Last week, we held a special event to mark Autism AIM’s 10th anniversary. We welcomed close to 100 people at the HEART Centre in Headingley for a day of nostalgia, engagement and looking forward, with memories to last a lifetime.

A combination of clients, commissioners, volunteers, current and former AIM and Advonet Group staff, partners and professionals walked through the doors. On the day, we had a mix of speeches, activities and opportunities for networking.

The Advonet Group’s Chief Executive Angela Ellis opened the event, setting the scene for our guests. Then, Development Director and Autism AIM founder Wendy Cork talked everyone through our journey over the past 10 years.

What does the future hold?

Our Senior Manager Owen Walker then spoke about the future for AIM, talking about recent work we have been doing across Leeds, Bradford and Craven. After a break for networking, we heard from two guest speakers.

Stacey Leonard from Bradford Council recalled how they have been working alongside Bradford and Craven Autism AIM to help improve local services for autistic adults. She was followed by Dr Conor Davidson from the Leeds Autism Diagnostic Service (LADS), who spoke about their work with Leeds Autism AIM. He also raised the importance of post-diagnostic support.

At the end, we gathered feedback from guests about what AIM meant to them, using the Mentimeter app. Words generated from the responses included support, advocacy, empowerment and hope. After Advonet Group Chair Peter Gruen gave a closing speech, we closed the door on what was a great day.

Activities and booklets

Throughout the celebration, we had separate rooms set aside for activities and networking. In the former, we had a mural that guests could colour in and make their own additions to, whilst the networking room contained examples of some of our resources past and present.

There was also a quiet room that was used by autistic guests, which included some fidget toys to use in case of stress, overwhelm or anxiety. Each guest also received a free printed copy of a commemorative booklet, packed with information about Autism AIM, details about our history and some fun puzzles and activities to boot.

The booklet is now available to download for free as a PDF. If you would like a copy, please click on the button below.

Thankyous

We would like to thank everyone who came to help make the event what it was. Having so many of our friends, supporters, clients and more in one place was incredible.

Thanks to Conor and Stacey for coming to speak at the event and sharing their stories. We would also like to thank all Advonet Group staff and volunteers who came and helped set up and tidy up the event.

We are extremely grateful to Simon Marcus from Addictive Media, whose photos helped to capture how well the event had gone. They include the photo used for this blog post! A full photo album will be published in due course.

Finally, thanks to the HEART Centre for hosting our event. They were very accommodating in letting us book multiple rooms and in adapting rooms for autistic guests.

Over the coming weeks, we will be publishing more content from the celebration. Watch this space!