About ASBC

The Autism Society of Boulder County (ASBC) was founded in 2001 as a parent support group and evolved into a local national Autism Society chapter supporting Boulder and Broomfield Counties in Colorado. We are a volunteer run, charitable 501(c) (3) non-profit corporation. We rely on volunteers and donations, proceeds from our annual conference and a yearly wine tasting and silent auction to fund our activities. The Autism Society of Boulder County is a registered charity with the Colorado Secretary of State under the name Autism Society of America – Boulder County Chapter.

The national Autism Society and our local chapter have consolidated our membership and therefore if you become a member either of our local chapter or of the national organization, you are a member of both organizations. Our Board is elected at our annual meeting which usually takes place in May.

ASBC supports through our outreach an estimated 1700 families and professionals. ASBC provides education and awareness programs, eNews, resource referral and other educational and community services in Northern Colorado.

2008 Community Collaboration

The Autism Society of Boulder County (ASBC) has been awarded an “ARC” grant from the Broomfield Community Foundation.

This grant award will allow ASBC to provide five (5) scholarships to five (5) Broomfield residents who have a child with an IEP. The scholarship will be used by the recipient to attend the upcoming Wrightslaw IEP parent training conference on September 25, 2008.

To help achieve the goal of reaching Broomfield families, ASBC have contacted the following partners for support: Imagine!, International Dyslexia Association-Rocky Mountain Branch, Mile High Down Syndrome Association, Peak Parent Center, Learning Disability Association and EMPOWER Colorado.

The Broomfield Community Foundation was established in 1993 to create an ongoing source of funds for local charitable organizations. It is a vehicle for community philanthropy that enables individuals of both modest and substantial means to help “build a community with heart.” For more information about the Broomfield Community Foundation call 303-469-7208. The Broomfield Community Foundation can be found at www.bromfieldfoundation.org.

The Boulder International Film Festival and Autism Society of Boulder County, Boulder Premiere of: "Autism: The Musical" a documentary countering the bleak statistics with an optimistic outlook that follows the work of five families as they strive to complete a musical. Visit www.hbo.com for dates and times

Steeped in a sense of optimism, this remarkable film follows five autistic children, over the course of a year, as they write, rehearse and produce their own full-length musical, tossing aside all stereotypes in the process.
The film presents "autism" as an umbrella term that encompasses a surprising range of symptoms, (the director's son, for example, can only communicate through a computer-voice-synthesizer,)
Moving, dramatic and unburdened by reliance on talking heads, the film follows the joys and tribulations of the kids and their families during the production of this amazing stage production. It's so engrossing that when we discover that Hank, the kid with Asperger Syndrome and an encyclopedic knowledge of reptiles, is the son of Stephen Stills and his wife, it makes no difference whatsoever.

2007 Community Collaboration:

SketchUp, an award-winning design software product by Google is used primarily by those in architecture, building design, digital entertainment (electronic games and film), and graphic design. It was created by @Last Software, a small Boulder-based startup. After receiving many emails from professionals using their software telling them about their positive experience in exposing their autistic children to SketchUp, three years ago makers of SketchUp reached out to their local Colorado chapter of the Autism Society of America (ASA), Autism Society of Boulder County, to learn more about autism and why their product was attractive to ASD individuals.
Today, the SketchUp team and Project Spectrum is a part of Google. Recently Google officially launched Project Spectrum as part of the Google for Educators website (http://www.google.com/educators/spectrum.html).‚ It feels like we are at the cusp of something bigger than we dared imagine...

2006 Community Recognition

ASBC and its founders, Sue Thomas and Theresa Wrangham, were honored by the Boulder County Business Report as Healthcare Heroes in the category of Community Service for leadership on a healthcare issue. We were nominated by Boulder Community Hospital and it is an honor for our organization to be recognized so early in our endeavors to improve awareness and education in our Colorado communities regarding autism. Our thanks to Boulder Community Hospital for their continued support.