What is it?
The Ocate Cliffs family camp will be geared towards families with one or more autistic members, and will have autistic and professional staff. A retreat setting allows for alone time, meeting people, exploring ideas, and fun. The main activities will be:
- Youth activities such as games and art
- Hiking, sunsets and campfires
- Parent exchange – facilitated discussions and presentations, sharing what works
- Staff and parent dialog – bridging the separations in the autism community
- Sleeping in tents or bedrooms
- Common meals
- Free time
When
Choose one of these two long weekends:
- June 16-19, 2022
- June 23-26, 2022
Arrive Thursday by 6 pm; depart Sunday around noon
Where
Ocate, New Mexico (northeastern part of the state).
Cost
Free or donation.
This camp has been made possible through a grant from NEXT for AUTISM from the proceeds of Color the Spectrum
Purpose and outcomes
Autistic adults will plan and lead a family wilderness camp for autistic children and their families. There are three important outcome areas. The first is for parents – sharing new ideas for how to work with us and giving the families a way to meet each other for support. They will be able to get insight from autistic adults in areas such as setting up a sensory friendly home or communication techniques.
The second is for staff – giving autistic people the benefits of genuine contribution, gaining experience in working with children with complex needs, and giving us a chance to change the dialog about autism to include us. It also gives those planners a transitional work experience, socializing with peers to combat pervasive isolation, and builds a community that goes far beyond what on-line communities can do.
The third outcome is addressing the polarization and politicization in the autism world through facilitated listening and other techniques from high-tension conflict resolution.
Registration
Please email star@divergentlabs.org to register. We will then discuss any special needs by phone.
Some other details and warnings
- Common food will be vegetarian and we will accommodate dietary restrictions. If you want to bring meat, that’s allowed but it must be pre-cooked packaged meat that does not leave residue or attract animals.
- To make it an autistic-friendly environment, we will need to be open to communicate in different ways. Depending on each of our needs we’ll arrange for rules that protect each person’s ability to be there and participate.
- Therapies that use aversives, reward-point systems, or similar behavior-based therapies are not permitted on the site, when they are in time-blocked sessions. If you use these systems and can take a break from them for the time you are here, you are welcome to come. The reason for this rule is that those kinds of therapies commonly trigger a trauma memory in autistic adults, so we are protecting those people and the autistic-friendly spirit of the mountain.
- This is a wild environment. There are bears, coyotes and wildcats. It may rain and get muddy, and sometimes tents leak.
- For communications, there is an office phone and limited internet. There is no mail, stores or services. There is cell phone access for some carriers.
- You will need to acclimate to a moderately high elevation of 9000 feet. Some people have a slight sickness from the elevation and most people tire easily for the first one or two days.
- Participants must be wiling to appear in promotional videos and photos. (Names won’t be released however.)
- Wheelchair accessibility: We recognize that this chapter of the Ocate Cliffs history is not fully accessible as it is a work in progress. The staff house and large tent are partially accessible depending on the type of chair. The kitchen and bathroom are fully accessible.