Kids on the Spectrum - Female Solo Entrepreneur of the Year

Company: Kids on the Spectrum, Melbourne, Victoria
Company Division/Group:Kids on the Spectrum - Australian Autism Directory
Company Description: Kids on the Spectrum-Australian autism directory was launched to provide parents a free national online directory to assist them in locating inclusive services, products and events for their autistic family members. The directory's founder, Anita Aherne felt the urgency to provide valuable free information with an aim of improving autistic outcomes in Australia.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Female Solo Entrepreneur of the Year

Nomination Title: Anita Aherne

Anita Aherne officially launched Kids on the Spectrum – Australian autism directory in 2019. Kids on the Spectrum is free to use and access and, is a first of its kind in Australia. It provides an accessible list of all services, products and events that assists parents and carers.

Anita struggled to find resources for her autistic children easily and in a timely fashion. She decided that no other carer should have to struggle like she had and went on to fund and develop this directory. The directory has proven to be a vital resource and parents have been flocking the web page to access vital services.

The directory has had 20,000 users to date and has an active social media following of over 10,000. Anita refers to this as a “community” because everyone is working towards the same goal, to ease the stress for parents and carers and improve outcomes for autistic individuals. She has built a platform with dual purpose and is proud of what has been achieved. The directory not only helps parents and carers but it is also a vital support to those Australian small businesses in the directory, especially important during this pandemic.

Anita has proudly built a sustainable and accessible platform that helps parents and carers locate resources that can significantly improve the quality of life of Australian families. Having had no previous platform nationally to do this, Anita built this resource herself from the ground up.

Kids on the Spectrum is not limited to a successful online national directory it is also, an active social media community. Anita has been overwhelmed by the positive feedback and continues to listen and adapt based on this feedback. Anita has achieved this by;

-Attending disability and carer expos to meet both parents and businesses to ensure the directory continues to meet the core value of providing relevant, free and accessibleinformation to parents and carers.

-By volunteering at local autism support groups to fully engage and give back to those organisations who are autistic led.

-By marketing businesses who provide inclusive products, services and events.

Anita has managed to successfully fund the directory as a business who strongly follows a social enterprise structure, is fully sustainable and has proven to thrive even during the current pandemic.

By achieving a fully sustainable directory Anita has now been able to fund a free webinar program to assist parents and carers. This program is run through the Facebook page with the first recently released webinar seeing an audience of just on 1600 people.

The directory and Anita continue to be recognised for the valuable community it has built.

Kids on the Spectrumis significant and unique as Anita has solely designed the first and only directory that exclusively provides resources for the Australian autistic and neurodivergent community.

There are amazing organisations that can support families, although they are useless if they can not be located and utilised. Each person’s autism diagnosis is unique, it has in the past led to confusion, stress, fear and overwhelm. The directory addresses this and gives families and individuals a clear guide and choice of the supports available, something that was not previously available. By providing this information in one location Anita is confident that she can significantly contribute to improving life outcomes for autistic children, autistic adults and reduce the overwhelming stress and anxiety for carers.

Anita is neurodivergent herself and is proud to be able to provide representation and a voice that can guide and help parents address the fears and uncertainty of an autism diagnosis. Anita is a parent, carer, a neurodivergent individual and a business owner, this has provided her with great insight in meeting the needs of the community.

With autistic individuals representing such a high unemployment rate, and the shocking knowledge that an autistic individual is twice as likely to die prematurely than that of a Neurotypical person, getting information fast, free and easily can saves lives. It is not enough to have the resource or provide the service, it needs to be located. Anita is ensuring that these services are found easily and for free.

Reference any attachments of supporting materials :

Anitadevelopedthis resouce as a solo entrepeneur with the aim;

Reducing the unemployment rate of autistic individuals. https://www.amaze.org.au/creating-change/research/employment/

It was found that finding the right partner was a key element to improving unemployment rates and “engaging with an autism partner who can offer your organisation the expertise to be more inclusive, from recruitment to providing post placement support was vital”

Helping Autistic individuals and businesses locate such organisations we can make the access of such resources impactful.

Anita aims to,

Significantly reduce the figure of an autistic person dying prematurely. https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/study-identifies-predictors-early-death-among-autistic-people/

It found that there is a strong link between social Isolation and loneliness that contributes to this statistic. The directory makes accessing such resources achievable. It not only lists social and community engagement opportunities it helps improve outcomes for both the autistic individual and the carer.

Reduce stress for carers which are predominately women in Australia
https://www.carersvictoria.org.au/about-us/impact-of-caring
https://www.carersaustralia.com.au/about-carers/who-is-a-carer/

It has been shown that carers experience up to 40% higher levels of chronic health conditions like depression and anxiety. With women making up the majority of carer roles in Australia, we are making a significant improvement to the health and wellbeing of Australian women in carer roles.

The directory addresses all of these issues by making available, social resources, physical and mental health resources and access to carer supports. Anita made Kids on the Spectrum searchable via location and or category of support required.