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Welcome To The Autistic Mile · The Autistic Mile

• Jim Gaffney: Welcome to the Autistic Mile, presented by Jacksonville School for Autism. ⁓ I'm your host, Gaffney. ⁓ Jacksonville School for Autism, also known as JSA, has been in existence for over 20 years, helping children and families in the Jacksonville area, Jacksonville, Florida. ⁓ They're going into their 22nd year now, and they've got a lot of history ⁓ in the greater Jacksonville area of helping countless families and children with autism. ⁓ One of the reasons that the podcast, ⁓ the Autistic Mile podcast, is such an important step. Forward for JSA is to increase advocacy and to help people outside what we refer to as a JSA family, people that we can help at JSA directly, whether that be families or students. ⁓ JSA can only accommodate a certain number of students. So in order to help people outside the JSA family, the podcast is important to us to be able to increase our footprint and reach a larger, larger audience and help people outside of our local community. ⁓ Like I said, we're going in our twenty second year. ⁓ right now we're on summer break. ⁓ the kids will return ⁓ for summer clinic starting on Monday, June twenty second. ⁓ and that will last through Friday, July seventeenth. ⁓ so summers look a little different. It's more like summer camp, ⁓ but the kids still have a great time. ⁓ it's a little bit more laid back and summer camp like. if they still have a great time and they're ⁓ they receive the same great services they do ⁓ during the school year. ⁓ and the school year just ended ⁓ a week ago tomorrow. So ⁓ everybody's getting a little bit of a breather, staff's getting a breather, kids are getting a breather, and we'll get back at it on June 22nd. ⁓ we're looking to seeing ⁓ seeing ⁓ some of the kids back here ⁓ for camp. ⁓ some of them we won't see again until until school starts and ⁓ in mid-August. But ⁓ we're looking forward to camp starting next week ⁓ see ⁓ see everything pick up here again and get those ⁓ smiling faces back in here. ⁓ Let's talk a little bit about JSA and what they do in the community. JSA ⁓ is a nonprofit. ⁓ That being the case, you know, they're a valuable public resource. They've helped so many children, so many families over the years. ⁓ JSA was started by Michelle Dunham and the Dunham family. ⁓ Michelle and her team have done a wonderful job over the last now 22 years of growing JSA into what it is today. ⁓ they have a nice sprawling campus ⁓ in Jacksonville, Florida. ⁓ two large buildings. We have our upper school and our lower school. and it really is a magical place. ⁓ it's a place ⁓ so much good happens here, not just for the children, but for families, ⁓ for staff. ⁓ everybody really pitches in and it really is a family here. ⁓ ⁓ you get that sense when when you work here, ⁓ if your child goes here. It really is a family atmosphere, ⁓ very supportive. ⁓ in it in addition to academics, ⁓ we also have the clinical side, ABA therapy. ⁓ we also have ⁓ professionals that ⁓ that come in and they do ⁓ PT and OT. ⁓ we have speech as well. ⁓ so children receive those services here at JSA ⁓ during During the course of their normal school day without having to ⁓ to go to separate therapists outside of school hours. So it's very convenient, ⁓ and it really is a it really is all-encompassing. they can get what they need here ⁓ on a daily basis, and that's one of the pluses of having of having a school like JSA in existence. ⁓ and the fact that the campus is so large, ⁓ we have three buses, we have two school buildings, ⁓ you know we We have a large staff, including clinical and educational staff, ⁓ admin staff. It really does take a village, as they say, to to get a company, ⁓ a nonprofit like JSA to the point where it is today. It's a thriving entity, ⁓ and it really does so much good for the ⁓ for the the children and the families in the community that need that. but we want to take that a step further. ⁓ there's people that we can't help at JSA every day. ⁓ the podcast is helped to ⁓ is really designed to to help those people, to to extend our reach beyond the campus here, ⁓ and and reach an audience that we can help and and bring professionals and bring our staff, bring our perspective, ⁓ and and really really kind of push that forward. ⁓ and that is really the next step for JSA. We're they we're doing a great job here helping the kids and families that we can, ⁓ but we want to extend our borders somewhat and we want to we want to push our advocacy and help the people that ⁓ that aren't in our local community or can't ⁓ that we don't have room for at JSA. ⁓ Doing what they do at JSA, ⁓ I mean it is a it is a big undertaking. so it's just something that this podcast is the next step in the evolution of JSA. For myself, Jim Gaffney, I'm proud to be part of this. I'm proud to ⁓ present this and be the host of this podcast is something I believe strongly in. ⁓ we have different aspects of this podcast, which we'll talk about shortly. That ⁓ aside from just the podcast itself and being a tool for information, we also have training and employment opportunities ⁓ that are going to arise from the podcast. ⁓ vocational training for ⁓ For students that are capable is ⁓ is part of the ⁓ overall scope of the podcast ⁓ production. We want children, we want students to participate in in the ⁓ in the production and setup and breakdown and and different aspects of the podcast. and in also in doing that, we're also we've also started employing ⁓ autistic adults as part of this initiative. ⁓ my son Shane Gaffney is autistic. ⁓ He's part of the production team that will support the podcast. That will be done as part of ⁓ under the umbrella of ⁓ Autistic Mile Productions. So Autistic Mile Productions is a separate entity which will produce and manage the project. And we'll do that ⁓ in conjunction with JSA, but ⁓ from day one we're already employing ⁓ an autistic ⁓ an autistic adult. as many people watching our podcast or watching other podcasts will ⁓ either know or will come to learn. ⁓ employment for autistic adults is is something that's lacking. ⁓ a lot of them have very good skill sets, but there there may be hindrances to ⁓ and barriers that that are keeping them. from from gaining not just employment, but meaningful and sustaining employment, ⁓ earning a living wage. ⁓ from my own experience, I think ⁓ employers, ⁓ a lot of employers do got a good job at there there are some companies that have programs out there for ⁓ autistic for autistic adults specifically and they do hire them but what degree they will achieve in those jobs. I think they may be somewhat limited. ⁓ I think the next step in the evolution of job training and job availability for autistic adults ⁓ needs to ⁓ focus on pushing those ⁓ those individuals ⁓ higher points in their career so they're not always stuck on the lower rungs of the ⁓ of the ⁓ of ladder within a given organization that they're hired by. ⁓ so are things that we'd like to help address over time, and we'd like to be a model for that as well. ⁓ in our attempt to to train autistic individuals, employ autistic ⁓ we'd like to see if we can be the example to try. Try to show people the next generation of what that looks like ⁓ in terms of employment and support. It's good to employ these adults, but we want to make sure that they're in roles that are properly using their talent and that they're ⁓ that they're able to achieve promotion, they're able to achieve ⁓ true living wages. Independence is such a big part ⁓ for autistic adults, and and it can't be understated, you know, the self-esteem that comes from a job. ⁓ the financial opportunities. I mean, ⁓ it opens other avenues to them. And there's really no limit to the growth that they can show ⁓ if they're given the opportunity. So from my own perspective, I think that's the next step in the evolution ⁓ of advocacy in terms of employment for autistic adults. It's very important to me. ⁓ Shane has has struggled since he graduated college ⁓ to find meaningful employment. ⁓ And that and this his being part of this podcast ⁓ is already addressing that. that was one of the goals. It was not just to help my son, but ⁓ to help autistic adults. He just happens to be the first autistic adult we're helping in that range. ⁓ And he will serve as a model for that. But we want we don't we don't want it to stop there. We want that to continue to be the case. And hopefully with the proper ⁓ support that we get through the podcast ⁓ we're able to employ other autistic adults ⁓ that have skill set That are ⁓ complementary to what we're doing ⁓ in a whole host of things. ⁓ there are other areas of the podcast as far as administrative ⁓ production. we also will be having ⁓ merchandise, so design work for merchandise, whether that be apparel or some other type of merchandise. ⁓ these individuals are highly talented and and they have very creative minds. And those ⁓ those individuals will be very well suited for ⁓ ⁓ for ⁓ a lot of the work that we'll be doing here with the podcast, even if it's not production itself. ⁓ so I'm excited about that opportunity ⁓ and to be able to share in that and be part of that and drive that initiative here ⁓ is very important for me personally in terms of my my goals for personal ⁓ autism advocacy. Shane was diagnosed with autism ⁓ at a young age. you know, he's a he's a young adult now and he's ⁓ he's a fine young man. But you know it's my my autism my autism advocacy doesn't stop with my son. ⁓ you know I want to do more for the community. ⁓ it's always been a goal of mine. One of things ⁓ that Isn't always abundantly clear to people is ⁓ the fact that I'm autistic myself. ⁓ I've written a book about it. ⁓ I've written a couple books, but I've written wrote one specifically about autism and the impact of autism on family. ⁓ it's called Hello, I'm Jim, which is ⁓ a family story of Asperger syndrome. ⁓ and that's available on Amazon. So ⁓ I've written books, I've written songs, ⁓ we're starting to podcast here. here at the podcast. With what we have in terms of the groundwork for the books and the songs and the podcast, ⁓ all roads lead to autism. ⁓ Even the songs that we create via AI, ⁓ they're all rooted in autism. They're stories, their personal stories. Some of them are ⁓ very much specifically to speaking about autism, even though the word autism isn't used in the song. And there are other songs that ⁓ are stories about a life lived with autism or just ⁓ just life in general, family stories, but they're all positive. ⁓ and that's one of the things we things we want to be here at the podcast. We want it we want to highlight the positives of autism. ⁓ everybody's story is different. Every child is different. Every adult with autism is different. ⁓ you know, n no two cases are exactly the same. so but We want to make sure that everybody understands that there's there's positives associated with autism. It's not just all negative. there are a lot of people that struggle. ⁓ Shane happens to be high functioning ⁓ yeah, he has high functioning autism ⁓ with Asperger syndrome. I myself with Asperger syndrome ⁓ I've always excelled, ⁓ but ⁓ I'm 56. It's been trial and error in my life. ⁓ I wasn't always to the point where I am now where ⁓ where I'm able to mask my autism for the most part and most people are none the wiser. ⁓ I was diagnosed later in life. I was diagnosed in 2016. So ⁓ I'm on the tenth year of my ⁓ of my own diagnosis. and those 10 years, since the 10 years since ⁓ diagnosis has been profound for me. ⁓ you know, my I continue to learn more not just about autism, but how autism impacts me, how it impacts others, ⁓ how it impacts my own family. these are all things that I take an interest in. ⁓ One of the reasons I work here, ⁓ aside from doing the podcast, I am also a current employee of of JSA. I'm ⁓ the clinical billing administrator, so ⁓ I'm an administrative ⁓ member, staff member. ⁓ I do clinical billing, which is not for everybody. It's ⁓ it's kind of a niche kind of thing. ⁓ it's ⁓ a lot of numbers, a lot of ⁓ you know claim work and everything. It's it's it's something that I sought out actively as I was transitioning. In my own career, ⁓ it was important for me that the next step in my career was a step to continue autism advocacy. ⁓ And even though I'm not working with the children day in and day out, specifically in terms of ⁓ educational or ABA therapy, I see them, I interact with them. ⁓ There's no better place, there's no place that I fit in more than here. ⁓ So the fact that I'm the clinical billing administrator, to me it means world. And and doing ⁓ doing the podcast is just, you know, it just kinda elevates that. It allows me to do more for JSA. It allows me to ⁓ continue to to push myself, ⁓ and push others, try to lift others up, ⁓ and and try to achieve more ⁓ for ⁓ for individuals whether it's whether it is ⁓ students, ⁓ or it happens to be adults, ⁓ even if they're not affiliated with with JSA currently. ⁓ the program that we talk about when we talk about employing ⁓ autistic adults we refer is the PIT crew, ⁓ the PIT crew, preparing individuals for tomorrow, PIT. ⁓ The PIT crew. ⁓ So that's where the vocational training starts. And that's really kind of the first step. kind of the springboard ⁓ to ⁓ next level, which is hopefully meaningful ⁓ So ⁓ by students ⁓ to podcast or different aspects of ⁓ the podcast ⁓ venture terms of merchandising and things like that, ⁓ there's so many ⁓ areas they can dive into. and and get real and kinda hone their skills and and ⁓ and and get that training that they wouldn't otherw otherwise receive without ⁓ going to a secondary school or ⁓ or something ⁓ going on their next level. So That's important. We want to try to lay the groundwork and prepare them ⁓ because life is short. ⁓ you know, we we s I see a lot of podcasts, you know, children when you get to be twenty-two, you kinda age out of the system is what they call it. You're reaching an age where you're no longer a child, you're an adult. So a lot of the support that was there up until the time you turn twenty-two kind of goes by the wayside. ⁓ you get into a different it's a different ball game once a once Once somebody hits that kind of that magic number. I've experienced it with my own son. you know, he had he had great support in the school system. ⁓ he had good support in college. ⁓ once he graduated college, it kind of fell off a cliff. ⁓ so we wanna we wanna try to we wanna try to kind of push that and be a another resource ⁓ for people that fall into that category. We wanna, and again, we want to be a model for that. Not just what we can do, but can we ⁓ can we set an example for other employers or other entities to try to take on something similar? I know it's not easy. ⁓ it's no anything worthwhile is never easy. ⁓ But in this case, in any case, I think it's a service that we're that we're providing ⁓ to ⁓ a democrat graphic that really sorely needs it. ⁓ So many, so many kids, so many young autistic adults, and and some even older probably are underemployed. ⁓ it's just a it's a statistic, it's it's ⁓ it's not even up for debate. I mean you can ⁓ there are numbers on this, there are there's research. I mean this is a real problem. ⁓ it's something that ⁓ that should be addressed and and anything we can do for our part, ⁓ especially now that we're beginning the podcast, we'll start out small, ⁓ we really want to try to drive that and be a model and try to Try to ⁓ maybe show other people w what they may be capable of if they were interested in doing that. ⁓ so that's very important as part of this project. So it's not just about sitting here having guests on and speaking to you directly. it's things that are gonna go behind go on behind the scenes with the employment and the vocational training. ⁓ those are all ⁓ All roads lead to autism here. So it's it's all about ⁓ helping others, whether it's students or your young adults, ⁓ and we wanna we wanna continue to drive that. I've already talked a little bit about myself, but let me give you a little bit more information specific to me. So ⁓ as I mentioned earlier, I'm 56 years old. I just turned 56 last week, so I'm not a young man. I've lived in St. Augustine, Florida for 20 years now with my family. I'm originally from New Jersey. ⁓ As I mentioned, Shane was diagnosed when he when ⁓ before he was ⁓ before he was any even in kindergarten. ⁓ so we've been dealing with autism for Shane for a long time, and we were always advocates. ⁓ I myself didn't seek my own diagnosis until 2016. ⁓ For me, I was kinda borderline for a long time. I I don't know if I just had my head in the sand or I didn't even you know, for a long time I didn't even realize I was masking. ⁓ I realized that I was different. ⁓ I realized that ⁓ things weren't always normal, but I never never, even with my own son having autism, I never really considered my the fact that I may have autism. It took me a very long time to ⁓ kind of make that connection. and when I did it opened up other doors. ⁓ it was it was an enlightening experience to say the least, humbling. ⁓ ⁓ but it also helped make sense of lot of things. So and in writing my book, Hello, I'm Jim, ⁓ again, a family story of ⁓ of Asperger syndrome. ⁓ that's another way that I can kind of decompress and and kind of relay information about ⁓ everything that's happened in my life. ⁓ so ⁓ It's ⁓ it's another avenue which which I hope that I can help others understand. It's again, ⁓ everybody's different. You know, people read my book, it may not ⁓ it may not resonate with them, maybe they have a different experience. the dynamics are totally different. ⁓ the book is based on my experience with myself, my son, my family. but I I've always I've always looked to see different perspectives and learn more about autism, not just as a particular to me and my son and my family, but but to others and and understand it at a better level. ⁓ The numbers for autism are just going up. I mean it's the percentage of people with autism now is greater than it ever has been ⁓ and I don't expect that to change. ⁓ you know they've changed the They've changed the diagnosis ⁓ criteria. So a lot more people are falling into these buckets now that didn't fall in there before. So there's another reason why those numbers increasing. and we there's that's a whole nother conversation. but from my perspective, ⁓ as an individual with autism, ⁓ and my my autism as it is today, it's ⁓ Yeah, I have my own challenges that that I have on a daily basis, but By far, I mean I don't I don't face nearly as challenges some other people do. I mean I'm I'm kind of blessed on that fact that that I'm high functioning. I've been able to mask and I ⁓ as as a a late ⁓ diagnosed adult, ⁓ there's some baggage that comes with that. but that's where we'll unpack that at a at a later time ⁓ as we get into more specific content. ⁓ but as I said, ⁓ my road led me to JSA, Jacksonville School for Autism. ⁓ what I do here In terms of ⁓ being the clinical billing administrator is something I I love. ⁓ I love numbers. I'm a numbers guy. I ⁓ I worked for ⁓ almost 25 years in brokerage ⁓ as a computer programmer and a manager at various levels. So ⁓ I have a technical mind, I have a mind for numbers, ⁓ so ⁓ working on claims and and working on working with figures is something that's very well suited. To me. So ⁓ and I'm glad that I'm able to fill that role here at JSA. ⁓ Even though I don't work with the children directly, I see them every day. I'm able to interact with them and I'm able to see all the good that's done here. Even though I'm part of the administrative staff. ⁓ With here, everybody, everybody kind of pulls their weight. So regardless of whether you're working directly with children and students or directly with families, you know, I know families, I interact with families, ⁓ you know. there there's no way around it and I'm here to help support them as well. ⁓ I like to think that the work I do here as clinical billing administrator makes their lives easier. insurance companies never like to pay claims. ⁓ so my ability to try to be an advocate for them in terms of making sure their claims are paid and that they don't have things that are being rejected, is my way of being able to ⁓ to kind of help families out ⁓ and and children by that extension. So I take what I do very seriously. ⁓ the podcast, ⁓ this is gonna be something we have a little bit more fun with. we want it to be more interactive. We want it to ⁓ fan and audience engagement is gonna be a very ⁓ important component to this. We want to hear from people as part of this podcast. ⁓ we wanna we wanna get letters, we want to get emails, we want to get ⁓ voice messages, we want to hear from you. ⁓ we want to have people we want to include those stories ⁓ on the podcast. this is not simply just about The Autistic Mile Podcast as a brand or Jacksonville School for Autism. this is meant to be something more. This is meant to be ⁓ the purpose of this podcast is ⁓ is is really ⁓ to drive the advocacy and to help people, ⁓ no matter where they are. It doesn't matter if you're in Jacksonville, if you're in California, if you're in another country, ⁓ you know. Autism is something that has no borders, and we don't want to have any borders. We want to extend beyond borders to help as many people as we can. ⁓ and we want to hear from as many people as we can. ⁓ and that's important to me as the as the host of this podcast as we go forward. ⁓ as I as we discuss the podcast in its original form, I've discussed with with ⁓ with ⁓ the leadership team that the the podcast would be light at both ends and heavy at the middle, heavy in the middle, meaning that the The substance of the podcast, the middle of it, you know, talking about autism, there's some heavy heaviness in there. ⁓ certain topics are more emotional than others. ⁓ but we want to inject some ⁓ some fun into this as well. So ⁓ at the beginning of the podcast, at the end of the podcast, we'll have some segments, ⁓ we'll read letters, we'll read correspondence, ⁓ we'll engage with our with our audience, and we'll keep it light where we can ⁓ to make it to to make it fun for people. It's not just ⁓ you know, autism isn't a death sentence. ⁓ ⁓ you know, it's it's a challenge and sometimes it's more of a challenge for certain people than others. and that's just ⁓ that's just the way it is. but we want to help those people as much as we can. If if my being here doing this podcast ⁓ for Jacksonville School for Autism, ⁓ and the and the local community if we can st extend that to a larger audience ⁓ then that's really ⁓ what the goal is to try to help as many people as possible. ⁓ so ⁓ as I continue to go through this ⁓ now I'll be wearing two hats as the clinical billing administrator and the podcast host, ⁓ be managing the podcast project. hopefully those of you are interested in the in the podcast, hopefully you'll listen to some of our songs. ⁓ hopefully you'll ⁓ you'll read one of our books. ⁓ All funding for the podcast does go to support JSA projects. Not just the PIT Crew initiative, preparing individuals for tomorrow, but for other JSA initiatives. So Any any book sales, merchandise sales, ⁓ any royalties from songs, ⁓ that all goes back to helping JSA. so we want to make sure that people understand if you listen to one of our songs, if you if you buy a book or if you read a book, ⁓ you're helping support the podcast, you're helping support ⁓ what we're trying to do here in terms of ⁓ vocational training, ⁓ employment, and advocacy. ⁓ so that's that's that's what it's all about. So ⁓ if you don't even if you don't like the songs. ⁓ the songs are country songs, so country genre is not for everybody. ⁓ but they're kinda mainstream. It's not not a lot of yeeha kinda country. It's kinda I call it ⁓ pop country for lack of a better term. I think most of the songs are are ones that people will res will resonate with folks. ⁓ 'cause a lot of it's about family and just shared life experiences. And some of them are very much ⁓ specific to autism, even though the word autism is not used. ⁓ Trail of the Broken is one of our ⁓ one of our newest songs that ⁓ it speaks directly about autism and the challenges of autism. ⁓ And also we have ⁓ That's Hope in a Small Town. That's another song that was written specifically about JSA ⁓ and the good work that they do here. ⁓ so those two songs specifically ⁓ are our artistic songs. So although I hope you enjoy our any books that we publish or any songs that we publish, ⁓ even if you don't it w your your support of us through those ⁓ through those initiatives would ⁓ would go toward ⁓ supporting the podcast and supporting JSA projects and that would ⁓ that goes a long way so we'd appreciate any help there. I think that's it for today. ⁓ we're gonna cut it short. We're we're still putting together our lineup of ⁓ of guests that we're gonna have on for ⁓ for upcoming episodes. so we'll be we'll be publishing that ⁓ As I said, for ⁓ for for our JSA family. ⁓ we have ⁓ summer clinics gonna be Monday the Monday, June 22nd through Friday, July 17th. ⁓ we have and and then we'll be getting ready for the school year. We're gonna have ⁓ we have ⁓ some staff preparations, orientations, ⁓ and that we ⁓ we'll be back at ⁓ regular school schedule in mid-August. ⁓ I think August 10th is is back to school day. ⁓ so ⁓ until then we have ⁓ We have the summer to kind of kick this ⁓ kick off our podcast and ⁓ get things going. ⁓ we hope you'll tune in every week. ⁓ and just remember, ⁓ as our slogan says, ⁓ together we go further. Until next time, this is your host, Jim Gaffney. Thank you.