The Transforming Autism Project is seeking a volunteer to join our team as our new External Affairs Lead.
Our Organisation
The Transforming Autism Project is a brand-new charity focusing on very early intervention for children with autism with a view to making transformative life-long changes that would not be possible later. We challenge the traditional understanding of autism and propose an inspiring, hopeful and truly empowering perspective. For more details, see our TED talk.
We are planning a revolutionary new early intervention autism clinic based on Israel’s pioneering Mifne Centre (see one family’s story here), and also a comprehensive online Hub of resources and inspiration for parents and carers of autistic children.
To find out more about our goals, values and activities, please view our brochure.
Although we are currently new and very small, we will need to grow quickly in order to make progress towards our large-scale goals. We are therefore – through our wonderful volunteers – building a strong professional team so that we can put the infrastructure in place to have the scope to generate and cope with rapid growth.
Role Purpose
The External Affairs team will be key in establishing and maintaining the networks and relationships necessary for us to achieve our goals, and to establish the foundations for future policy work promoting appropriate and early intervention in autism.
As this team is still in formation, the External Affairs Lead will have considerable scope to shape how it is established.
Key Duties
The coordination of research, and subsequent communication will be key, and will focus on the following areas in the first instance:
- Establishing links with potential ambassadors (including high-profile contacts) who will be inspired to speak up for the charity
- Creating connections with other charities with whom collaboration would be fruitful
- Ensuring our presence at relevant events
- Identifying and arranging speaking opportunities in various realms (charities, corporate, events, bodies, policy forums, etc), with some of these aimed at providing a revenue source for the charity
- Establishing and maintaining relationships with autism specialists (and potentially autism policy specialists), arranging interviews with these for our website (some examples here)
- Ideally fundraising support such as the identification and verification of potential trusts, funds, corporate sponsors and major donors
- Autism facts, statistics, perspectives, etc for our marketing material and Business Plans
As our Hub gets closer to development, it is likely that the External Affairs team will have a key role in co-ordinating the therapists, researchers and writers who will be creating the content for the Hub, and sourcing & managing the panel of experts (autism specialists, parents, autistic adults, etc) who will form the independent panel to support its work.
The Person
We are a strongly values-driven organisation, and are committed to manifesting our values in how we relate to each other, in what we are trying to achieve and in how we do it. You will be in complete resonance with these and dedicated to bringing them into all of your work and interactions.
To find out more about our values, please see our brochure or visit https://transformingautism.org/purpose/
How Many Hours?
This is flexible and can be discussed, however for a lead role such as this, our experience is that it requires at least 10 hours or so spread through the week.
The Transforming Autism Project is dedicated to helping create a world where all people are valued and treated according to their inner essential humanity rather than according to the many labels that each of us could wear (or that could be attached to us). We are thus naturally an equal opportunities organisation.
To apply, please e-mail your CV and a short covering letter to: