Grassroots expertise: Cheryl Poe and Maria Davis-Pierre
The people building the most useful support systems for Black autistic children and their families are not in the journals I was searching first.
As I continued to research neurodiverse leader voices who have created learning communities and partnerships, I came across two educators highly respected in the field of mental health care: Cheryl Poe and Maria Davis-Pierre. Both have podcasts that aim to support mainly the Black community, and more specifically Black parents of autistic children.
The mission of Autism in Black, founded by Davis-Pierre, is to provide education, advocacy training, and support to Black parents and families of autistic individuals.
These two community leaders are a wonderful example of the grassroots community connections and systems of support that have developed over the last ten years — moving communities beyond a narrow pathway of education and support for neurodiverse children who experience intersectionality toward a fuller, more robust array.
We have an incredible layered system of communication and a deep body of research over the past fifty years that lets us move from seeking a cure for neurodiversity to empowering neurodivergent communities: to create safe spaces, to teach us to understand the neurodiverse experience with more empathy and compassion, and to become the voices of neurodiversity instead of the subjects of it.