Episode 107. Safe Spaces for Neurodivergent Adults with Columbus on the Spectrum
Join us in this insightful discussion with Mehri and Maggie, founders of Columbus on the Spectrum, as they share their journey in creating a supportive and inclusive environment for the neurodivergent community in Columbus.
✳ Neurodivergent meetups in Columbus, Ohio
✳ Corporate training programs for neurodiverse folks
✳ Reshaping the perception of neurodivergence in the workplace and world
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
02:35 Challenges and Insights from Personal Experience
06:05 Creating Inclusive Workspaces
12:08 The Power of 'Weird' and Embracing Neurodiversity
16:18 Navigating Social Spaces and Overcoming Barriers
22:13 Understanding Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria (RSD)
23:01 Fun and Unique Group Activities
24:41 Person-Centered Theory and Its Impact
25:22 The Loneliness Epidemic
26:22 Challenges of Social Interaction
28:15 The Role of Honesty and Authenticity
29:30 Family and Upbringing
30:39 Creating Safe and Inclusive Spaces
36:31 Promoting Peace and Activism
38:31 Joining Columbus on the Spectrum
FIND THE GUEST
➫ Columbus On the Spectrum Website
➫ columbusonthespectrum@gmail.com
I remember kind of growing up, I learned that Walt Disney had ADHD and I remember thinking one day I hope I can be like Walt Disney where I don't have to learn how to do all of the other type A things that I'm terrible at. I just go on my idea and people will hear it and say, that's worth it.
Nobody makes history without somebody saying, what are you doing first? They had the best stories. They played make believe in a way that you never could play. And you said, wow, what's that? Everyone can teach something. Everyone can learn something. Our motto is we don't just not do hard things. We do them together.
So they don't feel as hard wherever you're planted serve around there. And if that's all you can do, that's fine. Get behind the thing that you care about and just do it. It took me forever to find my tribe. And now that I have. Are you smelling me right now? That's why you're asking? I mean, what happened here?
Maybe.
We wanted to welcome today, Mehri and Maggie, our two Columbus natives. They started a non for profit called Columbus on the Spectrum. This organization is serving neurodivergent population in the Columbus area. I am going to let you guys explain what you do and tell us more because we're just excited to learn about everything about you today.
Absolutely.
We're so excited to be here because this is a very new organization and I feel like we're doing some really amazing things. I want. people to know about those services. The story behind this is I've been working with people on the spectrum for over 20 years. I have ADHD myself, so I fall into that neurodivergent window.
So I had all these ADHD symptoms, and then I had stroke. And when I had a stroke, I got all of the sensory issues that people with autism have. So I had to learn how to navigate the city that I've lived in my entire life again. And I started to realize, well, if I'm doing that, maybe I should bring people with me.
So, we started the, the NeuroDivergent, it was called the NeuroDive Bar and Patio Tour last summer. Wow. So, I would go and scope out patios at bars in the city that nobody would know was there, that are super quiet, but that our population never would be able to find on their own because you would have to go through a crowd or come in a side door to get there.
Every week, we were able to go to a place that felt really good for all of us. And we sort of kept building from there. The major thing that I've learned from my stroke is I was running a studio that was huge. It was everybody's favorite place. It was wonderful. But it wasn't sustainable. I put my head down and did private practice counseling for about five years after my stroke, which brings us to now.
And the thing that I heard over and over and over again from every single person who had autism that I worked with was, There's nowhere in Columbus I feel like I can go where I will be welcomed. Not allowed in. We've got those. I decided to flip the script, which is pretty much what we did at the other studio.
My old studio was managed completely by artists with disabilities. So when people would come in and ask for a tour, they were being given a person with a disability. When they came in and asked to volunteer, they would come and wander around and then come see me and say, Um, what am I supposed to be doing?
And I'd be like, whatever they ask you for help with, but like, I need to teach them things, right? No, they're artists. You're good. You said you wanted to volunteer. Go wash their paintbrush for them. That's it. And it took people and made them realize that these people are their equals and that anything that you would assume they can't do, you kind of silently get called out when you walk into that space.
And so it's not embarrassing. It's just, wow. I, that changed something in me. So I thought about some of the guys I work with, a lot of the people I work with on the spectrum are in their 20s. And, you know, you're 25 and the only social thing you've ever done is something that either your church, your family, or your school put on.
Within, ADHD, autism, all of that, there are a lot of things that are just completely different. And what I've started to learn is when I diagnose somebody or when I send them to go get diagnosed, any neurodivergent diagnosis helps the person realize that they are a type of person with a type of brain, not I have a bunch of problems in my personality, but the socializing if it's part of the deficit.
to me should be part of counseling. When you have somebody who's really low and they come in for counseling, you can get them to where they need to be. But if you send them out like that and they don't have a purpose, they're coming back. They'll always come back. I took social, took the one on one aspect of counseling.
I took relationships, friendships and navigating the city and then added a component of job training. Basically took all that together. And Maggie and I, um, Started this organization. I remember kind of growing up. I learned that Walt Disney had ADHD and I remember thinking one day I hope I can be like Walt Disney where I don't have to learn how to do all the other type a things that I'm Terrible at I just go on my idea and people will hear it and say that's worth it All the Disney's only made because Walt Disney had a brother who didn't have the deficits that come with ADHD.
So I stopped and I said, if I want to do this work, I need a brother. And my parents didn't make a brother. So I found a Maggie. Maggie 1. 0. I have a Sophie 1. 0. This is good. We love those. But Maggie is somebody who I've known my entire life. We met when we were like 12 playing soccer in Upper Arlington.
She has the same, Love and understanding of people that I've had and we parted ways for a long time and came back and realized we were still like that and we still love being around each other. Essentially, I don't think that people on the spectrum should be let go from jobs because people didn't learn how to work with them.
If you have somebody who your boss says, hey, we're going to get a new colleague, we just hired some people, three guys over here, one of them's blind, just so you know. If you're somebody who cares to understand, you're gonna take some steps to figure out, okay, before this person comes, like, what should I know?
I don't understand why that's not done with people on the spectrum and people with ADHD, but to be honest, what I think it is, is because there's so much information out there now, people are almost like it's too much to even look. And, you know, Medicaid's being dropped in a lot of counseling services, so I adjusted the service.
From counseling to let's like really get the whole person. So the program that we have within there is called Whole Self. Whole Self is for the person who, when I explain this, you're thinking, Yeah, I don't think my, my guy will do that. He's 22 and he lives in the basement. He doesn't really do anything.
That's the person I want. We have a really exciting partnership with Jermaine because when you graduate from a place like Upper Owens and you're around a lot of families who are big in business in the city, I sat in the Jermaine office with, you know, the people who run Jermaine. And I said, why is it that you guys have this beautiful chandelier that you get to walk into every morning?
Whereas like most of the buildings I've worked in, have leaky ceilings and, and, you know, and there's something between them and that chandelier. How do we bridge that? That was something that 10 years ago, nobody would have understood. Everybody in that room understood. Everybody. They said, you're right.
They should walk into that. I wrote a corporate training program. We're training groups of HR. We're training direct supervisors and we're training sort of teams. So not only are we able to place a few adults on the spectrum, but we also are training these guys so that they can make a space for anyone who's neurodivergent who either has worked there forever and wants to disclose it, now they understand more about that person, or is coming
in new.
And then Jermaine gets to tap into this really incredible workforce full of productivity, loyal people, people that. Don't complain. What's kind of innovative about the programming that Mehri has written is that there's already some really great organizations doing job coaching, but we're training the HR representatives and the direct supervisors who learn how to hire, train, and retain people on the spectrum or people who are neurodivergent, you know, how to harness all the magic that can come with that.
Um, and anyone who knows me well knows I'm not a person for numbers. There are a few statistics that could not leave my head when I was doing research for this. The idea of a neurodivergent work program is not new. There are full large companies now that are completely dedicated to finding neurodivergent talent.
There was a study done, I think it was at Intel, and one of the outcomes on one of these like work teams that they had, they averaged all the ones. And it was 63 percent more productive. And if you have ADHD, you know why. Remember the last time you were sitting in a room trying to make a decision with five people.
Remember that the meeting time ended. Remember you have ADHD. You're impatient. And you're like, why aren't we leaving? Why isn't anybody talking? Because of that impatience, you might see that as a negative. It's not. Because we want to leave. So what we do, because our whole lives, we've already been finished before everybody else, because we do things quickly.
What
would a person with ADHD
Yes, sorry. That person doesn't look at the rock when everybody stops. They've already talked about the rock. This person knows and has been doing for their entire life. I want to get out of here. What's on the other side of the rock? Will that help us? Boom. You have completely shifted the perspective because you have pointed out this other part and then the discussion continues.
And then ends. There are negative things that come with a type A personality. We don't talk about them a lot, but we do because a lot of what we've learned is a lot of people are very depressed before they get their ADHD diagnosis because they think they're broken.
And
then, you know, they get it and they say, wow, that explains this and this and this.
And I wasn't just, you know, what this teacher always used to call me that I believed it, but that's not right. Right. Or they have a
partner that they're like, Why is this part of your personality? Yeah.
So, we know you have a neurodivergent diagnosis. And how did you come into it, Maggie? Because I, I want to hear the full story.
I know how you came into it. How did you?
Sure. Yeah. So, going along with her, Amazing t shirts. I love your weird. I've never had a diagnosis, but I've always had the weird. And I always had a pull towards mission driven and service oriented work. Since I'm Walt Disney's brother, I always ended up on the other side of that track, but still on the same trajectory.
During the time that I finished school and started becoming a parent, I stayed with that nonprofit work and learned a lot about the other logistical side, fundraising. Seeing that push. But Mehri was just describing, like, where you're in a meeting and you're like, Mm hmm. Okay, let's go here. Like, what, what is the solution then?
Why are we still talking about it?
I, I, I cannot express how much I connect to that because I hate meetings with a passion. I hate meetings because to me, they always seem unproductive. Well, and how did you guys,
you have these wonderful shirts. How did you make them? One of the things as an artist myself, sort of personally this year that I've sort of embarked on is reproduction of art because I'm realizing there are like a the trend right now in the art world is prints.
It's not originals. So I took that principle here because we tend to You know, we focus on four things and one of them is creativity. So instead of, let's wait till we have a building and a show, we thought, let's use this as a way for us to just spread our message a bit, but let's do it in a way that's a little different than, you know, hey, World Autism Day or raises awareness.
The word weird is one that I think people don't think about much, but if you were to think about it, Elon Musk, weird, Walt Disney. Weird. Weird. I am
weird.
I am weird. So on the back, so we said we love you're weird and then on the back it's I can't read it. It says every
human who has done something important in history.
Someone called them weird
too. Yup. There aren't people who you remember for things unless the thing was a little bit different than the norm. So weird, is it bad? It could be, but if you think about the people who were weird, they had the best stories. They played make believe in a way that you never could play and you said, Wow, what's that?
Nobody makes history without somebody saying, What are you doing? First, and so we decided to embrace and we want people on the spectrum to realize that you were born extremely creative. You stopped because you started to learn social rules and the creativity didn't fit into any of those rules. So we want to make it so that that word.
That's not a bad word.
Mm mm.
That's the word that identifies the people who are going to make history in 10 years from high school.
Yes. You know? The people that we want to hang out with. Yeah. Basically. Yeah. It's our weird clubhouse that we're making. And if you think about it, you
know, neurodivergent people are responsible for a ton of the automating that happens.
Also the entertainment in our world. The ideas. The writers. When the country fell apart during COVID. There was still a need, more than ever actually, for entertainment. So it wasn't the type A personalities who are good at spreadsheets who were helping everybody through that. It was the artists. It was the creative people.
It was the people who've been pushed out. So if you look at the neurodivergent, sort of umbrella. There's a lot to it. We focus on what I like to call the AIDS scene. Autism, ADHD. A lot of having autism as a younger adult now is about sort of exploration rather than, Oh my gosh, what are we going to do with our kid?
And I think it's because we're making these shifts.
Really quick before we move on, just cause we were talking about our awesome t shirts. I want to mention that not only were they Created by the A Team, but they were printed as well. Um, we use The Awesome Company, who is a great, uh, organization, business, rather, that does custom apparel and hires autistic adults, helps them create or other amazing jobs.
It's within the awesome company, all the way down to their marketing team, strictly the A team. Yeah, it's great. It's beautiful.
And you know, tiny example, you walk into the awesome company and the way that it's laid out is very much sort of what we're trying to teach when we're training people. My favorite part of that whole place is when you walk into the conference room, it is a conference room.
It looks exactly like a conference room. There's one spot in the corner that is just about the size of a computer. a very small desk. There's a person who works in there. He clearly likes to be around people, but doesn't like to be, you know, the center of attention. So when they have meetings, he just stays in there and works.
He has this space that like people know where he is. It's very spacious because space is huge for us. The Awesome Company are doing something that we love. Because it's not come in here, look at all these people who have extra needs and like we're babysitting them. It's these are the people who run our company with us and that's how we are going to do it.
Yeah. So for our programming, we have turned the humble beginnings of the Neuro Dive Bar Tour into our signature programming, which is a weekly adult meetup that has kind of evolved because we got that really base crew that we just adore. They have transformed and grown together. It's really
beautiful.
Now they're asking us, like, we don't even have to go scout out places. They're like, do you want to go to Dave and Buster's? Right. Like, you want to go to Dave and Buster's? All right, let's do it.
Right.
And it's a blast, first of all, but a lot of cool things have already come out of it. So
sounds like you guys are literally creating a safe space for people that are shy.
That may not have the social skills of the other people in the community. And so they have a hard time leaving their safe space, their home, and going somewhere and socializing. So you're creating a safe space as a group and then helping them go to places that they probably would never go. How do people find you?
People that are maybe a little shy, they don't even know if they're on the spectrum or not, but maybe they're sitting at home a lot, not meeting people. Yeah. Just how do, how do those people find you? I
think,
um, social media has been really helpful with that. It's pretty much been fueled. Yeah. From social media only.
When we're doing an outing, for example, we change the theme and we change the day of the week every quarter so that anyone can come over 18. It's always the same time. It's kind of the happy hour time of day, five to seven. Five to seven. Two hours, the perfect amount of time. Right. Which is great because I don't know about you guys, but two hours is a perfect threshold for social for me.
I get very restless. Yes. Absolutely. And the cool thing is all of us have. Issues understanding how much energy we have that's a huge thing, right? So there's nobody who's going to be angry with you for not coming However, there will be someone who misses you And a lot of these people haven't felt that unless it's in a work situation You're missed because you're not here and your job's not getting done But that's not what this is about if you want to come I will personally have a video session with you before you come on A tuesday, so you have a familiar face.
You have a familiar voice And also, so you, most people who are neurodivergent by this age, you know, in the adult age, they don't want to ask questions anymore. They don't want to say this is the accommodation I need because no one's given it to them,
you know. And it's so intimidating, you know, when you're going to a new place, you don't know where you're going to park and then you don't know where the door is.
And sometimes the buildings are confusing and there's like one side door, but it's actually not a door. You have to go to another
door. If somebody's like, Hey, can we go to this place? And it's in the middle of Easton. We say, no, they can. And it's great that they can have a great time. Maybe grab somebody from the meetup that you guys are friends with.
You text, you can go, but we're not going to take people in this group to a place. That's like sensory overwhelmed. Sure. At the speed Dane thing. Since a lot of it, that's people's like introduction to us. We make sure that we say in there, everyone can teach something. Everyone can learn something. Our motto is we don't just not do hard things, we do them together so they don't feel as hard.
Yeah. And that's kind of, we're exploring the city in that way. Um, we make sure that everybody's respectful. We have a lot of people, um, in this population, sort of neurodivergent humans, who say things like, I don't want to hang out with other people with autism. There's a lot that comes behind that statement, but what I've caught it to sort of mean from people is, I don't want to be with people who are on the spectrum who have less skills than myself.
I see. Different independence. Different levels of this, right? So we have a lot of divisive things, a lot of divisive words, you know, high functioning, low functioning. Yeah. Some people still use these words, but generally we don't do that because what does that mean if you're high functioning in Cleaning skills and low functioning in driving and high functioning, you know, I mean, it doesn't make any sense It's just I think us
humans we try to box people in and yeah, that's what the dsm 5 does That's what ICD 10 does right?
That's what our world of counseling does For insurance purposes, you know, we just try to put people in boxes, but do they fit in into it? No, no. And
so it's person centered. Yeah. You know, the idea of a group of people on the spectrum who don't know each other very well going out to dinner, if you know what you're doing, you would say those people can't go out to dinner without a structured activity happening at the same time.
So what we did was we made these surveys. That we're just kind of ridiculous. With the program participants. Right. We were going to make these surveys with the participants and then we were going to give them to them every time. We got four highlighter orange t shirts that said taco taster, right? We had the absolute best problem I've ever seen happen in my entire career.
Best fail ever. Best fail ever. They were too busy talking to each other to make the survey. So we said, okay, we'll just make it. They were too busy talking to each other every single week to rate the tacos. We had one round. of surveys. Wonderful. They became friends. Yeah, they became friends. It's
almost like you have to have some kind of a purpose for that group of people because without a, and I'm talking about myself mostly too, because when I'm going to meet someone that I don't know, it can be hard to be there for longer than an hour because I'm very purpose oriented and driven by purpose.
So if the meal. Finished. It's finished. There's nothing else that's coming. Yeah, what are we doing
here? What are we doing? Knowing what's around you and being able to predict your environment is, I mean, like, these people have always had to do. I think, you know, one thing that people don't think about is our city right now.
If you are trying to go anywhere that has the, uh, parking meter thing that you have to do on your phone. Oh, it's so horrible. I hate it. I hate it. And so if you think about that, like, Take that, then take the amount of people who from 2020 have PTSD that hasn't been resolved. Absolutely. We have shifted into a world that I think, for the first time ever, we actually do know what autism feels like.
Something between you and the world. It's our smartphone. Yeah. I'm standing in line and we're not talking about the weather like we used to. We have something that is a barrier, now it's the phone. And a lot of these humans experience life like that. There's something that's a barrier. Yeah. It's not a phone, though.
It's everything. Every time I'm talking to somebody about, let's say, hygiene, because hygiene is a thing with neurodivergent people, right? Are you smelling me right now? That's why you're asking? I mean, what happened here? Maybe. No, but this is something that's like, for a full grown adult, super embarrassing to talk about.
So I 100 percent make sure anyone I'm talking to knows that I have the same problems. They know that, you know, RSD, for example, it's Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria. If you're neurodivergent and you've been wondering for a while why your feelings get hurt more easily than others, that's why. There's an explanation for it.
But we don't know that. We have places where we hang out with people of all different ages. We used to. You know, churches and such. Now that's shifted. So we want to just, honestly, the purpose, the gathering, the we're all equal. These things are things that every human in America needs. And to hang out with this group of people in a world that is falling apart.
When I get, you know, these texts from these like new friends I've made that are like, I'm so excited or, you know, they'll send me four pictures like last night was a blast and it's all the same picture and it's super like low light and I can't even see but they're so excited. Like, I'll get random texts from sort of our core group.
Like, one of them a few months ago was like, can we go see a fortune teller as a group? Yes.
Yes.
We have somebody. You didn't tell me that one.
That sounds fun.
I want to do that. Jacob. Jacob. His goal for the year, which we are, um, going to do this. And if you want more information, just follow us on social media.
Jacob said, this year I would like to sing a Britney Spears song. I said, great. In your house, in the bathroom, on a stage. What do you think? Um, I think like karaoke, so on a stage. Yes. Okay. You want to be huge. You want to be small. What do you want? You know, normal size. Okay. I don't know what that means, but okay.
And so we said, all right, what else do you want to happen? He said, okay, maybe it's a karaoke night and I sing my song and other people can sing, but they can't sing unless they're singing Britney Spears. And we said, uh, I'll go to that. I mean, I go, Jacob, tons of people in the last couple years bought pink for their wardrobes because of the Barbie movie.
So I said, Jacob, if we're going to do this, let's do it right. Let's make it an all pink Britney Spears party. So we're going to do that. And if you are a place in Columbus who would like to host that, please give us a phone call. Um, but like, we listen to the weird idea and we actually do it. Mm hmm. That's beautiful.
And It's part of what we put in our mission. Yeah. It's person centered. It's all person centered.
Mm hmm.
And within counseling, within education, all these things, you know, a lot of people don't know the father of person centered theory, Carl Rogers, taught at Ohio State. That theory was used in classrooms, then counseling, and eventually for peace treaties between countries.
And it was, one size doesn't fit all, we need to come together and figure out what you've got going on and what you've got going on. If that man can take a one classroom, and come up with something that works for groups as big as countries. And we still have a one size fits all school policy, you know, all these things like we know that doesn't work.
Well, you know, and, and people are so lonely. I, I mean, uh, in my job, in my day job, I have 20 jobs, right? But in my, in my primary job as a therapist, I just talk to people and I, and I hear the same statement over and over again. It's, I feel lonely. I feel alone. I don't have anywhere to go. I, after work, I come home.
I don't go anywhere. I feel awkward to talk to people. I don't know where to meet people. I mean, this is just, this is making friends as
an adult, especially is so hard. Yes. Very hard.
Yeah. It's more and more people are just having, you know, a single apartment. They don't know what to do with their time after work that they meet people on the job and they may be friendly with these people, but a lot of people have families.
And then if you are a single person that didn't meet there. You know partner yet. Yeah. Yeah, they need to join your your speed dating group, of course But it's just it's just a problem right now loneliness. I think it's it's
that's the the the main issue And I don't know if you've experienced this in counseling land because I definitely have when I say everyone I mean everyone So what's your social circle like?
Well, I had some friends that I actually had like a really good group of friends We were all hanging out but like kovat happened and like they just didn't call me very true And then I say they just didn't call you. Yeah, they didn't call me back after kovat. Did you call them? You No. No. And if everyone is saying that, that means that no one's calling each other.
Nobody's calling anybody
the bystander effect on acid or something. It, it, yes. We're all doing it.
And, and we're, we're in a world where we are overwhelmed with choice, we're overwhelmed with information, and all those things make it so that people don't really know the information they need. And people don't trust at all.
And I, I mean that too.
We're constantly. We're constantly. You know, somehow being approached through email, through texts, through grocery stores. You're approached by people that are trying to sell you something, right? Sure. And you get overwhelmed and you don't know what decision to make. So you just stop making decisions and you put your blinders on and you're like, no, no, no.
So everything that anybody says to you anymore, it's like, no, no, no, no, no. Try to shut down. Because you can't process all the stuff that's coming at you. Yes. I have a
client who described that as. Copy and paste the responses feel like copy and paste because if we were to go below the surface right now we have so many things falling apart and so many things that are deeply upsetting to different groups of people that we have to stay in copy paste or else we'll just break down and for people like you and I in our field that's what we're doing.
We're saying no. Like, we're not. Come in. Let's go. But that doesn't feel safe because of what you just said. You know, you just put blinders on and you go, you know, when we talk about masking and our trainings, I say to everybody, this isn't something that just people on the spectrum do. Raise your hand if you were alive during 2020.
Everybody does. Cause I'm not training four year olds. Cause we're here still. Right? Yeah. And then I say, raise your hand if you told anyone in your life that things were going well at any point during 2020 because that was a lie. How are you? I'm fine. Yeah, we're the queen and kings of masking in this country right now because it's, look what I've got, because we know that nobody has anything.
We know that the people who have tons of money still, there's social things that are difficult. There's these things that are difficult. It's everybody.
Well, and you know, and the other side of it is, you know, I, I feel like, Everyone gets offended about different things, and it's so hard to decide who's going to be offended about what.
Yeah. That it's almost like I just shut down because I just I don't want to say the wrong thing. I don't want to say the wrong thing. And because I am a little, maybe ADD, ADHD, I tend to blur things out or not think through something before I say it. And I don't want toI mean, I do not want to offend anyone's feelings at all, ever.
Yeah, well, it's kind of interesting to like what the social and political climate and like the experience that we all had in some way during 2020, um, Meharie and I were talking about how like another characteristic of people on the spectrum is sometimes they're black and white thinkers, typically. But have we all kind of shifted into this kind of mode?
So you kind of, to stay safe, you just stay less and less.
I will say that a lot of this is very impacted, influenced by my mother. She's very much, she was. I grew up in Iran. Um, her dad thought that she was going to be a boy, so gave her all, a boy's name, Afghan. And all of the things that boys could do in Iran at that time, she got to do.
So my mom is used to, I shouldn't do that, let me just open this door and see what's in there. And then all of a sudden she's in the middle of the room doing God knows what. But she's, she's taught me, Wherever you're planted. serve around there. And if that's all you can do, that's fine. And I think Maggie and I are looking at this community and, and we're, you know, right now, you know, Upper Arlington was our community we grew up in.
Columbus whole has become our community now. But, um, Clintonville is where I live, right? And so in Clintonville, I see this very cooperative space that happens. But then we're not leaving Clintonville. I think that people, when things get overwhelming, the actual physical space in their circle has to be smaller or else they just can't.
It's too much. Yeah. And I think space is where you. are encouraged to be honest don't really exist. The funny joke that I make in this training with corporations is, let's say, you know, it's Friday, right? And you just got finished training, the two of us, right? She's neurodivergent. I'm not at all. Got it, everybody?
It's going to be hard role play, but sure, go ahead. Actually, I'll, you guys be the people. Yeah. That one's neurodivergent, that one's not. I'm the boss. Okay. Guys, great week, awesome training. I'm so excited you guys are on the team. Hey, remember, my door's always open and we really, really like your ideas. We want to hear them at this company.
Monday morning, comes up, she's at her desk. This one. Not even there. Oh no, you are. Okay. You are there. You have a very confused look on your face because you're standing next to my closed door as I arrive to work. So, one thing that I told you is guaranteed to happen, it was the last thing I said to you on Friday, already is not happening.
Right. Because these people are literal. Then, you say, We want to hear your ideas. That is something that people have to do because psychologically, most people will not share their ideas. Unfortunately, this crew has endless ideas. So when they say we want to hear all of your ideas, You're going to hear them.
There's a lot right now. Well, once you open your door, I'm trying to get into my office and this person is like basically walking into my office at the exact same time as me with a notebook, sits down, makes herself comfortable and starts to read her ideas. And I say to the people in training, you just created the most annoying employee in the office.
And it was all because they were following what you said. If we shift just a bit, everyone can be fine. And I think that the people who are brave enough to make those shifts. People like you, people like us, people who are stopping and saying, wait a minute, I think that there's more we can do here. And stopping and saying, sitting on a couch, talking to each other might be a bit more important right now than getting a promotion.
Human connection has always been the most important thing, but now it's not. It's the most important thing because it's not there. It's desperately needed. Yeah. Mm hmm. And, you know, people used to go to church whether they believed it or not. There was a community. Yes. Exactly. And now there's less
and less of that community and people are more and more stalking their little places.
space wherever they're at. When it used to be,
you know, family dinner. Yeah. At least you're all coming together for a meal so that the family can develop values and beliefs together. We actually have somebody on our board, Nancy Rapport, who has an incredible brain, did school counseling for her entire career.
She and her brother are starting a, like, counseling style organization to help families that have this problem and want values, beliefs. They want that, but they don't know how to make it anymore because it used to be six o'clock news was the news. Yeah. That means you eat before then and then you watch the news.
Like, you know, all the things. How was school today? What's going on with you? And when it's what's going on with you, how was school today? But there's a TV on and You can't focus. That's on the phone. We're all supposed to be multitasking
at all times. Nobody's
listening. And so, so Nancy, I believe, is one of these humans who steps into brevity and said, You know what?
We can try this different way and do it. But it's brevity. That's all it is. And none of us have it right now. In this, the people we get to meet, they want to be brave with us for this. Yeah. You know, we did something with the CABA, the Clintonville Bureau of Investigation. area business association on World Autism Awareness Day at the beginning of the month.
These guys, a lot of them didn't tell us anything that connected them to autism. They just were like, wow. We want to be a part of that. We want to be a part of that. Yeah. You know? And I tell people all the time, I joke with Jacob, our, one of our main dudes. So if you want your life to be happier, give Jacob your phone number because this man, he's wonderful.
I get texts from him. Hi, Mary. I had a really good time yesterday when we got burgers and fries. I'm really sorry. I just wanted to make sure you knew that in three weeks on this date, I'm not going to be able to come to Columbus on the spectrum. I love that because that's you just at your purest form saying, Hey, I care.
I care. I love this. And I want to make sure you don't forget. When I leave because I'll be back and then you become more independent because you're like I gotta get to that. Yes.
Um, and beautiful. Before we finish today, what is your naked truth? And I can start. Yeah, please do. If you guys, um, my naked truth for the day is thank you guys for being out there, existing and making it possible for people who are a little shy or maybe a little awkward and that you create safe space and that you are a safe crowd where people can go and feel accepted.
Thank you
for that. Thank you. Thank you. Um, mine is, and the verbiage is on our website under sort of my story, mine is, it took me forever to find my tribe. And now that I have, come join me. I mean, I did, I did the legwork. It was hard, you know, and I found my tribe and it's this.
And
yeah. So, like, come on.
You know? Just join us. It took forever. But, like, we're here. So, welcome. I
guess my Naked Truth would just be how much I've learned about how everyone's minds can work, and, like, the beauty in those differences, and just, like, I've learned so much about myself. And I feel I've just gained so much from this work.
So, thanks, Mehri.
Yes, thank you for making this possible. And I want to say thank you to your mother, and you need to tell us a little more about your mom. We all should say thank you.
Okay, so Afrem
Davis. also for hosting us. Oh, of course. Yes.
Of course. If you know Clintonville, you know Afrem Davis, my mother.
For the last 30 years, she has stood on the corner of North Broadway and High Street every Saturday from noon to one. for 30 some years with a peace sign that I painted for her. When the peace sign wears down, she asks me to paint it again. When I asked my dad in high school, why does mom do that? I started learning about activism and this, and I said, there's other stuff she could do, you know?
Of course, we think we know everything when we're that age, right? And, uh, he said she does do other stuff. But she does that because that's the one thing she couldn't do in Iran. So like my mother feeling the freedom of being in the United States, that's her exercising it. And that's also her being, I think the thing that I didn't catch until like the last decade, my mother doesn't have signs that say, no, this, no, that.
Instead of Being angry with the problem, she's promoting the solution, and promoting the thing she cares about instead of being angry with the thing and yelling about it. Those things, what does that do? It gives you the peace of mind as the person doing it, that you're not just, Fighting something all the time.
It's like no, I'm really just here to spread peace and also like extra exercise my rights here You know and bloom where you're planted my mom help right around you wherever you're planted And she didn't teach me that by telling me that you know, she showed it to you Yeah, it's me every day and for the last 30 years.
She's showing it to everyone in Clintonville, huh? She is. Yeah when The elections were happening and things got real difficult around here. My whole family had to have a little intervention with my mom because my mom is, you tell her she can't do something and she'll laugh at you, very nicely, but she'll laugh at you and just walk up past you and do it.
What she's shown me is get behind the thing that you care about and just do it. There are other people who are going to need it. Just get behind what you care about and do it. Beautiful, simple message, but beautiful. Very simple.
Yeah. Totally. So tell us how we find you again. So we're Columbus on the Spectrum email, which is columbusonthespectrum at gmail.
com. Pretty easy. Or our website columbusonthespectrum. com. And
when people want to find you, do they have to have autism?
No, no, no. To join your group. No. So most of what we say is autism friendly. So in speed dating, there, you know, there's a guy who got in touch with me and said, I really would like to come.
I don't know if I'm appropriate. And he explained to me that he has got very significant PTSD. So the sensory overload happens to him everywhere as well. And he said, can I come? I said, sure. So for that, we do level of independence and communication. So we say, must be able to communicate and date independently for that.
Okay.
And we should add, we are going to be, um, planning a, a, a separate event, also speed dating and friending, but for people who do need that extra assistance.
I see. But within social media too, we're CBUS on the spectrum on Instagram, and you can find us just Facebook Columbus on the spectrum. Within our website, you can join our mailing list, and remember, if you email us, it's just us.
You're not, you know, you're not gonna get someone who doesn't know how to talk to people and, like, make you feel badly or anything. It's, it's just come straight to the two of us, so.
Is there a phone number that you guys, uh, advertise as well, or like texting, or it's mostly email? What is our
phone number?
Um, right now it's mostly email. Yeah, that would be the easiest. We'll
give you our number. Yeah, our number
will be available soon.
Yeah. Very
good. So we're all invited. Yeah. Everyone's invited. Um, we have a place for you. We want people to know that, like, as long as they can respect the autism friendly atmosphere, we would love for them to be there.
That's perfect.
Well, I think you guys created a beautiful organization, and I appreciate it. Hope that our listeners are going to join the meetup group and go on a speed dating adventure or some other adventures with you guys. And thank you for being here. Thank you so much. Thank you. I
appreciate you so
much.
It was great. Thank you.
