What is AutAngel?
We are an autistic run organisation seeking to grow autistic community.
What do you do?
We are growing autistic community. What that means in practice is that we run a mixture of in person and online groups (currently women’s, general and queer support groups, a craft group and an allotment) for autistic people in Reading. We also run “Exploring Being Autistic”, a 10 week programme for people who identify as autistic or are wondering if they might be autistic. This programme offers information about autism and the space to process the relevance of this and discuss it with peers. We also provide online events on various autism-related topics.
We try to keep our groups small, and we also have bi-annual meetings open to all autistic people in the area. Most of our groups are for people within reach of Reading but for people living further afield, we have an online Queer group and are planning to run online versions of “Exploring Being Autistic”. We run monthly online events on topics of interest to the autistic community. Our website has resources for autistic people including information about getting a diagnosis and accessing appropriate therapy.
How can people join your community?
People need initially to sign up via the website (or write to or phone us if they’re not online). If they live in the Reading area and/or want to join the Queer group, we will then contact them for an introductory chat. People who are interested in the online Exploring Being Autistic programme will be contacted if and when this is available to people nationally. We are a small organisation and currently only have the Queer group and online Exploring Being Autistic as possibilities for people outside of Reading to join our community.
If you are a professional who works with autistic people, and you would like to refer someone to us, please let us know so we can check whether we are a good fit.
Is there a charge to join?
We don’t charge a fee, as we want to be open to everyone regardless of their financial situation. However, we do request donations (our suggested donation is between £5 – £50 per month) to help to meet our costs to enable us to continue to operate despite irregular funding. We ask new members to contribute £5 after they’ve had an introductory chat and have decided they would like to join any of our groups.
Are there are opportunities for volunteering?
We don’t currently have official posts for volunteers, although there are sometimes opportunities for community members to volunteer for occasional tasks such as running stalls. We see providing meaningful paid work for autistic people as part of our mission, so we like to be able to pay people for their work. We have however benefitted hugely from the generosity of autistic people and non-autistic allies in running our events and managing our finances.
Do you offer training about autism?
We have a list of autistic trainers offering training about autism on our website and are sometimes able to offer training on request. Please get in touch with your requirements and we can give you a quote.
Are you a charity?
We are a Community Interest Company (CIC). A CIC is a limited company set up for the benefit of a community (in our case the autistic community).
Can you support all autistic people?
No. We are a community not a service. While we strive to be as inclusive as possible, our mission is to facilitate the building of autistic community: we are therefore suitable for adults who are able to actively participate in our learning programme and offer some reciprocal support to autistic peers.
Who is AutAngel not appropriate for?
While mental health difficulties are common among autistic adults, as well as in our community, we do not have the resources to safely support people with who are currently experiencing an episode of severe mental ill health.