Tomorrow is the big day! Join us to celebrate self-advocacy, community-building, and more. Our community does remarkable work in cross-community organizing, community building, and more, and it is a great honor to uplift that work each year. This year's gala includes two panels, Historical Approaches for Self-Advocates and Building Community Power, and our award ceremony. Come hear from ASAN staff members, Executive Director, and many of our incredible awardees.

Our events begin at 3:00 PM ET with Historical Approaches for Self-Advocates. Our self-advocacy movement does not exist on its own. It is a living creation put together piece by piece through the work of advocates throughout history. This panel will examine our past, how we got here, and how we can continue to build on the movements that got us here. We will discuss hard learned lessons and how we can apply them to avoid future road blocks to build a future that has a place for all of us. Grab your tickets and mark your calendar today!

We'll continue at 5:00 PM ET with Building Community Power. Unprecedented times call for unprecedented solutions! This panel will spend time speaking with grassroots advocates about the power of building community and what needs to be done to build collective power. Approaches include grassroots advocacy, mutual aid, and direct action. Got your tickets and questions ready?

And we'll round out the evening with one of our favorite events — the award ceremony! At 7:00 PM ET, we'll hear from ASAN staff and honor the work of this year's awardees:

• Receiving our Nothing About Us Without Us Award is Autumn Lauener! This award is given to self-advocates whose work fights to make sure that our community’s voices are being heard everywhere that decisions impacting our lives are being made.

• Receiving our Creating Community Together Award are FEDUP Collective and Clean Air Club Chicago! This award is given in recognition of autistic people who are working to grow and strengthen communities in various ways.

• Receiving our Loud Hands Award for Autistic Storytellers is Chuck Tingle! This award seeks to honor autistic people who are telling stories, fiction or nonfiction, that are making change.

• Receiving our Harriet McBryde Johnson Award for Nonfiction are Imani Barbarin and Day Al-Mohammed! This award is one of the oldest awards we give. It is named for disabled author, attorney and disability rights activist Harriet McBryde Johnson and given to those who embody her writings on life and the disability rights movement.

• Receiving our Ally to the Autistic Community 2025 Award is Allegra Heath-Stout! This award is given to people who support the autistic community, but also understand the importance of listening to and connecting with autistic people and ensuring that autistic people are part of both the conversation and the fight.

We've got plenty going on this year, and you won't want to miss it. Grab your tickets, check out the program, and get ready for the ASAN 2025 Gala!

Will we see you tomorrow night? Register for the gala to be entered into our raffle — prizes include 2 free year-long ASAN memberships at the Trivia Teammates tier — and keep an eye on your email after the gala to see if you won! 

Join tomorrow’s conversation with #ASANGala and share your favorite highlights, your commentary, and your outfits tomorrow, Thursday, October 30th. We can't wait to see you there!

Autistic Self Advocacy Network

PO Box 66122
Washington, DC 20035

 

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