autismconnect is a registered charity (1084254) and is bought to you by a group comprising: The Shirley Foundation and The National Autistic Society.

The Shirley Foundation – The Shirley Foundation was established in 1996 by "Steve" (now Dame Stephanie) Shirley, who endowed it with a substantial trust fund. This fund is used to support a wide range of projects, primarily in the field of autism, through grants and occasionally loans. The Foundation has achieved national recognition for the importance and impact of its funding. Its mission is to support pioneering projects with the potential to have a strategic impact in the field of autism. In 1999 The Foundation funded the much acclaimed internet conference – Autism99 - which brought together over 100 authoritative papers on all aspects of autism.

The Shirley Foundation has expressed itself willing to licence other charities to use the software developed for autismconnect. The Mental Health Foundation has utilised this facility and recently launched a Connect site. The Berkshire Autistic Society has now launched a Local Connect Site which can be accessed directly from autismconnect.

The Kingwood Trust, The Shirley Foundation's first project, continues to give 24 hour specialist care and support to young people with autism and severe learning disabilities, whose challenging behaviour has precluded ordinary residential care (see http://www.kingwood.org.uk/).

The Shirley Foundation also founded a £15m state-of-the-art residential and day school in rural Berkshire for children aged 3-16 with autism which was officially opened by HRH The Princess Royal in May 2000 (see http://www.priorscourt.org.uk/).

A substantial loan has been given to the West Midlands Autistic Society to set up a school for autistic children in Herefordshire.

Other significant support went to the Wirral Autistic Society's community and IT centre with residential accommodation at Bromborough, Wirral.

The Foundation is supporting a major initiative at the Autism Research Centre of Cambridge University in exploring ways in which CDs can be developed and used interactively to teach the understanding of emotions and appropriate responses to people with autism. Birmingham University also received a grant for a web-based distance learning course on autism to start in January 2002.

PACE (Parents Autism Campaign for Education), having matured from a volunteer-run support network to a central reference point and communication link between parents, practitioners and government in improving educational resources for children with autism in the UK, has received support from the Foundation for a permanent base site.

The Foundation facilitated the formation of an All-Party Parliamentary Group on Autism, under the chairmanship of Dr Stephan Ladyman MP. Similar all-party initiatives in the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish parliament are being supported by The Shirley Foundation to ensure that autism is on the agenda of these new bodies right from the start.

These are just some of the initiatives supported by The Shirley Foundation  in furtherance of its mission to support pioneering, strategic projects in the field of autism. The list will be updated on autismconnect from time to time.

The National Autistic Society – a UK based charity created in 1962 which aims 'to encourage a better understanding of autism and to pioneer specialist services for people with autism and those who care for them.'