This past month, I have found myself in countless conversations with families and individuals across our community. As both your Executive Director and a mom of an Autistic teenager, those conversations do not stay at work, they stay with me.

I have sat with families carrying more than anyone should have to carry alone. Families navigating severe Autism, denied waivers, aggressive meltdowns, self-injurious behaviors, and co-occurring conditions that impact not only their child’s quality of life, but their own mental health as caregivers. The system is stretched thin, and too often, families are left without the support they desperately need.

I have also spoken with independent Autistic adults who describe their lives as “sink or swim.” Many were not diagnosed as children. They had to figure everything out on their own, including education, relationships, employment, and building coping strategies just to exist in a world that was not built with them in mind.

I have talked with families who, on paper, have access to resources, yet still find themselves unable to change the trajectory for their child. Financial resources alone cannot fix a system that lacks the depth, coordination, and compassion families truly need.

While every story is different, I would be lying if I said these conversations do not live within my own brain as a parent, too.

My worries may not look exactly like someone else’s, because every journey is unique. The unpredictable nature of raising an Autistic child is an everyday reality. In fact, as I write this, I received a call from my son’s school to discuss some concerns about his day. Every Autism parent can understand the feeling of the school calling during the work day. Which raises even bigger questions in my mind: What does the future look like after school? He has accommodations and trained teachers at school, but what about his future workplace?

The questions are always there. What will the world look like for my son when my husband and I are gone? Who will know him the way we do? What will his adult life truly look like?

The path is not always clear. It shifts, it evolves, and the uncertainty is something so many of us carry quietly every single day. That is why this conversation has to go beyond just getting through today. It has to be about building a future.

Support and systems matter, and right now, too many systems are not providing a clear or sustainable path forward.

Here in the Mahoning Valley, there are so many people doing meaningful work. Many who are showing up and fighting for our Autistic community every single day. Yet, every time I sit with a caregiver in crisis, I feel it all over again. I revisit my own family’s hardest seasons and the roughest days. The journey without a roadmap, without support, without anyone to call. It was just me, my husband, and our faith, trying to find a way forward.

There are countless times when I wish I had immediate answers for the families and individuals I meet. I do not have all the answers, but what I can promise is this:

The Autism Society of Mahoning Valley is listening, and we are committed to doing the hard, often slow, but necessary work of building something better.

We keep going because our Autistic individuals and their families deserve more than survival.

They deserve support, dignity, and a future filled with possibilities.

With hope for the future,