It would be AWESOME if you could join in the Arty-Farty fun, share the joy of celebrating kids with Autism AND create something beautiful for yourself… all for FREE!!!!!
We are releasing one art video per day and would love it if you would consider sharing the video, liking and subscribing. This way, we can continue to spread the MASSIVELY important message that ASD kids and their carers are AWESOME and deserve to be celebrated 🙂
There is also a link to all of our socials here… just click on the rainbow beneath, we would love to see your artwork! Will post our creations below at the end of the week 🙂
This week has been fascinating and exhausting, all at the same time. I was privileged to be able to attend the National Autistic Society Professionals Conference 2023. Although it is a conference that is open to absolutely anyone with a personal link to autism, this was by far the most grown-up and intellectual conference or course that I have ever attended. I’m not exaggerating when I say to you that I filled an entire notepad FULL of useful information when it comes to both caring for and educating the autistic community.
Just a few of the incredible people that shared their insights were, Barrington Campbell (Kagai Games), Carla Mannini-Rowden (Head of Casework Services), Dr Wenn Lawson (Professional Psychologist), Dr Anna Cook (Senior Research Fellow for the Institute of Education), Holly Smale (Best-selling author of ‘Geek Girl’) and Warda Farah (Social Entrepreneur and Speech and Language Therapist).
From 9am until 5pm, I was privileged to listen to all of the leading experts discussing their personal difficulties, occasional struggles but also ENORMOUS successes. The entire day for me was not only educational, but also so inspirational. Everyone involved in the conference is living proof that having autism, either professionally diagnosed or self-diagnosed (like Warda) does not have to stop you from becoming an immensely successful adult. Everyone that spoke was proud of their autism and advocate for this incredible brain difference.
I now have access to lots of really useful material and will share as much of it as I can with you all in the hope that you find it as helpful as I have.
Awesome Archie (non-profit) Promo Pics
Archie and I are so lucky to be fully booked for the forseeable. When I went full-time on our non-profit (around a year ago) I never dreamed that it would take off as it has. This has been down to the relentless support from friends, family and the media and we are eternally grateful. Archie and I intend to continue using our tiny platform to keep encouraging people to embrace their neurological differences, to be proud of who they are and to be kind in every situation. This surge in business has meant that Archie and I were in need of some photographic material to share with the companies, charities and media that are using us. Being a non-profit, every single pound goes towards a child with a neurological difference and so we have no way of paying for photographers or editors. Without naming names (as requested) all of our beautiful promo pics and other promotional material has come free of cost to us. This has been unbelievable and yet again, we are astounded but enormously grateful for people’s kindness in offering their time, to us, for free.
Willy Gilly Donation
And finally, this week I was able to deliver a huge donation to William Gilpin school in Boldre. As you may be aware, this was the first school that invited me to support 1:1 in the classroom when I first started our non-profit. To be confident enough to trust a start-up, knowing that it was for the greater good, was an incredibly brave move.
Mr Simon Croutear (Head Teacher) and I have been friends for years and it is a total privilege to be a small part of the phenomenal team that he leads with passion and fairness. Awesome Archie managed to donate three brand-new Chromebooks, a huge box of second-hand (but pristinely conditioned) children’s books for the library and a couple of individualised SEN support pieces. Thank you to the entire team at WG for welcoming me to your lovely school and keeping my faith in main-stream education.
Archie, myself and Mr Simon Croutear will be live on BBC Radio Solent this coming Wednesday morning (8th March 2023 – subject to any last minute changes). We will be discussing the challenges of main-stream school SEN funding, the lack of financial provision across all education and the power of positive thinking when it comes to special educational needs. It would be great if you could join us!
This week has been one of real excitement. It saw the start of our official collaboration with the incredible Autism Unlimited. A few weeks back, I was invited to a vision meeting hosted by the marketing manager of Autism unlimited Emily Griffiths. Emily is a hugely talented creator who has a real passion for spreading both awareness and acceptance of Autism. She has devised yet another brilliant campaign for 2023 to help people who aren’t necessarily in the autism community to understand some of the challenges that parents like me and children like Archie face on a daily basis.
We were so fortunate to be asked to help create a scenario that will be turned into a beautiful little animation. Obviously I can’t share the details of the storyboard or even give you a glimpse of the beautiful animation itself however, I can say that both Archie and I are immensely proud to have our names attached to something so wonderful.
On Friday afternoon, we were invited to Portfield School, the charity hub of Autism Unlimited, where we recorded our voiceovers for the animation. It was such a wonderful experience for Archie and I was incredibly proud of how he managed to sit in what was essentially a small board-meeting, but also to use his own voice and own opinions on camera for the sake of this important cause.
I would like to say a massive thank you to Emily, Tilly (Archie’s new westy besty!) and everybody involved. The lovely lady that sorted out the camera work and microphone was just so professional and patient and the whole experience was immensely positive. We will keep you posted as to the release of the animation.
This week for me, has been a wobbly one. Unfortunately I succumbed to a rather nasty chest infection (I have Asthma). Our fun half term holiday plans had to be postponed and I have spent most of the week moaning. BUT… don’t feel too sorry for me 🙂 We at Awesome Archie managed to have a productive couple of days, even though the few “lives” I did manage were presented in my PJ’s… sorry about that! 😉
Firstly I need to say a WHOPPING thankyou to The Dorset Children’s Foundation who donated to us at Awesome Archie non profit £1500!!!!! UNBELIVABLE!!!!!!!!!
Patsy and the team have supported Archie and I for a couple for years now. Their expertise and generosity is simply unparalleled. They work so incredibly hard to support families like ours and still find the time and money to support little non profits like us.
Needless to say, even in my pit of germ ridden misery, I went online shopping 🙂 I will share the details in a separate dedicated post as it it super exciting, but I just needed to say how grateful and blessed we feel.
THANKYOU DCF!!!!! We genuinely thank our lucky stars to be affiliated with you and will NEVER take that for granted. 😊
This leads us to one of the reasons we do what we do. The DCF Treehouse is one of the charity’s three shops and is child centred. By buying from, and donating to, The DCF Treehouse, you are helping fund a range of fun, inclusive activities such as football, dance, drama, skating and soft play for our local disabled children. They (and we) believe that every child deserves the right to play and your donation enables our families to get together in a safe and caring environment, where our children can just be children, without judgement or disapproval.
With this in mind, enter my generous mummy mates! You have been donating all of your children’s out grown clothes and no longer played with toys and today we took them to the DCF ❤💛💚💙🧡 They were utterly DELIGHTED . Daisy even managed to buy herself a couple of little tops from the rails too.
We are planning to collect and then donate kids items EVERY term so please, if you want to re-gift or donate anything kid related, please give me a buzz 🙋♀️ It really does change the lives of local families and we are so, so grateful for your continued support.
Well hello Awesome Archie fans, we’ve got a lot to get through, so let’s rock!
This week has been absolutely incredible. A couple of months ago, I contacted the children’s mental health charity – Place2Be – and asked them if they would like us to support them in their latest campaign. I was so thrilled when a lovely lady name Chloe contacted me and said that she would not only love our support but she would help us by providing props/etc., Fast forward to this week and we’ve not only managed to raise a little bit of money for this incredible charity but we have also managed to spread a HUGE amount of awareness and have had many conversations about children’s mental health.
We at Awesome Archie non-profit wanted to try and put our money where our mouth is and show people that sometimes, stepping out of your comfort zone can not only be exciting, but beneficial to your self confidence. We did this by Archie dressing me for the entire week and me going about my day-to-day business in whatever he told me to wear. I don’t mind telling you that having to arrange EHCP meetings dressed as Super Mario or delivering a spelling test as a leopard was definitely a new one on me! I will say that it has really helped me and I have had a super positive week.
Special thanks must go to William Gilpin school for allowing me to disrupt their school week in support of children’s mental health, to every child that donated a bit of their pocket money and to my own children who had the embarrassing task of videoing and photographing the silliness as evidence of the work we were doing.
Please feel free to donate to our JustGiving page. The work that Place2Be do is phenomenal and we would love to be able to give them as much money as possible.
Another fantastic week for the Awesome Archie team 🎉 My week began with a super exciting email. As you may remember from last weeks post, Archie and I are now delighted to be collaborating with Autism Unlimited. This is something that we are really chuffed about. I was contacted by Jenny Chapman (Autism Unlimited training coordinator) who asked me if I would be interested in completing the Tier one Signalong training . I have already completed and LOVED the beginners training and once my tier one has been completed I will have a licence to be able to educate the kids I support in schools. SO EXCITING!
We are currently creating a brand new assembly to incorporate this theme and we will deliver this in schools across Dorset and Hampshire as of March 2023 🙂
Thanks Jenny for this incredible opportunity, I cannot wait to get started 🙂
Donated in-school support.
This week we have donated to two different schools. One received a “Post Office” role play kit and the other, a Chemistry set… child appropriate of course 😉
These two kits were donated by YOU. You improved the effectiveness of two schools, that are desperately trying to provide a well rounded but individualised education to children with special educational needs. Thankyou!
We (as always) are gratefully still collecting out grown children’s clothes and shoes. Each term we proudly take donated items to the Dorset Children’s Foundations Treehouse . Each item supports families of children with disabilities and kids in the local community. It is such a joy to see what your donations do to help. THANKYOU. Sarah Miller, Hannah and Toby, Thankyou for your AWESOME donation this week xxx
Staff that go above and beyond.
At Awesome Archie non profit we sadly hear stories daily from parent/carers that are left hurt or disappointed by a school, LEA or service. This obviously breaks my heart but I get it. It wasn’t so long ago that we were in our own horrendous and genuinely scarring fight for our own son. However, this does mean that when I hear or experience those that are going above their job description to help a kid in need I LOVE IT and I cannot help but name and shame!
Two awesome educators have made me weep with joy this week and I cannot wait to thank them publicly. First, Mrs Linda Poulter, the ELSA at the Priory School in Christchurch. This week I spoke to Mrs P about a situation that I needed her support with. The matter is personal and, of course, private so I will not disclose the ins and outs but Linda spent an entire afternoon caring for a child who is suffering with some emotional turmoil and I am forever grateful. Being an ELSA is an incredibly tough job. Not only is Linda a fulltime teaching assistant, which let me tell you is a job in itself, she lovingly takes on the role of emotionally supporting those under her care. Linda Poulter, you are truly awesome.
Finally, this awesome creature…
This is William Gilpin’s Beech class teacher, Miss Dalton. I have been lucky enough to work or volunteer in schools for well over a decade now and am blessed to get to meet many teachers. I have been volunteering in Miss Dalton’s class since September of 2022. In our class we have a fairly high number of children with special educational needs and it is my privilege to go in and help those children catch up with any work that they may have missed or go over what they may not have understood. We all know that every child learns differently and some take a little while longer to process what has been taught. I can honestly say that I have rarely seen such an incredible teacher. Miss Dalton is endlessly patient, continually encouraging and teaches every single child in her classroom to their own ability and understanding, she meets them where they are! The children absolutely adore her and I am so incredibly grateful for the work she puts in every single day.
Thank you Miss Dalton for allowing me to be a small part of Beech class and keep up the unbelievably awesome work!
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Happy new year to you all. I really hope that you have all had a peaceful Christmas period and feel even just a little bit fresher for having a rest 🙂
Lots to get through his week, so lets go!
This new year, we have started as we mean to go on. With a renewed enthusiasm to support the kids, families and schools who love and/or support those with neurological differences. Having Archie (all those years ago) made us realise just how overwhelming the task of raising a child (especially with differences) can be, how long the road is and how every inch of progress seems to come after a marathon of fight. We promise you now, that we will do all we can to support you on this journey and we are privileged to do so.
New Collaboration.
Awesome Archie has been affiliated with the DCF for around 18 months now. It is something for which Archie and I are most proud. The Dorset Children’s Foundation support so many families with disabled children and being linked so closely to them has certainly taught us a great deal. Thankyou Patsy and the team for everything you do to support us!
We are also delighted to announce that we now have another incredible charity to collaborate with. The brilliant Autism Unlimited!
On Wednesday I was privileged to be invited to a “vision” meeting with Emily Griffiths (the marketing manager for Autism Unlimited), Mark Arnold (additional needs ministry director of Urban Saints) and Debra Goatly-Birch (artist and community project coordinator). We met to discuss the 2023 Autism Unlimited campaign and what we felt would be helpful within the ASD community to give the rest of the world a greater sense of what neurodiversity really is!
To say that I felt humbled and EXTREMELY lucky to be in a meeting with such an inspiring group of people would be an understatement! It was just so wonderful to talk about the strengths, the challenges and what we can all do to get the message of ASD understanding out to the neurotypical world.
We are currently working together to get this amazing new campaign ready for launch in March 2023. Exciting times ahead! THANKYOU AUTISM UNLIMITED!
Whopping Donation time!
THANKYOU ALL SOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!
Today the Awesome Archie team headed down to the DCF’s Treehouse with a literal “van full” of goodies that you have all donated over this week. Yep, you heard right, JUST THIS WEEK?! THATS HOW AWESOME YOU ALL ARE!!!!!
We greatly appreciate everyone’s support but I feel I must make a couple of individual thanks also.
Becci Price – Proud ASD advocate who drove down from Basingstoke to donate a boot FULL of games and toys, most of which were brand new. To her son James, for being so kind and aware of the need for this. YOU ARE AWESOME!
Katheryn Avery – Proud ASD parent carer who spent her week gathering children’s clothes for us to collect. YOU ARE AWESOME!
The Winters family – Proud ASD parents (adult son) who sold cakes and gave us the proceeds that bought more sensory lamps and toys for the kids Awesome Archie supports. YOU ARE AWESOME!!!
In short, if the rest of the year is as great as this one week… YOWSERS!!!!!
As we head into 2023, we at the Awesome Archie team want to say an enormous THANK YOU to everyone who has made our first “full time” non-profit year so incredible. Patsy and the team at the Dorset Children’s Foundation, the amazing staff at Autism Unlimited, the Winters family, all of our schools and all of our generous donators… WE THANK YOU.
A special thanks must go to Mr Harry Redknapp, our trustees (Elaine, David and Karen), Mr Simon Croutear and my husband… without whose support, this year would not have been as remarkable as it has been.
Thank you to each and every one of our website visitors, subscribers, likers and notification bell-ers on our YouTube channel and also to our ever growing social media family.
This Christmas I made a promise to stay “online” over the entire period and I was privileged to be in contact with our awesome families throughout the festive season. As a parent/carer, you can still feel incredibly lonely, even in a room full of people. This year my heart felt full and I felt truly privileged to be a small part of your autism journeys.
For this new year, I am continuing last year’s resolution. I want to keep growing our non-profit from strength to strength. I want to spread not only autism awareness, but autism ACCEPTANCE and I will NEVER stop fighting for correct, respectful and fully deserved inclusivity within main-stream… no matter how hard it might sometimes get.
I am however going to also be focusing on my mindset. Being an adult with undiagnosed but definite ADHD, I have spent some of this previous year doubting myself and hating the parts of me that I cannot change. I am so pleased that I am working on my self-belief and will be following the Japanese thoughts of kintsukuroi. Kintsukuroi means “to repair with gold” and is the art of repairing broken pottery with a precious metal and understanding that the piece is far more beautiful now for having been broken.
I hope that by sharing this post, anyone reading who may feel or has felt broken this year, may take solace in the fact that it is those moments of brokenness that push us forwards onto brighter and more beautiful times.
We would like to wish you all a very happy and healthy 2023!
I have always been a massive fan of Christmas. When I was a kid, I remember genuinely not sleeping for nights before the big day. Even now in my forties, I still get overexcited at the sight of a decorated tree and the high street all lit up.
It was only once we had Archie that we realised what a HUGE disruption and difficult period Christmas can be for some families. I know, I am sounding like an old scrooge, but it’s true.
I remember the early days, both pre and post diagnosis, the exhaustion of trying to do the simple things like the weekly shop. The supermarkets were crowded, the decorations were everywhere and the Christmas music was blaring. These were the days before ASD friendly hours of course! I will never forget the COUNTLESS rude comments about my child, all the time delivered by people assuming he was just naughty or that I wasn’t a decent parent. It’s scarring!
It has taken me over a decade to convince myself that I am doing my best. To us, Archie is perfect just the way he is and other peoples, often uneducated views about him or I, don’t really matter.
I am sharing this as I have received a handful of DMs this week. So many of you have shared about experiencing “Mum guilt”- having to spend Christmas with family members that just don’t understand or accept financial strains and health concerns. For these amazing people, Christmas this year is going to feel tough, and for that, I want to tell you that WE ARE HERE!
Take each day of this holiday one at a time. Your “awesome” child and your loved ones are all that matter. Try to surround yourself with people that truly understand that struggle, hopefully making you better equipped to grit your teeth with those who don’t.
Lastly, always champion your child. I am now proud to say that Arch and I always leave early from family events with NO complaints from my AMAZING family. All it took was a little bravery to open up a conversation about why Archie would rather be at home. That it wasn’t anything personal and that I, as his very proud Mum, feel that his needs have to be met for him to have a nice Christmas too.
With this in mind, we decided to host a YouTube live stream of a mini carol concert on our driveway. We wanted to provide some well deserved Christmas cheer for those families who may be having more of a bumpy Christmas journey.
Thank you to all who watched or joined us in person and a MASSIVE thank you to the Boscombe Salvation Army band. We were really touched that you agreed to support us, especially when I know you are so busy at this time of year.
