Autism West Cork 2012 Calendar
We have planned events and fundraising activities for the next six months so take a look and pencil into your own diary anything that interests you.
January
· Coffee Morning – 2nd Friday of the month (13th January) at The Courtyard, Clonakilty at 10.30am -come and meet other parents for a chat and a coffee, new parents are always welcome!!
February
· Fundraising Table Quiz: The Phoenix Bar, Clonakilty at 8pm- Grab some friends and enjoy a night out !!
· Cinema Trip: Bantry Cinema on Saturday 11th February at 10.30 am (movies to be advised) A family event. 3 screens to choose from, the lights are turned up and the sound is turned down…..just for our kids.
· Coffee morning-2nd Friday of the month (10th February) at The Parkway, Dunmanway, 10.30am- relax over a coffee and make some new friends, who understand caring for a with a child with asd.
March
· Coffee morning : 2nd Friday of the month (9th March )at The West Cork Hotel, Skibbereen, 10.30am- monthly coffee morning, we’d love to see you there !!
· Fun family Day Out at The Quality Hotel Clonakilty on the 11th March at 1pm – Let the kids run off energy in the jungle gym, enjoy the pool and for the older children (over 10’s the arcade is open )
· Homeopathy Talk (dates to be advised) – How homeopathy can help children with autism.
April 2nd is World Autism Awareness Dy and in fact the month of April is Autism Awareness Month so we have jam packed month !!
April
· Fundraising Table Quiz at The Parkway Hotel, Dunmanway at 8pm: Have some fun and a great night out !!!
· Easter Egg Hunt 11th April starts at noon at Manch near Ballineen – Come and join us in a family adventure hunting for eggs, bring a picnic and join in the fun!!
· Flag days: We are always desperate for volunteers for our flag days, so any help at all no matter how small will be greatly appreciated in any of our towns
- Dunmanway: 7th April
- Clonakilty: 13th April
- Skibbereen: 20th April
- Bantry: 28th April
Cinema Trip : Clonakilty Cinema-Our cinema trips are created for children with asd, the cinema is booked out for AWC, the lights are turned up and the sound is turned down!
May
· Coffee Morning: The Celtic Ross, Roscarberry at 10.30am –meet up with friends and enjoy a coffee.
· Laser Tag: 7th May at -lots of fun for all the family
· Social Welfare Talk information from Carmel Thoome (date and time to be advised)- know your rights!! What help you are entitled to and how to get it !!!
June
· Fundraising Table Quiz-The Maritime Hotel, Bantry at 8pm- Enjoy a night out with us and raise money for AWC
· Coffee Morning – The Maritime, Bantry 10.30am – Last coffee morning before the summer hols !!
WAAD 2012.
World Autism Awareness Day April 2 2012.
The annual World Autism Awareness Day is April 2, 2012. Every year, Autism organizations around the world celebrate the day with unique fundraising and awareness-raising events.
Throughout April, Autism West Cork will be holding fundraising events throughout West Cork to help raise valuable funds for the children of area. We would greatly appreciate your support if you see our collectors out on the streets!
If anyone would like to volunteer an hour or two of their time to help out,or if your school, club or community group would like to help to raise awareness of Autism, please contact us on 083 009 4285.
All fundraising ideas greatly welcome.
Autism West Cork welcome Kevin Whelan
Autism West Cork welcome Kevin Whelan – CEO of Irish Autism Action.
Irish Autism Action is a young dynamic, innovative and passionate organisation formed in 2001 which is bringing positive change into the lives of those affected by autism. The range of services which Irish Autism Action provides includes awareness raising, early detection diagnosis, education support, advocacy, counselling, helpline, home based support, transition planning, social housing, research information and advice for families upon receiving diagnosis.
This talk will appeal to parents, grandparents, carers, Teachers & SNA’s. Everyone welcome.
Thursday Nov 17th @ 8pm Quality Hotel Clonakilty
Raising Awareness
In order to raise awareness of Autism Spectrum Disorder throughout West Cork we have decided to host an information evening. We have identified 6 schools in one catchment area. These include – Kilmeen, Reenascreena, Rosscarbery, Rathbarry, Ardfield and Lisavaird.
We have written and called to the schools to let them know what our plans are and have asked them to sent the details out to all parents inviting them to an information evening on
Tuesday November 8th in Ahamilla (Clonakilty GAA complex) at 8pm.
Pablo Alvarez – Psychologist with the CoAction ASD team will give the talk that he has developed for schools and we will have parents there to talk about their experiences with raising a child on the spectrum.
If this is a success and we hope it will be, we will take a look at other areas and try to get as many schools together as possible for another information evening. We hope to do this across West Cork and to cover all primary schools as soon as we can before we embark on secondary schools.
Details of the event will be posted on this website so watch this space!!
Autism and Nutrition
Autism and Nutrition
a talk by Dr Noreen Cronin
at 8pm on Thursday 20th October
in the Quality Hotel, Clonakilty
Tea and coffee after the talk.
this meeting is open to everyone with an interest in autism and / or nutrition so please spread the word.
Contact us if you need more information.
Coffee, SNAs and Homework
On Wednesday Sept 7th a small group of parents meet for coffee and a chat in the Children’s Services Centre in Dunmanway.
The concerns that we were raised included the cuts to SNA’s hours. Many parents did not receive any notification that these cuts had occurred until their children were back at school.
In fact, one school did not actually notify the family at all, it was the child themselves who happen to mention that their SNA wasn‘t there as much as they were last year.
There is a planned protest in Dublin next week but that is really something that we – being from West Cork and so far away- are probably not going to be able to attend.
So what do we do – how do we make ourselves heard?. We really need to stand up and be counted for or are we just going to take this lying down?
There were also conversations about the dreaded homework. How difficult it is to get our children to settle down to homework.
Everyone who attended the meeting and who was able to attend the summer events had great feedback to give on them.
On the strength of the horse riding a few kids have actually signed up for lessons themselves which is absolutely fantastic.
We have heard that the children who made their first visit to the cinema through the AWC outing have returned on numerous occasions with their families and are delighted that they have found something that all the family can do together.
We would like to thank everyone who attended – its great that parents are getting to know one another and are comfortable sharing their experiences. We have also heard that from the summer events a few children have made friends and are occasionally visiting each other homes – this is fantastic news.
We look forward to seeing more family members at our next gathering .
[Ed. Following on from the meeting Tom has very kindly produced a template document to send to your TD. Please download the document and add your own details. Letter to TD about SNA and resource hour cuts]
Autism Jigsaw : Seminar Cork October 2011
Shine Ireland are hosting a 2 day seminar in October entitled Autism Jigsaw.
The seminar aims to
bring parents, teachers, carers, professionals, educators, service providers and autism organisations together under one roof for the Autism Jigsaw. The Shine Centre recognised the need to bring people living, working and studying in the area of autism together to gather new information, exchange ideas and enhance their knowledge and expertise of the ASD condition. We know that if we can put the pieces together we can create better outcomes for our children and persons living with autism.
Autism Jigsaw is being held on the 18th and 19th October in the Maryborough House Hotel in Cork. Tickets are just €20 per day (the seminar is kindly sponsored by Quinn Healthcare) and there’s a discount for groups of 5.
For more information and to book a place please see the Autism Jigsaw website