Happy 10+ Anniversary to Integrated Autism Consulting!!
45 Maple Avenue is an address likely etched in the minds of young adults across the ASD spectrum. Nestled along a meandering side street in Barrie, Ontario’s downtown core, this red-brick, colonial style edifice struck a charming, if not innocuous sight. With large windows that seemed to invite the day’s light and a jet-black door juxtaposed with wooden eggshell white columns, 45 Maple Avenue fit nicely in the city’s downtown aesthetic. A passerby would be forgiven for thinking the building to be commonplace.
And yet, for those in the know, 45 Maple Avenue is much more than a mere building with a striking exterior. Rather, for those who had the opportunity to walk through its jet-black door, 45 Maple Avenue was a sanctuary: a place where the idiosyncrasies of ASD were something to be celebrated, rather than behaviours to be modified or corrected.
In the Spring of 2014, Integrated Autism Consulting selected 45 Maple Avenue as the venue for its first ever coaching and training centre location – a development that also marked the Ontario-wide expansion of the Transition to Life program and individualized coaching. Envisioned as a place for young adults across the ASD spectrum to attend educational programming developed to foster independent life skills, the scope of 45 Maple Avenue soon evolved and matured. Alongside mainstay programs like Imagine a Life and Prepare for a Life, social groups such as the Craft Circle and Spectrum Connection took form, carving out space for young adults across the ASD spectrum to simply enjoy eachothers company. Pizza was devoured, board games were played, pins were bowled and Christmas Karaoke was masterfully sung. Through these experiences and more, a community was fostered – one that transcended Integrated Autism Consulting on the merits of sincere friendship and genuine interpersonal connections.
With the earth having recently made another successful pass around the sun – inaugurating the arrival 2024 – the ten year anniversary of Integrated Autism Consulting’s grand opening of its training centre location at 45 Maple Avenue is on the horizon. While in recent years the training centre has moved locations, such an anniversary is cause for pause and reflection on years past and accomplishments made. It is a time for all those who have been involved in the inherently collaborative process that defines Integrated Autism Consulting – students, coaches, family members, guardians and vital community supports – to contemplate where we started and how far we have come in manifesting inclusivity, purpose and independence for those on the spectrum. This is rarely an easy or straightforward process, but worthwhile things rarely are.
In light of the upcoming anniversary, we at Integrated Autism Consulting would like to extend our sincere gratitude to everyone who took the opportunity to walk through those jet-black doors at 45 Maple Avenue and to everyone who we have worked with before and since.