch for me. Cheers.

Here is the job description. NumberNineJo asked me to post it.

This position sounds like an opportunity I would much enjoy, though I might prefer a schedule of only once or twice each month. Too bad I am not at all close to Leeds, but it does give me the idea to explore similar opportunities in my area. Thanks for posting this!

Hey there! I made it there and back home safe, and I enjoyed my day trip to Leeds.
I didn't see many people there but they tell me that they have had a lot of people contacting them by email.
Thanks for your comments Marky9. Also a big thank you to Tequila for posting the thread in the first place and then exchanging several texts to discuss what it might be all about. Thanks also for posting the job description which gives a much clearer idea than the email I received or even the poster which came with it (viewable on line).
# I really do believe that we are now being recognised as the experts and being invited to help raise awareness of what it means to be autistic and to help to train people how to make our lives easier for us instead of harder.
# Regarding the level of commitment - very variable: the idea is to get a range of people signed up and then we could take part in training sessions as and when, depending on what suits and what is available.
# No guarantee of any work BUT any work done would be paid "an hourly rate" plus expenses I think.
# There isn't a closing date as such. (and they don't expect to be fully operational until the new year).
# Application form can be downloaded, completed and emailed back. (Better than printing as it runs to 9 pages I'm afraid - a single form aiming to be suitable for all).

NB - this particular opportunity is centred around Leeds but, like Marky9 points out, worth looking out for similar projects in your locality. All of the borough councils, all of the organisations, all of the professionals, are waking up to the idea that training in autism awareness is required - and we can help deliver that training! It might be as little as an occasional session to talk about some particular aspect or experience.

Actually, if we have some ideas of what training is needed, there is an opportunity here waiting for us to create it for ourselves: say we get together in 2s and 3s, plan how we would aim to get our message across, and pitch some ideas of our own to whatever training subgroup we can find locally . . . they might actually be pleased to hear from us if we present it in the right way.
(Just a thought).

I was really pleased to see this thread created! We have a similar set-up in Milton Keynes - I am attending training to equip me for this role and we finish our training sessions in January.

People have referred to the fact that no-one gets paid a lot to do this job: it's a casual job full stop. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to give more money on to the people who are actually doing the Training?