October 18, 2024 • 12 mins
We spoke with The Social Chase Founder Helen Taylor about autism.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thank you for listening to Community Access. I'm Alison Demerz.
My guest this morning is Helen Taylor, founder of the
Social Chase. Good morning, Good morning Allison, thank you for
having me my pleasure. What is the mission of the
Social Chase.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
So the mission of Social Chase is providing inclusive community
to support the neurodivergent young adults to adults, and if
we focus on the underserved community as well as the uninformed.
So when I say uninformed, that it doesn't matter what
your financial background is. Sometimes even the middle class doesn't
know what services are out there or how they can
(00:36):
help their love to one. So we're very inclusive across
all demographics as well as social backgrounds.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
When you say neurodivergent, what does that mean for people
who don't know?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Good question. So basically a person who's on the autism
spectrum that is our focus, but we're open to other
others as well, people with disabilities, So we have people
who might have bounced DROM or you know, mostly the
will focus is people on the autism spectrum. People with
intellectual disabilities will have some of them also join us.
(01:08):
So we're pretty much open because we were able to
do that because our nonprofit is parent based in a sense,
so when we have activities to parents must remain with
their loved ones because we don't have to behave with
therapists because we're just one hundred percent volunteer.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
So I understand the mission. But why did you start
this and how long ago did you start it?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Well? I started technically in twenty eighteen, but I started
it because from my son Chase, who's on auto the spectrum,
who's going to be twenty five when he's a teenager,
we started seeing there weren't any activities for individuals on
the autism spectrum in the Waterbury area. It's where where
(01:56):
I'm from, and so we I would have come home
from work I worked in Hartford, still do, drive home
from Harford, come home, pick him up. And I'm like, well,
if I'm bringing him, I know some other individuals from
water Bearer are who would like to go, and I
just pick up their friends. Neither drive to new Haven,
drive to Wallingford, and they were drive to Bristol. And
(02:19):
it was a lot for me, and I said, this
is a lot, And so I was like, why there
should be something here. There should be something here in
Waterbury for these individuals. I know there's a need because
I coached Special Olympics as well at the time, so
I coached for ten years and so I knew there
(02:39):
was a need. So that's why I started, because there
was a need and I just felt that they should
have the same opportunities as others in these other areas.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
So what did you start doing after that?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
So I first started to say, okay, I'm going to
do a game night. So my first time of doing
it was at the Violence Bronze and Library and it
was challenging me because at the time when I started it,
I wasn't a nonprofit. I was just a parent try
and get things done. But since my husband and I
were the founders of the Autum and Speaks WALK, I
had a great relationship with Autism and Speaks and so
(03:17):
they collaborate with me so I could use, you know,
work with them as a nonprofit to go to these facilities.
So we first started off at the library and that
was great, and then I was I was thinking bigger
and I was like, well, I graded from post university.
I want our kids to get more engaged with neurotypical
people and it'd be great if this college get involved.
(03:38):
So I communicated with the post university for quite a
bit of time and finally agreed, and again we collaborated
what autin speaks so we could go there be as
a nonprofit. And so we had these game nights, which
were amazing because these student athletes would fight to volunteer
to play games with our group of young young and
(04:02):
we it was nothing digital. It had to be a game.
So we played. Oh no, we played Apples and apples.
We did bingle and that was great and took COVID hit.
So then I started seeking some other things. It's like, well, okay,
let me find some other places that we'd go to.
I'll have a conversation with this organization saying, hey, we're
(04:24):
a group of individuals who are on a spectrum. We
have certain needs, we have sensory or they have certain behaviors,
and we wanted to be able for them to go
somewhere and not be judged. So one of the other
things is that, okay, I was try and think of
something else of skill, and I was like, okay, they
need a cooking skill. It's a lot of decide based
(04:45):
on what I see, what Chase needs, yes, and so
you know they need cooking skills, so I worked with
I talked to Ardi Young because we were going there
to eat and we became friends, and I said, will
you be willing to give cooking classes? This is Ardi
Young is a restaurant and now in southern ten They
were in Waterbury and the owners were amazing and they
said yeah, and they never taught anybody on the spectrum
(05:06):
how to cook. So you know, of course I'm gonna
engage crazy parent. I get involved. And so we had
these cooking classes and they loved it. And even like
the first one I think was hamburgers, and one kid's like, oh,
I don't eat hamburgers. I don't like hamburger. I said, well,
could come and just make it. You don't have to
eat it, could give it to your mom or your dad.
They ate the hamburger. It's these small things, that little
(05:30):
things that we could do as parents, and we just
don't know how much of the impact that we're doing.
And it just just drives me because when I haven't
these events, I mean, we've gone to Brassity Raceway and
they're amazing. We've gone to the suite at the Xcel Center,
so they have they could be by themselves. They could jump,
(05:50):
they could make their noises, and no one's looking at
them judging them. So that's why I call my activities
free to be me because they are free to be
who they are without being judged. And the one thing
that one of the things that drives me the most,
you know I work full time, I do get tired,
is when after we have these events like go bowling,
(06:13):
they said, you know what, I'm so happy. I'm happy,
like God, my goodness. Okay, I got to keep going.
So that's when I eventually became a nonprofit because for
us to use different facilities, you have to be a nonprofit.
Like I didn't want to be a nonprofit. I just
wanted to make a difference and make changes and bring happiness.
(06:33):
But I had to become a nonprofit so I could
have these communications again with post university and other organizations.
Any good funding is it's not paying out of my pocket.
But yeah, it's just just trying to make them happy
and make them feel accepted, and it could.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Be very lonely, I think for the both of you
as parents and as someone who's near divergent, because you
want parents who walk the walk and talk the talk
like you and understand who can say, you know, I've
been where you are. I get it. And the same
with right with the children. So it's wonderful that you
put this together because it blesses everybody.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Exactly because parents have to stay, they're going to have
conversations with each other. That's how we learned. That's how
I learned was from someone else.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
You're saying at the events, at the events on your website,
you have social chasers. Tell me about that.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
So when we have events, there are social chasers and
then social change. People think, oh, it's Chase. I'm like, no,
it's it's a pun on his name, right right.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Yeah, I just got creative with it. But we're actually
it's for all of them. We're chasing at the then
to be social. That's why we call it the social chase.
So social doesn't mean like Chase is an introvert, so
he's one part of social. But then I have extroverts, Well,
we got peace going to be social as well, because
sometimes they're two extroverted they're not being accepted because they're
(07:54):
not understanding boundaries. So it's you know, so when once
they join the social tche case they became, they become
the social chasers. That's where they are. It's like a community,
like it's a family.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Tell me, how do you find the patience to raise
a child with autism?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
God blessed me with patients. I just you know, when
Al and I first found out, because we didn't know
anything about autism at all, nothing, never heard of it.
Everybody saw a Raymond, but that's he's a savant. And
so we went to the neurologist and we you know,
did the testing and questions and you know, the first
(08:31):
thing the doctor asked, you, do you want medication or
like no, because we got to figure him out first.
So we never did medication. We were fortunate with that,
so like, we have to figure it out before we
ask him now. And so I looked at my husband's like, okay,
so what we're going to do. He said, we're going
to do. We're gona take care of our kid, and
that's what we did. So after that, it was just
(08:52):
just taking care of him. So I don't know if
patience or not. It's just any other parent. You're just
being to mommy and you just fight. So I was
on the mission to fight the fight, not only for him,
but for others. And that's why we ended up bringing
the Walk of Autumn Speaks to Waterbury. We had that
for ten years because in our walk, we made it
(09:13):
to be a community walk. We got the community involved
and made them feel that you are wanting here, we're
here for you, and so we're very part of that.
And even the Autumn Speaks National came to our walks
because they wanted to mimic what we were doing, and
(09:37):
we even got award from them, recognition from them nationally
because of how we were addressing the walk.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
So do you have any events that are coming up?
Speaker 2 (09:46):
So, yes, we are having an event. We're very happy.
We're collaborating with the water Urban Air Jumped Zone place
in Waterbury, Connecticut and from ten to twelve on October
twenty seventh, and it's we went out the whole facility
thanks to a grant from Brenda McDonald's and that way,
(10:08):
with us renting out the whole place, there's no judgment,
there's no extra noises, and they're free to be who
they are. So if they want to make their noise,
you know, they're stemming. That's who they are. They're off.
They're there to have be themselves and have fun. The
parents must stay. We have no drop offs. There's no
fee for the parents to be in the facility unless
(10:29):
they want to jump. It's only ten dollars, as I stated,
So we're really excited about that. Our next big event,
which is already sold out, that we are going to
New York City to go see the rockets. So we're
really excited about fifty two people are going wow. So yeah,
again thanks thanks to the funding being the nonprofit.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Now, well, I know that if someone finds that they
have a new child with autism or a child that's
older with autism, Helen, you are the woman to speak to.
I'm speaking with hell and Taylor, founder of the Social Chase.
Go to the Social Chase dot org to find about
all of the information. You can see the gallery of
all the beautiful children on there. You could hear about
(11:12):
the four books that your son wrote which is amazing
or illustrated rather letter.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Critics written, No, I wrote and illustrated. Yes, he's a
published author.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
If people would like to make a donation or sponsor,
what can they do?
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yes, if you go on our website, there is a
donate button there. The Social Chase dot org and there's
also a sponsorship page if you want to become a sponsor.
We would appreciate any type of funding. It's it's always
appreciated to keep us going. So and again, we're one
hundred percent volunteer, so none of us get paid for
(11:47):
what we're doing. Oh, I just forgot. We also have
virtual Bingo every two weeks. You could join that. You
don't have to even go anywhere, it's virtual bingo. But
thank you so much for your support of the tunity.
Thank everyone for listening, and we hope to see you
Thank you for listening to Community Access. I'm Alison Demerz.
My guest this morning is Helen Taylor, founder of the
Social Chase. Good morning, Good morning Allison, thank you for
having me my pleasure. What is the mission of the
Social Chase.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
So the mission of Social Chase is providing inclusive community
to support the neurodivergent young adults to adults, and if
we focus on the underserved community as well as the uninformed.
So when I say uninformed, that it doesn't matter what
your financial background is. Sometimes even the middle class doesn't
know what services are out there or how they can
(00:36):
help their love to one. So we're very inclusive across
all demographics as well as social backgrounds.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
When you say neurodivergent, what does that mean for people
who don't know?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Good question. So basically a person who's on the autism
spectrum that is our focus, but we're open to other
others as well, people with disabilities, So we have people
who might have bounced DROM or you know, mostly the
will focus is people on the autism spectrum. People with
intellectual disabilities will have some of them also join us.
(01:08):
So we're pretty much open because we were able to
do that because our nonprofit is parent based in a sense,
so when we have activities to parents must remain with
their loved ones because we don't have to behave with
therapists because we're just one hundred percent volunteer.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
So I understand the mission. But why did you start
this and how long ago did you start it?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Well? I started technically in twenty eighteen, but I started
it because from my son Chase, who's on auto the spectrum,
who's going to be twenty five when he's a teenager,
we started seeing there weren't any activities for individuals on
the autism spectrum in the Waterbury area. It's where where
(01:56):
I'm from, and so we I would have come home
from work I worked in Hartford, still do, drive home
from Harford, come home, pick him up. And I'm like, well,
if I'm bringing him, I know some other individuals from
water Bearer are who would like to go, and I
just pick up their friends. Neither drive to new Haven,
drive to Wallingford, and they were drive to Bristol. And
(02:19):
it was a lot for me, and I said, this
is a lot, And so I was like, why there
should be something here. There should be something here in
Waterbury for these individuals. I know there's a need because
I coached Special Olympics as well at the time, so
I coached for ten years and so I knew there
(02:39):
was a need. So that's why I started, because there
was a need and I just felt that they should
have the same opportunities as others in these other areas.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
So what did you start doing after that?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
So I first started to say, okay, I'm going to
do a game night. So my first time of doing
it was at the Violence Bronze and Library and it
was challenging me because at the time when I started it,
I wasn't a nonprofit. I was just a parent try
and get things done. But since my husband and I
were the founders of the Autum and Speaks WALK, I
had a great relationship with Autism and Speaks and so
(03:17):
they collaborate with me so I could use, you know,
work with them as a nonprofit to go to these facilities.
So we first started off at the library and that
was great, and then I was I was thinking bigger
and I was like, well, I graded from post university.
I want our kids to get more engaged with neurotypical
people and it'd be great if this college get involved.
(03:38):
So I communicated with the post university for quite a
bit of time and finally agreed, and again we collaborated
what autin speaks so we could go there be as
a nonprofit. And so we had these game nights, which
were amazing because these student athletes would fight to volunteer
to play games with our group of young young and
(04:02):
we it was nothing digital. It had to be a game.
So we played. Oh no, we played Apples and apples.
We did bingle and that was great and took COVID hit.
So then I started seeking some other things. It's like, well, okay,
let me find some other places that we'd go to.
I'll have a conversation with this organization saying, hey, we're
(04:24):
a group of individuals who are on a spectrum. We
have certain needs, we have sensory or they have certain behaviors,
and we wanted to be able for them to go
somewhere and not be judged. So one of the other
things is that, okay, I was try and think of
something else of skill, and I was like, okay, they
need a cooking skill. It's a lot of decide based
(04:45):
on what I see, what Chase needs, yes, and so
you know they need cooking skills, so I worked with
I talked to Ardi Young because we were going there
to eat and we became friends, and I said, will
you be willing to give cooking classes? This is Ardi
Young is a restaurant and now in southern ten They
were in Waterbury and the owners were amazing and they
said yeah, and they never taught anybody on the spectrum
(05:06):
how to cook. So you know, of course I'm gonna
engage crazy parent. I get involved. And so we had
these cooking classes and they loved it. And even like
the first one I think was hamburgers, and one kid's like, oh,
I don't eat hamburgers. I don't like hamburger. I said, well,
could come and just make it. You don't have to
eat it, could give it to your mom or your dad.
They ate the hamburger. It's these small things, that little
(05:30):
things that we could do as parents, and we just
don't know how much of the impact that we're doing.
And it just just drives me because when I haven't
these events, I mean, we've gone to Brassity Raceway and
they're amazing. We've gone to the suite at the Xcel Center,
so they have they could be by themselves. They could jump,
(05:50):
they could make their noises, and no one's looking at
them judging them. So that's why I call my activities
free to be me because they are free to be
who they are without being judged. And the one thing
that one of the things that drives me the most,
you know I work full time, I do get tired,
is when after we have these events like go bowling,
(06:13):
they said, you know what, I'm so happy. I'm happy,
like God, my goodness. Okay, I got to keep going.
So that's when I eventually became a nonprofit because for
us to use different facilities, you have to be a nonprofit.
Like I didn't want to be a nonprofit. I just
wanted to make a difference and make changes and bring happiness.
(06:33):
But I had to become a nonprofit so I could
have these communications again with post university and other organizations.
Any good funding is it's not paying out of my pocket.
But yeah, it's just just trying to make them happy
and make them feel accepted, and it could.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Be very lonely, I think for the both of you
as parents and as someone who's near divergent, because you
want parents who walk the walk and talk the talk
like you and understand who can say, you know, I've
been where you are. I get it. And the same
with right with the children. So it's wonderful that you
put this together because it blesses everybody.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Exactly because parents have to stay, they're going to have
conversations with each other. That's how we learned. That's how
I learned was from someone else.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
You're saying at the events, at the events on your website,
you have social chasers. Tell me about that.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
So when we have events, there are social chasers and
then social change. People think, oh, it's Chase. I'm like, no,
it's it's a pun on his name, right right.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Yeah, I just got creative with it. But we're actually
it's for all of them. We're chasing at the then
to be social. That's why we call it the social chase.
So social doesn't mean like Chase is an introvert, so
he's one part of social. But then I have extroverts, Well,
we got peace going to be social as well, because
sometimes they're two extroverted they're not being accepted because they're
(07:54):
not understanding boundaries. So it's you know, so when once
they join the social tche case they became, they become
the social chasers. That's where they are. It's like a community,
like it's a family.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Tell me, how do you find the patience to raise
a child with autism?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
God blessed me with patients. I just you know, when
Al and I first found out, because we didn't know
anything about autism at all, nothing, never heard of it.
Everybody saw a Raymond, but that's he's a savant. And
so we went to the neurologist and we you know,
did the testing and questions and you know, the first
(08:31):
thing the doctor asked, you, do you want medication or
like no, because we got to figure him out first.
So we never did medication. We were fortunate with that,
so like, we have to figure it out before we
ask him now. And so I looked at my husband's like, okay,
so what we're going to do. He said, we're going
to do. We're gona take care of our kid, and
that's what we did. So after that, it was just
(08:52):
just taking care of him. So I don't know if
patience or not. It's just any other parent. You're just
being to mommy and you just fight. So I was
on the mission to fight the fight, not only for him,
but for others. And that's why we ended up bringing
the Walk of Autumn Speaks to Waterbury. We had that
for ten years because in our walk, we made it
(09:13):
to be a community walk. We got the community involved
and made them feel that you are wanting here, we're
here for you, and so we're very part of that.
And even the Autumn Speaks National came to our walks
because they wanted to mimic what we were doing, and
(09:37):
we even got award from them, recognition from them nationally
because of how we were addressing the walk.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
So do you have any events that are coming up?
Speaker 2 (09:46):
So, yes, we are having an event. We're very happy.
We're collaborating with the water Urban Air Jumped Zone place
in Waterbury, Connecticut and from ten to twelve on October
twenty seventh, and it's we went out the whole facility
thanks to a grant from Brenda McDonald's and that way,
(10:08):
with us renting out the whole place, there's no judgment,
there's no extra noises, and they're free to be who
they are. So if they want to make their noise,
you know, they're stemming. That's who they are. They're off.
They're there to have be themselves and have fun. The
parents must stay. We have no drop offs. There's no
fee for the parents to be in the facility unless
(10:29):
they want to jump. It's only ten dollars, as I stated,
So we're really excited about that. Our next big event,
which is already sold out, that we are going to
New York City to go see the rockets. So we're
really excited about fifty two people are going wow. So yeah,
again thanks thanks to the funding being the nonprofit.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Now, well, I know that if someone finds that they
have a new child with autism or a child that's
older with autism, Helen, you are the woman to speak to.
I'm speaking with hell and Taylor, founder of the Social Chase.
Go to the Social Chase dot org to find about
all of the information. You can see the gallery of
all the beautiful children on there. You could hear about
(11:12):
the four books that your son wrote which is amazing
or illustrated rather letter.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Critics written, No, I wrote and illustrated. Yes, he's a
published author.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
If people would like to make a donation or sponsor,
what can they do?
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yes, if you go on our website, there is a
donate button there. The Social Chase dot org and there's
also a sponsorship page if you want to become a sponsor.
We would appreciate any type of funding. It's it's always
appreciated to keep us going. So and again, we're one
hundred percent volunteer, so none of us get paid for
(11:47):
what we're doing. Oh, I just forgot. We also have
virtual Bingo every two weeks. You could join that. You
don't have to even go anywhere, it's virtual bingo. But
thank you so much for your support of the tunity.
Thank everyone for listening, and we hope to see you
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