This small group of parents committed to meeting regularly within their local community to support each offer but importantly, to provide opportunities for their autistic children to meet new friends and be involved in their local community- something that they couldn’t do as easily as mainstream children. This was, and still is, largely due to a lack of understanding and acceptance of autism from others, and local youth groups, clubs and wider sports providers not providing suitable and accommodating environments for the needs of autistic children.

More and more families became involved in HOPE’s early parent support group, which then led to the successful attainment of regular recreational and sport’s activities, including a parent-led play group, swimming and trampolining exclusive to HOPE families. Parents led and drove all these early new support beginnings.

Twenty years on, HOPE for Autism is a vibrant organisation with its own staffing structure, premises, outreach facilities and a wide range of professional expertise. Although groups are now not parent-led, parents and the wider family are still at the forefront of all that we do, with several parents on our Board of Directors and parent group volunteers. One of the original parents who helped to set up HOPE as a charity is our current Chairperson, who later received an MBE from Her Majesty the Queen for her contributions to charity work, Education and Speech and Language.

Pre-covid we delivered over 17 youth groups (pre-school children to young adults) over a fortnight as well as a Sport’s Programme to over 250 families living in North Lanarkshire.