May 5, 2012

As I thought further about the subject, I decided I wanted to know more about conventions and services in the Greater Cincinnati Area. Therefore, I would be able to pass on the information I have researched to future families I may encounter. I found one local organizing that was started here in Anderson Township, where I currently live. The organizing was founded by a single family, whose son at the age of four, was diagnosed with ASD. The organization was named Families with ASD, and was founded in 2005; seven families attended the meeting. That same year but, nine months later, the membership had grown to over fifty families. Since then, Families with ASD, has hosted their first Autism Expo. "Over 2,200 people attended their first Autism Expo which was held at the Anderson Hills United Methodist Church on Beechmont Ave, in Cincinnati, OH." Families with ASD has since grown to over 16,000 members and they have opened the "first in the Greater Cincinnati/ Northern Kentucky area, Autism Family Reseurce Center which serves as a point of entry to families new and old to the Autism Diagnoses." The center is located in Milford and currently serves over five hundred families. I found this website and organization to be very useful and intriguing for families who may be facing the same situation as the Smith family. They provided information and serves to help families, just as they needed when their son was experiencing medical problems. The organization provides families who are facing the same thing, a chance to meet and talk about the diagnoses. They try to better understand ASD and work together to help their children be successful, not only in school but life after school.


http://www.familieswithasd.org/