Meet Katie Oswald | Peer Support Leader & Community Builder

We had the good fortune of connecting with Katie Oswald and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Katie, how does your business help the community?
We provide a sense of belonging and a place to be themselves for over 1,000 autistic adults all over the country (and some other countries). Autistic adults tend to have poor mental health outcomes including a much higher than average suicide rate. We have 80-90% underemployment and unemployment rate, even among those with advanced degrees. This puts many of us at or below the poverty line, and even at risk of homelessness. With all these challenges, it is so important to have a community, a place where you can relate to others and feel a sense of belonging. Yet many adults in our community have been extremely isolated and excluded from society. We provide that sense of community for our members.

We are launching new programs and finding ways to help our members build relationships, have their support needs met, and build their self esteem in the process.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
What sets Full Spectrum Agency apart from others is that we lead with radical empathy and compassion and value relationships. Although we are a 501c3 corporation, it’s easy for our members to forget this. I mean that as a good thing. When people attend our programs, to them, they are just hanging out with their friends. Autistic people are welcome to come as they are and be themselves, which most of us don’t find in any other setting. For some, that includes their home.

I’m most excited right now about a new program we are about to launch. It is an online platform that will allow our members to use their skills to help fellow members, earn credits for their time, and use those credits to get the support they need. Some people may be familiar with this concept of “timebanking”. So many of our members aren’t getting their needs met and this will help bridge that gap. We also have members who don’t believe they have any skills that are helpful, and part of the program involves helping members identify and grow those skills. Everyone has something to offer, but not everyone has been given a chance and the right support to find them. We are able to launch this program because of a generous grant from NEXT for AUTISM.

It was definitely not easy to get where I am today. Like so many other autistic people, I struggle immensely with overwhelm. I just barely made it through high school before I went into three years of autistic burnout. No one, including me, thought I would ever do anything with my life. But with time I recovered from burnout and was able to earn a statistics degree from Michigan State University. I served the U.S. Peace Corps in Uganda and finished my MS at Clemson University. I attempted a traditional career for over two years, but realized I was heading very quickly toward another burnout. I walked away from my career not knowing what to do next.

I used the skills I learned in Peace Corps – resourcefulness, problem solving, adaptability, patience – to forge my own path. I learned a lot about myself, how to advocate for my needs, and how to protect my energy so that I hopefully won’t go through autistic burnout again. It took me a long time to get this far, but I’m finally happy and successful on my own terms.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
This is a difficult one to answer, because my work takes me all over the state for events and conferences, especially in southeast and mid-Michigan. These are some of the things I love to do in Michigan, in no particular order.

Play board games at Gate Keeper Games in Berkley

In Midland: Walk on the Tridge, shop at Radio Wasteland Records, and visit the Chippewa Nature Center, Midland Center for the Arts, or Dow Gardens.

Visit the Natural History Museum and Matthaei Botanical Gardens in Ann Arbor and go out to eat downtown.

Have a cookout at Independence Lake County Park in Whitmore Lake, Heritage Park Nature Center in Farmington Hills, or Rolling Hills County Park in Ypsilanti.

Go to Comerica Park for a Tigers game and Pine Knob for a concert.

Explore some fun towns, like Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Brighton, Traverse City, East Lansing, Northville, Fenton, and many others. We have a lot of great downtowns in Michigan.

And in my hometown of Bay City, I love to walk on the Riverwalk, go to one of our locally owned coffee shops, buy sheet music and supplies at Herter Music Center, and pick up some sweet treats at St. Laurent Brothers.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are so many people I could include in this. My parents, as well as many friends, mentors, and loved ones have helped me to get where I am, but I would like to focus on my peer group members. The reason Full Spectrum Agency thrives is because of our members. Many of them volunteer their time to lead events and serve on the board, some are donors, and everyone is there for each other at peer support with a recommended resource, words of support, or an ear to listen. We are truly a community driven organization. It hasn’t been easy to keep FSA going and growing for five years and in those times where I was starting to lose hope, one or more of my peers would tell me how much our group means to them, that they are so glad we exist, and they don’t know where they would be without the support from their peers. Then I remember why I do what I do and it helps me keep going through the difficult times.

Website: https://fullspectrumasd.org/

Other: https://www.meetup.com/Full-Spectrum-Agency-Autistic-Adults/ https://www.meetup.com/full-spectrum-agency-friends-family-group/ https://www.meetup.com/full-spectrum-agency-boston/