Help Autism Center

09/28/2025

We Rock The Spectrum - Colorado Springs HW
📅✨ Save the Dates! ✨📅

We’ve got some can’t-miss celebrations coming up at the gym, and we’d love for your family to join us! 💙

🎃 Sensory-Friendly Indoor Trick-or-Treat
📆 Friday, October 24th | ⏰ 5–8 PM

🦃 Friendsgiving Celebration
📆 Friday, November 21st | ⏰ 5–8 PM

🎄 Rocking Around the Christmas Tree Party
📆 Friday, December 19th | ⏰ 5–8 PM

🎉 NOON-Years Eve Celebration
📆 Wednesday, December 31st | ⏰ Ring in the New Year at NOON with us!

Mark your calendars, invite your friends, and get ready for fun, laughter, and community. 💫
👉 More details coming soon—stay tuned!

📅✨ Save the Dates! ✨📅

We’ve got some can’t-miss celebrations coming up at the gym, and we’d love for your family to join us! 💙

🎃 Sensory-Friendly Indoor Trick-or-Treat
📆 Friday, October 24th | ⏰ 5–8 PM

🦃 Friendsgiving Celebration
📆 Friday, November 21st | ⏰ 5–8 PM

🎄 Rocking Around the Christmas Tree Party
📆 Friday, December 19th | ⏰ 5–8 PM

🎉 NOON-Years Eve Celebration
📆 Wednesday, December 31st | ⏰ Ring in the New Year at NOON with us!

Mark your calendars, invite your friends, and get ready for fun, laughter, and community. 💫
👉 More details coming soon—stay tuned!

09/27/2025

Family Voices Colorado
📢 New Video Alert!

We’ve partnered with Colorado Access to break down EPSDT (Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment) — a Medicaid benefit that ensures children and youth get the care they need to grow and thrive. 🌱

From preventive check-ups to critical treatments, EPSDT helps families access the right services at the right time. 💙

🎥 Watch now to learn what EPSDT covers, who’s eligible, and how to make the most of this important benefit.

09/24/2025

National Autism Association
If you're a clinician or therapist, you play a critical role in the safety conversation.

Right now, we're losing an average of seven autistic children per month in the U.S. following wandering/elopement, mainly due to drowning.

Children with autism are 160 times more likely to die from drowning than their neurotypical peers (Columbia University, 2017). In 2024, 91% of autism-related wandering deaths were caused by drowning (NAA).

You have the power to start early conversations that educate families about the wandering/water risk, even before a diagnosis.

Be sure to encourage a multi-layered safety approach that includes Home Security, Door/window Alarms, Fencing, Locative Devices, as well as Swimming Lessons and Emergency Plans with neighbors, teachers, and relatives.

Extra hyper-vigilant supervision is crucial, especially during transitions, vacations, outdoor activities, and parties.

Encourage them to use Google Maps to identify nearby bodies of water and remind families: If a child with autism goes missing, call 911 and search nearby water first.

Resources for families available via link in bio.

If you're a clinician or therapist, you play a critical role in the safety conversation.

Right now, we're losing an average of seven autistic children per month in the U.S. following wandering/elopement, mainly due to drowning.

Children with autism are 160 times more likely to die from drowning than their neurotypical peers (Columbia University, 2017). In 2024, 91% of autism-related wandering deaths were caused by drowning (NAA).

You have the power to start early conversations that educate families about the wandering/water risk, even before a diagnosis.

Be sure to encourage a multi-layered safety approach that includes Home Security, Door/window Alarms, Fencing, Locative Devices, as well as Swimming Lessons and Emergency Plans with neighbors, teachers, and relatives.

Extra hyper-vigilant supervision is crucial, especially during transitions, vacations, outdoor activities, and parties.

Encourage them to use Google Maps to identify nearby bodies of water and remind families: If a child with autism goes missing, call 911 and search nearby water first.

Resources for families available via link in bio.

09/23/2025

Current Fiscal Environment
Federal Policy Changes: New federal legislation, H.R.1 (One Big Beautiful Bill Act), significantly alters Medicaid financing, administrative requirements, and eligibility processes, which increases state-level financial obligations.

State Budget Constraints: Medicaid comprises over one-third of Colorado’s state budget. The growth of LTSS expenditures—driven by increasing utilization, demographic shifts, and rising labor costs—has outpaced available revenue.

As a result, the Governor’s Executive Order issued August 28, 2025, initiated $252 million in budget reductions across state agencies—including approximately $79 million in reductions to HCPF, reflective of the Department’s share of the state budget and its recent cost trends.

https://hcpf.colorado.gov/medicaid-sustainability-and-ltss

For updates on all the service changes at the state level, please sign up for these emails.
https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/gunTUZ4?source_id=4a1e5c5d-6261-449e-a58d-71c54e58fa7c&source_type=em&c=&source_id=4cd810d4-62a9-4ecc-8592-44fca3c865d2&source_type=em&c=QuQ1cVdTBaFJVPpifJQX9YVS9oQuh48Eta3P6Aon793HP3mbsuvVUQ==

09/23/2025

Parents of severely disabled adults in Colorado are losing Medicaid support. Sign to demand these cuts be reversed now.
These families were never supposed to be affected by the fallout of federal budget decisions. Let’s make sure Colorado lives up to that promise.

Reverse the Medicaid Cuts to Caregivers for Disabled Family Members in Colorado

09/22/2025

The Arc of the United States
When public officials talk about autism, their words carry weight. Too often, those words have painted the diagnosis of autism as a tragedy, erasing the dignity and humanity of autistic people. We will continue to call for policies grounded in science and humanity, and to work alongside autistic people and their families to demand respect, inclusion, and the supports needed to live full lives in every community.

Read our full statement: https://bit.ly/3W0wgW7

09/22/2025

National Council on Severe Autism
Our families spoke, and legislators listened. 💚🩵💙💚
Watch the replay of our Voices for the Voiceless Town Hall to see why severe autism advocates across the country came together to push for safe housing options and identify key research priorities.

Replay: https://youtu.be/CgXWF5Jc6Uc

Learn about our national caregiver survey results that reinforce exactly why these advocacy priorities matter.

Let's keep raising our voices for those who need it most.

Watch the National Council on Severe Autism’s Voices for the Voiceless Virtual Town Hall debriefing—an inspiring wrap-up of our remote legislative advocacy w...

09/21/2025

The Caregiver’s Circle is a monthly space where you can step away from the chaos, refill your cup, and reconnect with the woman you are, beyond caregiving.
Our first live 30-minute session is September 30th on Zoom, and I’d love for you to be there. I’d also love it if you would share with other caregivers who might be interested in filling their own cup.

Together we’ll explore:

A simple practice to calm your racing mind anytime, anywhere

How to get through the day believing you did the best you could

One small way to bring joy back into your week

This is not another to-do list. It’s a lifeline.

📅 Date: September 30, 2025
⏰ Time: 6:30PM MT
📍 Location: zoom

👉Register Here https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/kPaXj3I1T96xoJ9OAo2iJg

Come as you are. Bring your whole, messy, beautiful self.

You’ll leave with more peace than you came with.

If you, or anyone else you know might be interested in what this is all about, please pass along. I really want an opportunity to give back to a community in so much need.

With warmth,
Suzanne
Phoenix Transformation Coaching

09/20/2025

Autism Society of Colorado
💙 Today is the day! 💙
Join us for Walk with Autism — filled with community, connection, and fun for all ages.
✨ Don’t miss:
🫧 7ft Bubble Tower
🎨 Face Painting
🎧 Silent Disco
💃 Feel the Beat Dance Floor
🛍️ 70+ Resource Vendors
⚡ Pokémon Expedition (registration required)
👟 And NEW this year: the 5K route!
Let’s walk together to celebrate, support, and raise awareness. 💙

💙 Today is the day! 💙
Join us for Walk with Autism — filled with community, connection, and fun for all ages.
✨ Don’t miss:
🫧 7ft Bubble Tower
🎨 Face Painting
🎧 Silent Disco
💃 Feel the Beat Dance Floor
🛍️ 70+ Resource Vendors
⚡ Pokémon Expedition (registration required)
👟 And NEW this year: the 5K route!
Let’s walk together to celebrate, support, and raise awareness. 💙

09/18/2025

Autism Society of Colorado
👪 Looking for the perfect family day? Walk with Autism has it all!
🫧 Bubbles that reach the sky – 7ft Bubble Tower!
🎨 Creative fun with face painting
🎧 A Silent Disco and Feel the Beat dance floor
🛍️ Explore 70 resource fair vendors
⚡ Go on a Pokémon Expedition (registration required!)
🚶‍♂️ PLUS, new this year: a 5K route for walkers and runners!
It’s more than an event—it’s a celebration. 💙 Don’t miss it!

👪 Looking for the perfect family day? Walk with Autism has it all!
🫧 Bubbles that reach the sky – 7ft Bubble Tower!
🎨 Creative fun with face painting
🎧 A Silent Disco and Feel the Beat dance floor
🛍️ Explore 70 resource fair vendors
⚡ Go on a Pokémon Expedition (registration required!)
🚶‍♂️ PLUS, new this year: a 5K route for walkers and runners!
It’s more than an event—it’s a celebration. 💙 Don’t miss it!