Help from my Congresswoman

I went to Congresswoman Maria Salazar’s office to get assistance with the org, and I stumbled a lot over thoughts and speech because I was nervous as all get out. My anxiety was through the roof but I managed to not shut down entirely, and I not only was able to speak, but when speaking about the facts and needs for autistics, I even somehow sounded like I actually knew what I was talking about, ha!

All kidding aside, typically in a situation like that, I become non-verbal. I once was told that I may not be saying anything, but I’m still thinking something, spit some of that out..but really, that is not how we function. When we go blank, we really do go entirely blank, there’s nothing going on up in my noggin. Except stuttering and thinking to myself “say something, uh, um, dang, I can’t think..” over and over.

I was so pleasantly surprised at how wonderfully the conversation went with one of her staff. The staff member is going to try to help us out, in fact, she already has. Today she sent me all manner of links to learn about grant writing. She is even going to take a shot at trying to get Congresswoman Salazar to get it on the floor, in Congress, because I spoke on issues none of the big orgs are even addressing. She said it was eye opening and she is blown away by the statistics and issues we face. Being spoken about in Congress would open doors for us I never imagined we’d have access to, it would be amazing if that happened.

One of our goals is to gain a contract with the Government, in order to train staff in Government businesses about hiring autistics, and the value we could add to their staff. People don’t often think much about it, but there are quite a number of positions in these businesses that are ideal for autistics, from janitors and other cleaning staff, to food workers and security guards, even secretaries and assistants. A lot of this sort of background staff is a great starting point for us to begin helping working-age autistics find long term employment.

This is only the beginning though, nothing is guaranteed, I know that fully. I just pray I don’t muck things up too bad along the way, as I stumble through this.

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