The Future Leaders program, and in particular the residential
workshop, is more than the sum of its parts. It's really difficult to describe
what it is, how it works and the potential it contains without physically being
a part of it.
The workshop brought together 14 autistic adults aged 25-40 and 8
project team members (5 of whom are established autistic leaders) from around
Australia to a hotel in Brisbane for three and a half days of training, sharing
and learning from each other’s experiences. We also had a few other Autism CRC
staff members and guests come along for parts of the workshop to experience and
share some of their time with us and lend us their knowledge and skills.
The training, mentoring and practical activities are what we are
able to write on the timetable. These have been co-developed and delivered with
autistic adults who are passionate about and committed to imparting knowledge
and tools to a new generation of their peers. Individuals who know what it
takes to work hard to find themselves and pursue goals which benefit themselves
and others. These individuals share a desire and willingness to invest in the
hope that those who come after them to be able to find their tribe earlier in
life and be equipped and empowered to navigate the world with hope,
self-belief, purpose, insight, community-mindedness and the knowledge that they
are not alone.
The components of the program have been developed with care,
wisdom and purpose. When placed into an experience that brings a community
together, they are important tools that allow us to create an environment that
fosters growth, change and an honest appreciation of the human potential that
we all share.
We sometimes refer to this environment as autistic space, but it's
a human-centred space at its core. You don't have to be autistic to feel
welcome and connected. The program bring people together to find both an
individual and shared purpose in a space that's governed by identity, belonging
and hope. Everyone who comes into that environment seems to leave it changed.
This was the experience that I hoped that people would be able to
be part of. It has been a privilege to be a part of it, and to see the program,
and most importantly its participants come to life and unfurl (or in some cases
explode) in a stream of passion, vibrancy and light.
For me, the understanding of what a program like this can do is
personal. Before Future Leaders 2018 there was another program called Future
Leaders which ran in conjunction to the 2013 Asia Pacific Autism conference.
That program wasn’t the same as this one. It didn't have as much training or
resourcing, but it was orchestrated by passionate people and had the same heart
and spirit as this program.
I know it had the same spirit because I was one of the young people
chosen to be part of that program. I was 25, quite new to having a diagnosis
and hadn't had much exposure to the autistic community. In the five years
since, I have seen the growth and change not only in myself but in many of the
other 22 young people who were part of that experience. I count some of the
mentors and champions of that first program as my friends. I have worked with
some of them, and continue to do so, in seeing this current program become a
reality and the people who are part of it rise up as a new wave of diverse and
community-minded leaders.
That shared passion and spirit has prevailed and remained strong
within a small and committed group along this five year journey. Now that it
has been given a new chance to shine and be shared, we can only hope that it
will continue to grow and multiply.
This program isn't Future Leaders because its participants might
be leaders at some point on the future. They all demonstrate leadership in
different ways and forms today. I believe that the result of us watering those
diverse and innumerable seeds of potential that people already have inside
themselves will be a community which is better for everyone. They're Future
Leaders because they are part of a movement of neurodiverse people who will
make our future society a brighter place which celebrates difference and is
inclusive of all.
Tori Haar
Project Coordinator - Future Leaders 2018
No comments:
Post a Comment