Magazine Celebrates 10Th Birthday with a Slice of the Community Awards Fund!
Stockport based not for profit magazine AuKids is celebrating its tenth birthday with the news that it has been shortlisted to receive a share of Vernon Building Society’s annual Community Awards Fund.
The award-winning social enterprise was started up in 2008 by mum of autistic twins Debby Elley and speech and language therapist Tori Houghton. Their dream was to create friendly and practical advice on autism that parents could easily relate to.
Founder Debby, who launched her first book 15 Things They Forgot To Tell You About Autism at Waterstones Manchester earlier this year, explains: “When we started AuKids, there were no magazines in the UK written especially for parents of autistic children. I also felt that the material I was reading for my twins was dry and uninspiring.
“What I needed was a morale boost, some parenting confidence in the wake of an unfamiliar diagnosis and a friendly voice to say ‘it’s going to be okay’. Because Tori and I were very clear about what parents like me wanted, we’ve never strayed from that path and I think this – plus the light-hearted tone of AuKids – is what our readers like about it. We are very unusual in that we don’t survive on advertising but through subscriptions and donations. That means we can stick to our own impartial messages.”
AuKids’ editorial team of five includes an adult with autism and all of them work for free or a fraction of their professional costs. They are helped by a large team of international autism experts who have become firm supporters of the magazine over the last decade.
Co-founder Tori Houghton also runs Time Specialist Support, an autism support agency based in Old Trafford. She says that being in constant contact with autism families gives her a real sense of the sort of advice that’s missing. “With cutbacks to resources for support, something like AuKids is needed now more than ever. Parents need positive messages about autism and about their children, it’s vital to sustain their ability to cope.”
This is the second year that AuKids has been shortlisted to receive funding from Vernon Building Society.
“Last year’s funding made a huge difference to us,” says Debby. “It meant that we could not only extend the magazine, but also supply AuKids to support groups and disability events in Stockport. Many of our local organisations share advice in the magazine and it’s important to us that we give back to the community. Stockport has made AuKids what it is.”
