Autism In Mind serves 250 children and its Blob Café is open to the public
Suki Choi was a Markham daycare owner in 2011 when she founded Autism In Mind, a charity in Richmond Hill hoping to expand its services to include a group home and neurodiversity hub.
Suki Choi was a daycare owner in Markham in 2011 when a woman, an immigrant from India, brought three children to her.
All three were on the autism spectrum, and their mother was distressed. “I have nowhere to go,” she told Choi, who had not much knowledge of autism.
Autism in Mind or AIM, was born.
Choi raised $10,000 selling cookies to start providing therapy at her daycare for kids with autism. “That’s when I learned the power of community,” she said.
Years later, after the frequency of autism diagnoses continued to rise, the charity established a private school off Leslie Street in Richmond Hill, where last year it opened a café to the public.
Now with 70 full-time staff, AIM serves 250 children who receive one-on-one therapy or learn at their own pace, coming from as far away as Barrie, Ajax and North York.
This includes 10 students from low-income families that the charity subsidizes at a cost of $150,000.
But AIM’s goals have grown with the needs of its students and their families, and supporters hope a fundraising gala on Nov. 22 will move AIM further towards its $30-million goal.
Choi wants to open a group home within two years and a neurodiversity hub somewhere in York Region, which would include businesses willing to hire more than 30 per cent neurodiverse people in their hub locations.
That will go some way towards solving a problem for people with autism in adulthood — a severe lack of permanent jobs.
“They don’t need to fit in anywhere. They just belong in our community, and we need a place to help them belong,” Choi said.
The unusually named Blob Café beside the school also helps teach skills to fit this long-term need.
The café sells homemade cheesecake, chocolate chip cookies, breakfast sandwiches and the Blobpuccino — a coffee drink with vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup and sweet breakfast cereal familiar in Korea.
Here, people on the spectrum learn to bake, prepare lunch and wash dishes. Greeting cards and decorative soaps made by students are also available.
