COLUMBIA, S.C. — More than 500 parents and children gathered Tuesday at the first ever AutismConnect resource fair, an event aimed at support and resources for families affected by autism.
It was held at University of South Carolina's Pastides Alumni Center. The fair served as a platform for families to learn about available autism resources.
"It's just been a lot on us, we don't know where to go, we don't know how to navigate it at all so we are just trying to get all the information we can from this," said Asia Brown, who has a two-year-old son who was recently diagnosed with autism.
Brown needed help navigating this new chapter of her life.
"I didn't realize how many things there were just in the reach of my finger," she said. "It's amazing, I'm just so blessed and I'm actually more hopeful things will go better for him," she said.
Stephanie Turner created the AutismConnect event, and said she was emotional after she saw so many families sign up for the fair.
"Most families whenever they get a kid diagnosed with autism, all of the sudden they are just googling what's out there what can help my child, and its so hard to find resources," Turner said.
Turner is also the Autism Division Director at the South Carolina Department of Disabilities and Special Needs
"The main goal of Autism Connect was to connect caregivers with caregivers and caregivers with professionals and professionals with professionals," she said.
It's something caregiver Genine Blue has found very helpful. "We know we are not alone," she said.
Blue's six-year-old son was recently diagnosed in August and while she was familiar with autism, her and her husband had never been a caregiver.
"I'm telling you it is great to know, like we are just on the beginning of our journey but to know there are so many resources, so much information and people out there willing to talk about it, willing to support, willing to provide information its really helpful for us," Blue said.
Upon arriving at the resource fair visitors were given a registration bag with a pamphlet detailing all exhibitors that included state agencies, school districts, and local organizations .
"So even if you do not have time to see all the tables, meet all the people, learn all the resources, that booklet itself is a resource booklet and they can carry that for years to come," Turner said.
"There are a lot of ABA [Applied Behavior Analysis] services," Blue said. "That is something we have been exploring. who is the ABA service provider we should see and how do we get connected, so there are lots of providers here and we are grateful for that."
And once visitors have a good idea of what they need and who to go to for those services, Turner hopes they leave with a better sense of community and belonging.
"Having an individual on the autism spectrum can feel a little isolating, so we want to make sure our families feel supported and connected to their community, to each other, and to the provider's there to help them," she said.