April: Non-Profit Spotlight

The Autism Community in Action

The Autism in Community Action (TACA) is a non-profit organization founded by Lisa, a mother of a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder. After Lisa’s son, Jeff, was diagnosed with ASD in 1999, she was concerned for his future. In order to gather information about support, treatment, strategies, and research, Lisa decided to reach out to families who also have an individual diagnosed with ASD and who might be experiencing a similar scenario. Through her conversations with these families, she learned that there was not adequate research focused on families impacted by ASD.

Lisa and her husband decided to take action themselves. As parents of a child with ASD, they felt responsible for bettering their son’s quality of life and wanted to help other families in the process. Their goal was to create a community where families could come together to get support, share information, and inspire one another. They began reaching out to these families in their community to find out if they had similar concerns and needs, and, lo and behold, there were many. They started as a small parent support group that eventually turned into The Autism in Community Action (TACA) who has helped over 55,000 families in all 50 states.

After talking on the phone with Carolyn, the Development Director, I realized how amazing this non-profit was. As I was tearing up on the phone, I knew it was where our heart needed to be for the month of April. Carolyn spoke of the education, support, and resources TACA provides for families who feel helpless and unprepared after receiving an Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis. TACA is there to assist families by offering webinars, parent mentoring, and scholarships. Covid-19 has affected TACA tremendously by making it necessary to cancel major in person events, not being able to be hands on with the families, and more.

As Carolyn was talking, she mentioned the word “action”. Acceptance is receiving what is offered but by taking action toward the acceptance, more can be achieved.

ACTION stands for: Authentic, Caring, Tough, Informed, Optimistic, and Never.

On Monday, April 5th we will be launching a red “include. action” shirt to represent our relationship with TACA. 20% of all of the proceeds will be given to TACA to help them continue supporting families impacted by ASD.