The Center for Autism and Related Disorders held its first Care and Connect Autism Fair Saturday, giving Santa Clarita’s autistic residents a panoramic view of the resources in their community that may have flown under their radar.
Inside the center’s Santa Clarita office, businesses with services specifically for autistic clients manned booths squeezed side-by-side, offering everything from martial arts instruction to haircuts and dental services.
State Sen. Suzette Valladares, R-Acton, who hosted the fair, gave certificates of appreciation to several businesses that participated Saturday.
Valladares said autism advocacy is close to her heart: Her niece was diagnosed with autism at 2 years old, and that diagnosis precipitated Valladares’ nonprofit career, she said.
“As a result of her diagnosis and her early intervention, it catapulted my nonprofit career with the autism community as a former … executive director of Southern California Autism Speaks,” Valladares said. “To be able to offer additional resources and continue to raise awareness, and to fight for legislation to fight for funding in Sacramento is a huge priority for me.”
Tanya Mikhail, a representative for Valladares, said the fair was an opportunity to give Santa Clarita families who know of CARD an idea of what’s out there specifically for them. Some businesses can be tough to find without an exhaustive online search, she said.
“The families kind of had a one-stop shop experience where they could come in and see all the amazing opportunities and resources out there, without having to go for hours and hours on the internet to try and find these things,” Mikhail said.
Valladares said one of the things she enjoyed doing most at Autism Speaks was organizing safety fairs, where autistic attendees would get the chance to see first responders in and out of their gear.
In the event of an emergency, those attendees would already know what to expect, she said. To that end, Saturday’s fair featured demonstrations from the Red Cross, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department and the L.A. County Fire Department.
Fire Capt. Abel Eligio said that when it comes to making sure an autistic family member is safe in an emergency, the key word is exposure.
“Today we had a firefighter get into turnouts and show everybody what it looks like,” Eligio said. “It’s a matter of exposure, and what that creates is a little bit of reduction in anxiety or scariness of us showing up to the scene and allowing us to interact with people a little bit better.”
But he added that firefighters rely heavily on members of each household to come up with an emergency plan. In the booth room Saturday, Fire Department personnel were handing out informational pamphlets to parents, including a breakdown of how to make a safety plan — and how to practice it.
“It’s all about exposure and practice,” Eligio said. “The more parents, people in the home, practice with the members of their family, and how to get out safely in the process of if there’s an emergency, (the better).”
And while many businesses with a booth at Care and Connect had resources available for keeping autistic kids safe, others had honed in on services somewhat harder to find: preserving their physical and emotional wellbeing.
Bright Star Martial Arts, a program designed for kids with a broader range of behavioral and emotional needs than a typical martial arts school, was one of those businesses.
Bright Star instructor Aida Maravilla said that for kids with autism, mental and emotional needs aren’t necessarily the full story: giving them an outlet for physical activity can complement their emotional life.
“It’s not just a mental (condition), it’s a (one) physical too,” Maravilla said. “So I feel like this is a great way to connect both of them, because we help them have an outlet physically, but we also understand them, where they’re coming from mentally and how they’re feeling … and how to manage them in a healthy way.”
