Introduction

Welcome to the Autism in Black Podcast, where we focus on all things autism in the black parent experience. Our goal is to always educate, support and empower parents to advocate for not only their children, but themselves.

Episode

Hi! And welcome to the Autism in Black Podcast. I am your host, Maria Davis-Pierre. And I am a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in the State of Florida. I wanted to do this introduction episode to let you all know what you can expect from the Autism in Black Podcast. As well as let you know a little bit about me for those of you who don't know me. I am the CEO and founder of Autism in Black Inc. And in Autism in Black Inc., our mission is to support black parents who have an autistic child on their autism journey. And we do that through many ways through advocacy, support during IEP meetings, trainings about IEP meetings, co-parenting trainings, as well as educating health care professionals on the black parent experience, as well as how to be culturally responsive when it comes to the black disability community.

I created Autism in Black on a more personal level because I myself have a now seven year old who is autistic, our daughter. And she was diagnosed at 18 months. And even though it was extremely difficult for us to get that diagnosis for her, it's been extremely difficult navigating this autism journey as a black parent. Not having people particularly understand where I was coming from, not having a healthcare professionals who come in my home and understand that they have to take culture into consideration when performing their duties. Because cultural is such a big thing for those who are black. And in talking to other black parents, I saw that this was a trend. And I also saw that there was a gap in having information that was specific for us because our experience is so different.

So I created Autism in Black to offer that experience from not only the therapist side, but the parent side. And then what I noticed is that there is a gap in podcasting for black parents who have a child on the spectrum. And then what I noticed that there's also a gap in the podcasting realm for black parents who have an autistic child. So that's what we're going to aim to do with the Autism in Black podcast is fill that gap and give black parents another means to get the information that isn't necessarily getting to our communities. So the podcast works in seasons. Each season will have a certain number of episodes. Sometimes it will be just me going solo, talking about a topic or a hot topic. And sometimes we will have expert guests to provide information on us and shed some light to help. Empower us all with the knowledge that they have. I also want to let you all know about our shame-free zone that we have created. A shame-free space over on Facebook, where we can keep the conversation going after the podcast episode is over. So you can head over to Facebook and join the Autism in Black Podcast group. Make sure to answer the question so that you can gain entry, and then we keep the conversation going in a shame-free way. Make sure to share on social media that you are listening to the podcast. By using the official hashtag, #aibpod. So I'm very excited about this new journey. And I hope to see you in the group.