Empower Female Autism

Weekly course structure

1. The session starts with the facilitator giving a background on the charity and the study behind the course, the course overview and the facilitator’s personal story and experience in the area (just the first session).

2. Check in. Each participant introduces themselves in turn (4 min each). They would share their name, other personal information they wish to reveal and their autistic story. It can include information about when they first realised being different, main challenges, diagnosis or self-identification status. The introduction ends with what they are looking for in the course. Participants have the right to pass their turn to skip the introduction. The following session check-ins are shorter (around 2 min each), when each participant shares events that happened last week and any challenging situations they like to bring up or questions they may have.

3. Once everyone has spoken, the facilitator presents the topic of the day accompanied by slides. Participants can raise a question at any point during the presentation, and the facilitator can initiate a question to the group spontaneously at any point during the presentation to make it engaging.

4. 10 min break.

5. Group discussion relevant to the topic. The group might be broken down into smaller 3-4 person subgroups where appropriate. Some sessions may have practical exercises.

6. Check out. Each participant is called out in turn to have any closing comments or anything they would like to share about the session.