The town of Clonakilty in Co. Cork has undertaken a commitment to become fully Autism Friendly – a first for anywhere in Ireland. Over the last four months the AsIAm team have been working with the entire community to achieve official Autism Friendly Accreditation, kindly supported by SuperValu.
To do this the town as a whole must deliver:
- Engagement and training 25% of businesses and voluntary organisations
- Engagement and training of 50% of public services
- Engagement and training of 50% of school communities
- Engagement and training of 50% of healthcare professionals
- Engagement of 3 employers
- Reaching 25% of the town’s population
To this end, last week the team traveled to Clonakilty and facilitated training sessions for many different groups in the community – including business owners, medical staff and ambulance crew, teachers, retail and service employees, hospitality staff, local school pupils, and so on! We also brought our Autism Experience Exhibition to Clonakilty Parish Hall so people could experience a little part of life as an autistic person.
The town is very close to reaching these targets. This training week represented the last piece of the journey in reaching and educating as many of the community as possible. Throughout this process, the people of Clonakilty have been enthusiastic, friendly, and dedicated to the “Clonakilty Commitment”.
We’re putting the final touches in place for Clonakilty’s Autism Accreditation day on 9th October. In the meantime, here’s what we got up to last week…
@AsIAmIreland Many Thanks for a very informative talk on Autism. Clonakilty Ambulance crew.Enjoy Clonakilty. @WestCorkRR @corkcountyfire @AmbulanceNAS pic.twitter.com/bIurwwnnOq
— ? (@DeZmed) September 25, 2018
Great exhibition today – excited about positive changes we can make …. thanks for coming to Clon !! @AsIAmIreland https://t.co/AZGVVet58u
— CoderDojoClon (@CoderDojoClon) September 27, 2018
An engaging & informative evening at #ClonakiltyLibrary @AdamPHarris of @AsIAmIreland, with a host of other inspiring speakers, discussing #AutismAwareness & #Clonakilty‘s bid to become Ireland’s first ever fully-accredited Autism Friendly Town. @HealthyIreland @SuperValuIRL pic.twitter.com/rmC7AdkSIT
— Cork County Library (@corkcolibrary) September 28, 2018