Our mission
Bristol Autism Support’s mission is to provide high quality, face to face and virtual support and the latest correct, useful and crucial information, at the right time, to parents and carers of autistic children in Bristol. We provide a safe haven and a community for Bristol’s autism families in order to reduce isolation and improve mental and physical wellbeing.
Our vision
Our vision is to nurture, empower and connect parents / carers in order to improve outcomes for Bristol’s autistic children.
Our values
- Caring: we care deeply about how the issues facing parents / carers of autistic children impact on mental and physical health
- Community-minded: we know that providing our service users with a strong, social community can support and promote good mental and physical health
- Confidential: we never share information given to us by parents / carers or professionals with anyone
- Independent: we are an autonomous, independent organisation. We are not affiliated with any other charity, organisation or public body.
- Local: based in Bristol, we have personal knowledge of available support and the specific issues faced by parents / carers in our area
- Welcoming: we believe the need for support is self-defined; a diagnosis of autism is not necessary to access support from BAS
- Non-discriminating: our support is available to everyone regardless of regardless of race, religion, gender or gender identity, sexuality, disability, age or any other distinction
- Non-judgmental: we do not judge anyone for their views or actions with regards to autism or the care of their autistic child
- Fair: we do not allow negative discussions about health or education professionals or public bodies, as opinion is very subjective and potentially unfair to those professionals
- Flexible: we aim to provide a wide range of support options from our future home base and other locations in order to meet the needs of as many parents / carers as possible
Our aims
- Inform: we continuously gather new information about support, benefits and autism and share it with our community. We train parents / carers new to autism on how best to support their child and themselves. We also provide external autism and neurodiversity awareness training to inform the wider world about these conditions.
- Support: we support our service users through meetings, training, advocacy
- Connect: we provide a wide range of opportunities for parents / carers to connect, form friendships and be part of a community of understanding people
- Empower: we strive to provide the latest, relevant and necessary information for parents / carers so that they can make informed decisions about their child’s care and education
- Opportunity: we provide a wide range of volunteering opportunities that help volunteers gain new skills that could be used to gain employment
- Collaborate: we work with other providers and organisations to provide new and novel support options for our service users
