Website update: First look

For those of you who have been waiting quite some time for American Military Families Autism Support to finally launch a website, your wait it almost over. Unfortunately over the last three years our ability to get the site up and running has been delayed by deployments, exercises, TDYs, moves, changes in several Web platforms, and now even an impending new addition to the family. To let you know this isn’t a matter of continually kicking the proverbial can down the road, here is the first look at what we’ve been working on, though it probably will look a little different as we continually fine-tune and make changes to it. Under the hood is where we’ll offer something very nontraditional: a site representing all views and all information related to care and helping your child reach their potential. One factor in this will be our community, providing essential experience-based information on what works or doesn’t as a military family dealing with autism.

One thing that is unique about this project is that, unlike your standard organizational website, this site will be consistently changed, upgraded and improved to meet your needs. Your feedback and submissions are key to supporting our families and are the basis for the direction we take. Basically, we’ve torn it down so many times because we didn’t feel it met your standards for support.

While there is much the site will offer, be aware that since this is built by military families and not some large fundraising machine that hires a web company, we are starting the site in, what we call in deployment-speak, a bare base environment. This means that we hit the ground running when the site launches and build upon what’s there. Some of the areas will come online in stages to ensure they are ready. You will see what we mean. Through the work and efforts of all our team members, we reach up to what is called initial operating capability, and then certify as fully operationally capable. Some may laugh at this idea, but the project has always been conceptualized to be owned, lived in, and supported by the community, not one or a few people seeking notoriety.

Keep up the fight and we’ll have this ready for you in the very near future.

Coded for AMFAS

AMFAS has unveiled a few technology-driven options for getting out the word on our community. Featured on our flyers for attendees at the AutismOne conference in Chicago are what are known as QR (short for Quick Response) codes (they can be read quickly by a cell phone). If you have an iPhone or Android phone, a simple app will allow your phone to collect, read and give you the information embedded in these pictures. This is just another way that our community is using the newest technology to improve support for our military families.

A new way to remember the name

American Military Families Autism Support can be pretty long-winded when trying to tell people how to find us online, so we’ve made it a little easier for some people to remember us. Since we’re with the military and dealing with autism, the phrase military autism is simple. As we launch the new website in the next few days, you can go to militaryautism.org 

Happy Mother Warrior’s Day

It goes without saying that Mother’s Day is a chance to recognize the importance of moms in our society. Let’s face it, without mom, you wouldn’t be here.

In military society, whether serving on active duty, Guardsman or Reservist, or as the critical role of Commander in Chief della casa,  mothers often play a crucial role in keeping the family as a cohesive unit.

Through deployments, exercises, TDYs, operational necessity, the mother is often there, doing the unheralded work. Making it happen.

And then your child receives a diagnosis; autism. Suddenly your life is turned inside out. No backing down and no giving up.

While all parents are searching for answers, moms dealing with life and the added challenges of having a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder deserve recognition for the tough fight to recover their children and setting them up for success in this tough world.

This is no slight to us dads (we get our day in June) who are fighting the good fight as well. It’s important to note that on our Facebook page 77 percent of the over 1250 community members are women. While all might not be mothers, a large proportion of the commenters on our daily questions are.

It’s these mother warriors asking the questions no one wants to answer to find a solution that doesn’t exist for children on the autism spectrum. These mother warriors are persistent and showing the true love they have for their children by never, never, never giving up.

Thank you moms for keeping up the fight  in our war on autism.