Autism Speaks hosts 6th biennial Advocacy Leadership Network meeting

This week, Autism Speaks is hosting the meeting of the Advocacy Leadership Network (ALN), a global collective of accomplished advocates representing families, policymakers, leaders of advocacy organizations and researchers united in their efforts to promote greater autism awareness and improve the wellbeing of autistic people and their families around the world.

Advocates from 33 countries gathered to discuss successes and share best practices

Since 2012, the biennial ALN conference has served as a unique opportunity for advocates to get together, share their knowledge and deepen their connections. Conversations and workshops on shared interests and priorities, such as best practices in raising awareness, delivering care and advances in autism research, have helped develop and focus ideas for collaborations among network members.

As we emerge from the pandemic, our theme for this year’s meeting is “Working Together to Enhance Global Advocacy and Collaboration”. We hope to recommit ourselves to do more and do better by highlighting opportunities for collaboration, researcher-advocate partnerships and the training and mentoring of new advocates.

The meeting’s program brings together the Advocacy Leadership Network to discuss issues like:

• New advocacy and implementation tools, including the World Health Organization’s Caregiver Skills Training (CST) program, developed with support from Autism Speaks
• Replication and scaling of initiatives and programs to support autistic people and their families
• Recently launched researcher-advocate partnerships and new collaborative opportunities

Ultimately, we hope that this meeting will increase knowledge of current autism initiatives around the world, from parent training programs to digital health interventions.