Teens Work Know-How Program
Transition to Work Know-How Program

Early Participant Application for 2025-26

Join Our Teens Work Know-How Program: Your Opportunity to Shine

Are you or someone you know a student, and ready to be supported in taking the next step towards transitioning from School into the Workforce? We’re thrilled to invite you to express your early interest in our Teens Work Know-How Program, running in 2025. This expression of interest page will remain open from now until 2026! This will allow us to showcase community need.

This early application will help us in proactively managing our program to ensure its the best it can be for all, and in our grant applications and advocacy work. Your early efforts are supporting us to keep this program funded, and our community supported. 

Please review the timetable for 2025 below before registering to ensure you can commit to this program!

Why This Program Matters

Our Teens Work Know-How Program is more than just a series of workshops—it’s a community-driven initiative designed to empower neurodiverse teens with the skills and confidence they need to thrive in the workplace. Here’s why this program is crucial:

• Empowering Futures: We provide the tools and support to help neurodiverse teens navigate the professional world with confidence. This program is tailored to highlight and harness their unique strengths. 
  
  
• Building Stronger Communities: By focusing on individual abilities and fostering an inclusive environment, we are building a community where everyone can contribute and succeed.  Jacob, our Program Manager, knows firsthand, "a lot of learning for our cohort is helping them cut through the jargon, explaining the first principles, the Why behind the actions taken, and being able to understand and mentor their curiosity".
  
  
• Advocating for Change: Your involvement helps us collect valuable data that showcases the impact and ROI of neurodiverse talent, how educators and employers can best support, harness and train your talents, and helping all parties understand how the spectrum may speak in a place of work. 
  
  This evidence is critical for securing future funding and expanding our reach and services to community, and more importantly, employers are businesses, this helps us showcase with tangible data, supported by our industry stakeholders, the long-term results of employing our community. The earlier our cohort understand themselves, their place on the spectrum, only then can they support, or be supported
  
  

Eligibility Criteria

To participate in the Teens Work Know-How Program, applicants must meet the following criteria:

• Age: Must be within the legal working age of 15- 18 by the time the program round starts.
• School Enrollment: Must be enrolled in secondary school or through the Home Schooling Network (HEN).
• Commitment: Must be able to meet the scheduled requirements of the program.
• School Support: Must have the school’s knowledge and signature for work experience placement to be included as part of the participant's school VET (Vocational Education and Training) learning.

How Your Participation Makes a Difference

1. Early Access: By expressing your interest now, you’ll be prioritized for onboarding in our final round of the current grant extension in 2025.
2. Future Notifications: You’ll be among the first to hear about additional funding and new programs from 2025-2026 if we receive further funding.
3. Program Development: Your early application helps us understand community needs and develop diverse program options, including school curriculum integration, holiday programs, and/ or online courses.

Real Stories, Real Impact

Our program isn’t just about skills; it’s about changing lives. Here is a story from our Team that highlight the social value of our work:

• Community Voices: One of our participants, "Emma", shared how the program helped her build confidence in a way that traditional approaches in school didn’t. She learned to speak to her unique strengths to feel more confident in job interviews and the transition process, understanding that what made her a leader in her basket ball team, and her love for sport, is why she is fit for the role; not because of her Resume. This participant then went off to work in a sports store at DFO.
  
  Another student, "Samantha" also suffered from stress related/undiagnosed tics, something that Jacob, due to his Tourette Syndrome understood the self consciousness of. Both of them, not being around many other "Tickers" connected, this report, this shared understanding, allowed for Sam to take of the mask, to transition from the timid shy girl who came in, feeling like her ticks would make her unable to achieve her goals, to one of the stand out students in our cohort. This preconceived mindset was brought to a halt; when she saw someone, doing exactly what she felted would never be possible. That reprograming of her believes, through seeing it with their own eyes, and being understood, was shared to be more impactful then any information, and a deeply impactful moment for both, and our program so far.  
  

Our ILC Commitment

Since 2019, supported by an ILC grant, we’ve faced challenges but remain dedicated to our mission; to deliver the Teens Work Know-How Program.

Despite the hurdles, including those from COVID-19, we’ve persevered, and pivoted through these challenges with the support of our community and stakeholders.
We continued to focus on leading by example, employing more lived experience team members, and exceeding past outcomes. 

Your participation is key to our success. It allows us to:

• Showcase Unique Talents: Highlight the skills and abilities of neurodiverse teens.
• Secure Essential Funding: Use collected data to advocate for extended or new grants.
• Expand Our Offerings: Create more programs tailored to various needs and preferences.

Express Your Interest

Ready to make a difference? Fill out the EOI Form to express your interest in the Teens Work Know-How Program. Don’t miss this chance to be part of a program that is changing lives and making a real impact.

Together, We Can Create a Brighter Future

Thank you for considering joining us. Your involvement will help us build a more inclusive and supportive community for neurodiverse teens.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AV - Empowering and connecting Neurodiverse Individuals for 33 Year!

AV Privacy Policy

AV Event Terms & Conditions

Teens Work Know-How Program
A Transition to Work Know-How Program

Participant Application for 2025

Join Our Teens Work Know-How Program: Your Opportunity to Shine

Are you or someone you know a student, and ready to be supported in taking the next step towards transitioning from School into the Workforce? We’re thrilled to invite you to express your early interest in our Teens Work Know-How Program, running in 2025. This expression of interest page will remain open from now until January 17th 2025!

This early application will help us in proactively managing our program to ensure its the best it can be for all, and in our grant applications and advocacy work. Your early efforts are supporting us to keep this program funded, and our community supported. 

Please review the timetable for 2025 below before registering to ensure you can commit to this program!

Why This Program Matters

Our Teens Work Know-How Program is more than just a series of workshops—it’s a community-driven initiative designed to empower neurodiverse teens with the skills and confidence they need to thrive in the workplace. Here’s why this program is crucial:

• Empowering Futures: We provide the tools and support to help neurodiverse teens navigate the professional world with confidence. This program is tailored to highlight and harness their unique strengths. 
  
  
• Building Stronger Communities: By focusing on individual abilities and fostering an inclusive environment, we are building a community where everyone can contribute and succeed.  Jacob, our Program Manager, knows firsthand, "a lot of learning for our cohort is helping them cut through the jargon, explaining the first principles, the Why behind the actions taken, and being able to understand and mentor their curiosity".
  
  
• Advocating for Change: Your involvement helps us collect valuable data that showcases the impact and ROI of neurodiverse talent, how educators and employers can best support, harness and train your talents, and helping all parties understand how the spectrum may speak in a place of work. 
  
  This evidence is critical for securing future funding and expanding our reach and services to community, and more importantly, employers are businesses, this helps us showcase with tangible data, supported by our industry stakeholders, the long-term results of employing our community. The earlier our cohort understand themselves, their place on the spectrum, only then can they support, or be supported
  
  

Eligibility Criteria

To participate in the Teens Work Know-How Program, applicants must meet the following criteria:

• Age: Must be within the legal working age of 15- 18 by the time the program round starts.
• School Enrollment: Must be enrolled in secondary school or through the Home Schooling Network (HEN).
• Commitment: Must be able to meet the scheduled requirements of the program.
• School Support: Must have the school’s knowledge and signature for work experience placement to be included as part of the participant's school VET (Vocational Education and Training) learning.

How Your Participation Makes a Difference

1. Early Access: By expressing your interest now, you’ll be prioritized for onboarding in our final round of the current grant extension in 2025.
2. Future Notifications: You’ll be among the first to hear about additional funding and new programs from 2025-2026 if we receive further funding.
3. Program Development: Your early application helps us understand community needs and develop diverse program options, including school curriculum integration, holiday programs, and/ or online courses.

Real Stories, Real Impact

Our program isn’t just about skills; it’s about changing lives. Here is a story from our Team that highlight the social value of our work:

• Community Voices: One of our participants, "Emma", shared how the program helped her build confidence in a way that traditional approaches in school didn’t. She learned to speak to her unique strengths to feel more confident in job interviews and the transition process, understanding that what made her a leader in her basket ball team, and her love for sport, is why she is fit for the role; not because of her Resume. This participant then went off to work in a sports store at DFO.
  
  Another student, "Samantha" also suffered from stress related/undiagnosed tics, something that Jacob, due to his Tourette Syndrome understood the self consciousness of. Both of them, not being around many other "Tickers" connected, this report, this shared understanding, allowed for Sam to take of the mask, to transition from the timid shy girl who came in, feeling like her ticks would make her unable to achieve her goals, to one of the stand out students in our cohort. This preconceived mindset was brought to a halt; when she saw someone, doing exactly what she felted would never be possible. That reprograming of her believes, through seeing it with their own eyes, and being understood, was shared to be more impactful then any information, and a deeply impactful moment for both, and our program so far.  
  

Our ILC Commitment

Since 2019, supported by an ILC grant, we’ve faced challenges but remain dedicated to our mission; to deliver the Teens Work Know-How Program.

Despite the hurdles, including those from COVID-19, we’ve persevered, and pivoted through these challenges with the support of our community and stakeholders.
We continued to focus on leading by example, employing more lived experience team members, and exceeding past outcomes. 

Your participation is key to our success. It allows us to:

• Showcase Unique Talents: Highlight the skills and abilities of neurodiverse teens.
• Secure Essential Funding: Use collected data to advocate for extended or new grants.
• Expand Our Offerings: Create more programs tailored to various needs and preferences.

Express Your Interest

Ready to make a difference? Fill out the EOI Form to express your interest in the Teens Work Know-How Program. Don’t miss this chance to be part of a program that is changing lives and making a real impact.

Together, We Can Create a Brighter Future

Thank you for considering joining us. Your involvement will help us build a more inclusive and supportive community for neurodiverse teens.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AV - Empowering and connecting Neurodiverse Individuals for 33 Year!

AV Privacy Policy

AV Event Terms & Conditions

Adults Group: January -

Online Social Evening

About the Adults Group

Our Adults Group is for older members of the Aspergers autistic community and those with other similar neurodivergent profiles. It is more suitable for those who are aged 35 years and over, although younger adults are welcome to join in. (Young adults may prefer to attend our Young Adults group meetings as well as or instead of this group.) 

The Adults Group is a parent/carer free zone - parents / carers of attendees are invited to join our separate Parents & Carers Group instead. (Autistic adults who are also parents or carers are most welcome.)

This meeting will be online via Zoom. We have included more information about Zoom and how to access the meeting below.

Volunteers needed

We’re looking for a volunteer Group Assistant to support our Group Leader and help to run the group. If you’re interested, please complete our online volunteer application or contact AV admin for more information.

About our Group Leaders

All AV volunteer group leaders are peers of their group participants and welcome new attendees. All AV group leaders have a Working with Children Check.

Cost: $5 for AV members, $10 for non-members. FREE for holders of a +Groups Membership and first-time attendees.

Community Guide: About our free* first-time attendee ticket

Become an AV member today to access discounted tickets for activities, members-only programs and interest groups, and to support the work our AV team does for our community.

If cost is a barrier, please contact our AV admin team.

Anyone wishing to attend an AV activity must register before attending.

For online events, you need to register to receive the Zoom meeting link.

Unregistered attendees may incur an admin fee of up to $10.

Community Guides (step by step information to support our community)

• How to register for an AV activity, view registration details, or cancel a registration

• How to pay for an AV activity registration (includes details for PayPal, credit card, and bank transfer options)

• How to access an AV Zoom Activity (includes tips on Zoom etiquette)

• AV Zoom Guide(includes details of in-Zoom features)

• Peer Support Groups - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) (includes answers to the most common questions about AV peer support groups).

For assistance or more information

• Call 0480 385 710 or email our AV admin team.

• The AV phone is switched on from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Thursday.

• Tech and admin support for after-hours activities is available by phone call only for an hour before the activity and for the first hour of the activity.

• Please note that our email inbox is not monitored outside business hours.

AV Privacy Policy

AV Event T&Cs

Adults Group: January

- in person social night

About the Adults Group

Our Adults Group is for older members of the Aspergers autistic community and those with other similar neurodivergent profiles. It is more suitable for those who are aged 35 years and over, although younger adults are welcome to join in. (Young adults may prefer to attend our Young Adults group meetings as well as or instead of this group.)

The Adults Group is a parent/carer free zone - parents / carers of attendees are invited to join our separate Parents & Carers Group instead.

(Autistic adults who are also parents or carers are most welcome.)

In each month where there is a fifth Thursday, the Adults Group has a social night out at a restaurant or pub.

This month, we are going to the Matthew Flinders Hotel. We will meet there for dinner at 6:30pm. You are welcome to order a meal to enjoy with the group if you would like to. We will have the opportunity for a general chat until approximately 9:30pm.

Volunteers needed

We’re looking for a volunteer Group Assistant to support our Group Leader and help to run the group. If you’re interested, please complete our online volunteer application or contact AV admin for more information.

About our Group Leaders

All AV volunteer group leaders share the lived experience of their group participants and welcome new attendees. All AV group leaders have a Working with Children Check.

Cost: $5 for AV members, $10 for non-members, FREE for holders of a +Groups Membership and for first-time attendees

Community Guide: About our free* first-time attendee ticket

Become an AV member today to access discounted tickets for groups and events, members-only programs, and to support the work our volunteers and staff team do for our community.

If cost is a barrier, please contact Jenni.

Venue information

• Matthew Flinders Hotel - 667 Warrigal Road Chadstone, VIC, 3148
• Matthew Flinders Hotel on Google Maps
  
• Matthew Flinders Hotel website
• Matthew Flinders Hotel - Bistro menu
• Transport: Holmesglen Station 350m, bus stop for 624 and 903 routes approx. 200m.

Anyone wanting to attend an AV activity must register before attending.

For in-person events, this allows us to ensure that we have enough volunteers attending on the night to support the group, and to ensure that the venue can safely accommodate all attendees.

In the event that the activity is cancelled or transferred to an online meeting, we will only be able to let you know if you have registered.

NB: Unregistered attendees may incur an admin fee of up to $10. Please note that first-time attendee tickets must be requested before the meeting and are not available at the door.

Community Guides (step by step information to support our community)

• Community Guide: How to register for an AV activity, view details of an existing registration, or cancel a registration
  

• Community Guide: How to pay for an AV activity registration (includes details for PayPal, credit card, and bank transfer options)
  

• Attending COVIDSafe in-person activities at AV. Please read before registering or attending.
  

• Peer Support Groups - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) (includes answers to the most common questions about AV peer support groups).

For assistance or more information

If you have further questions about the event, about AV, or need assistance with registering, please contact our AV admin team.

• Call 0480 385 710 or email us.

• The AV phone is switched on from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Thursday.

• Tech and admin support for after-hours activities is available by phone call only for an hour before the activity and for the first hour of the activity.

• Please note that our email inbox is not monitored outside business hours.

AV Privacy Policy

AV Event T&Cs

Book Club: January

About the AV Book Club

If you enjoy reading fiction and would like to have an incentive to read more, expand your reading list, and to meet with others to share your thoughts and insights and to hear others' perspectives, consider joining the AV Book Club for your next literary adventure. We read and discuss work by autistic authors as well as non-autistic authors.

This month, we will discuss The Deep by Rivers Solomon

After savouring her critically acclaimed debut novel, An Unkindness of Ghosts, we’re diving back into the soulful, creative and unique voice of autistic author, Rivers Solomon. Her second novella, The Deep, was nominated for the Goodreads 2019 Readers’ Favourite Science Fiction Award.

Yetu holds the memories for her people. Her people, the wajinru – water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slavers – live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one. Yetu remembers for all the wajinru, and the memories are destroying her. And so she flees to the surface, escaping the memories, expectations and responsibilities – and discovers a world the wajinru left behind long ago.

Yetu will learn more than she ever expected to about her own past – and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identities – and own who they really are. Inspired by the hit song by clipping., The Deep will resonate long after the last page is turned.

How to access this book

• Book Club book access and purchase guide for 2025 list.
  

Cost: $5 for AV members, $10 for non-members.

Become an AV member today to access discounted tickets for groups and events, members-only programs and interest groups, and to support all the wonderful work our volunteers and staff team do for our community.

If cost is a barrier, please contact AV admin.

All attendees must register before attending an AV activity.

For online activities, you will need to register to receive the Zoom meeting link.

Community Guides (step by step information to support our community)

• How to register for an AV activity

• How to view your registration details or cancel a registration
  

• How to access an AV Zoom Activity (includes tips on Zoom etiquette)

• AV Zoom Guide (includes details of in-Zoom features)

For more information

• Call 0480 385 710, or email our AV admin team.
  

• The AV phone is switched on from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Thursday.

• Tech and admin support for after-hours activities is available by phone call only an hour before the activity start time and for the first hour of the activity.

• Please note that our email inbox is not monitored outside business hours.

AV Groups Way

AV Privacy Policy

AV Event Terms & Conditions

Partners Group: February

- In person meeting

About our Partners Group

Join our Partners Peer Support Group to meet other adults who are or who have been in a relationship with someone who has Aspergers, is autistic, or has a similar neurodivergent profile. Sharing experiences within the safe environment of our peer support meetings can be a lifeline, and sharing with people who have similar lived experience is validating and often educational. Your partner may be self-diagnosed or have a formal diagnosis, and you may share a household or live separately. We are an inclusive group and welcome partners of all genders and relationship types.

This session is facilitated by our Partners Group Leaders. All AV volunteer group leaders are peers of their group participants and welcome new attendees.

Cost: $10 for members, $15 for non-members, FREE for +Groups membership holders and first-time attendees.

Community Guide: About our free* first-time attendee ticket

Become an AV member today to access discounted tickets for activities, members-only programs and interest groups, and to support the work our AV team does for our community.

If cost is a barrier, please contact our AV admin team.

Venue Information 

Mount Street Neighbourhood House - 6 Mount Street, Glen Waverley VIC 

Mount Street Neighbourhood House website

Mount Street Neighbourhood House on googl maps

Public transport: Glen Waverley Station (600m). 734, 736, 742, 623, 850, 855, 902, 967, 737 & 754 bus (600m). On-street parking.

Anyone wishing to attend an AV activity must register before attending.

For in-person events, this allows us to ensure that we have enough volunteers attending on the night to support the group, and to ensure that the venue can safely accommodate all attendees.

In the event that the activity is cancelled or transferred to an online meeting, we will only be able to let you know if you have registered. First-time attendee tickets must be requested at least 24 hours before the meeting.

NB: Unregistered attendees may incur an admin fee of up to $10.

Community Guides (step by step information to support our community)

• How to register for an AV activity, view registration details, or cancel a registration 

• How to pay for an AV activity registration (includes details for PayPal, credit card, and bank transfer options)

• Attending COVIDSafe in-person activities at AV. Please read before registering or attending.
  

• Peer Support Groups - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) (includes answers to the most common questions about AV peer support groups).

For assistance or more information

• Call 0480 385 710 or email our AV admin team.

• The AV phone is switched on from 9am to 5pm, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.

Privacy Policy

AV Event Terms & Conditions

Parents & Carers Group: February

- online meeting

About the Parents & Carers Group

This is an online peer support meeting open to all parents and carers (including autistic parents / carers) of Aspergers / autistic children, teens and adults to meet, chat, exchange ideas and find support.

About our Group Leaders

Our Parents & Carers Group Leaders are Toni, Jenny, and Sue.

All AV volunteer group leaders share the lived experience of their group participants and welcome new attendees. All AV group leaders have a Working with Children Check.

Cost: $5 for AV members, $10 for non-members. FREE for +Groups membership holders and first-time attendees.

Community Guide: About our free* first-time attendee ticket

Become an AV member today to access discounted tickets for activities, members-only programs and interest groups, and to support the work our AV team does for our community.

If cost is a barrier, please contact our AV admin team.

Anyone wishing to attend an AV activity must register before attending.

For online events, you will need to register to receive the Zoom meeting link / Discord link. First-time attendee tickets must be requested at least 24 hours before the meeting.

NB: Unregistered attendees may incur an admin fee of up to $10.

Community Guides (step by step information to support our community)

• How to register for an AV activity, view registration details, or cancel a registration 

• How to pay for an AV activity registration (includes details for PayPal, credit card, and bank transfer options)

• How to access an AV Zoom Activity (includes tips on Zoom etiquette)

• AV Zoom Guide(includes details of in-Zoom features)

• Peer Support Groups - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) (includes answers to the most common questions about AV peer support groups).

For assistance or more information

• Call 0480 385 710 or email our AV admin team.

• The AV phone is switched on from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Thursday.

• Tech and admin support for after-hours activities is available by phone call only for an hour before the activity start time and for the first hour of the activity.

• Please note that our email inbox is not monitored outside business hours.

AV Privacy Policy

AV Event Terms & Conditions

Book Club: March

About the AV Book Club

If you enjoy reading fiction and would like to have an incentive to read more, expand your reading list, and to meet with others to share your thoughts and insights and to hear others' perspectives, consider joining the AV Book Club for your next literary adventure. We read and discuss work by autistic authors as well as non-autistic authors.

This month, we will discuss Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin's Always Coming Home is a major work of the imagination from one of America's most respected writers. A rich and complex interweaving of story and fable, poem, artwork, and music, it totally immerses the reader in the culture of the Kesh, a peaceful people of the far future who inhabit a place called the Valley on the Northern Pacific Coast. Spiralling outward from the dramatic life story of a woman called Stone Telling, Le Guin's Always Coming Home interweaves wry wit, deep insight and extraordinary compassion into a compelling unity of vision.

How to access this book

• Book Club book access and purchase guide for 2025 list.
  

Cost: $5 for AV members, $10 for non-members.

Become an AV member today to access discounted tickets for groups and events, members-only programs and interest groups, and to support all the wonderful work our volunteers and staff team do for our community.

If cost is a barrier, please contact AV admin.

All attendees must register before attending an AV activity.

For online activities, you will need to register to receive the Zoom meeting link.

Community Guides (step by step information to support our community)

• How to register for an AV activity

• How to view your registration details or cancel a registration
  

• How to access an AV Zoom Activity (includes tips on Zoom etiquette)

• AV Zoom Guide (includes details of in-Zoom features)

For more information

• Call 0480 385 710, or email our AV admin team.
  

• The AV phone is switched on from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Thursday.

• Tech and admin support for after-hours activities is available by phone call only an hour before the activity start time and for the first hour of the activity.

• Please note that our email inbox is not monitored outside business hours.

AV Groups Way

AV Privacy Policy

AV Event Terms & Conditions

Book Club: May

About the AV Book Club

If you enjoy reading fiction and would like to have an incentive to read more, expand your reading list, and to meet with others to share your thoughts and insights and to hear others' perspectives, consider joining the AV Book Club for your next literary adventure. We read and discuss work by autistic authors as well as non-autistic authors.

This month, we will discuss The Humans by Matt Haig

Autistic author Matt Haig’s The Humans was nominated for the Goodreads Readers’ Favourite Science Fiction Award in 2013.

When an extra-terrestrial visitor arrives on Earth, his first impressions of the human species are less than positive. Taking the form of Professor Andrew Martin, a leading mathematician at Cambridge University, the visitor wants to complete his task and return home to his planet and its utopian society of immortality and infinite knowledge.

He is disgusted by the way humans look, what they eat, and the wars they witness on the news, and is totally baffled by concepts such as love and family. But as time goes on, he starts to realize there may be more to this weird species than he has been led to believe. He drinks wine, reads Emily Dickinson, listens to Talking Heads, and begins to bond with the family he lives with, in disguise. In picking up the pieces of the professor's shattered personal life, the narrator sees hope and redemption in the humans' imperfections and begins to question the very mission that brought him there – a mission that involves not only thwarting human progress... but murder.

How to access this book

• Book Club book access and purchase guide for 2025 list.
  

Cost: $5 for AV members, $10 for non-members.

Become an AV member today to access discounted tickets for groups and events, members-only programs and interest groups, and to support all the wonderful work our volunteers and staff team do for our community.

If cost is a barrier, please contact AV admin.

All attendees must register before attending an AV activity.

For online activities, you will need to register to receive the Zoom meeting link.

Community Guides (step by step information to support our community)

• How to register for an AV activity

• How to view your registration details or cancel a registration
  

• How to access an AV Zoom Activity (includes tips on Zoom etiquette)

• AV Zoom Guide (includes details of in-Zoom features)

For more information

• Call 0480 385 710, or email our AV admin team.
  

• The AV phone is switched on from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Thursday.

• Tech and admin support for after-hours activities is available by phone call only an hour before the activity start time and for the first hour of the activity.

• Please note that our email inbox is not monitored outside business hours.

AV Groups Way

AV Privacy Policy

AV Event Terms & Conditions

Book Club: July

About the AV Book Club

If you enjoy reading fiction and would like to have an incentive to read more, expand your reading list, and to meet with others to share your thoughts and insights and to hear others' perspectives, consider joining the AV Book Club for your next literary adventure. We read and discuss work by autistic authors as well as non-autistic authors.

This month, we will discuss Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge

Robert Gu is a recovering Alzheimer's patient. The world that he remembers was much as we know it today. Now, as he regains his faculties through a cure developed during the years of his near-fatal decline, he discovers that the world has changed and so has his place in it. He was a world-renowned poet. Now he is seventy-five years old, though by a medical miracle he looks much younger, and he’s starting over, for the first time unsure of his poetic gifts. Living with his son’s family, he has no choice but to learn how to cope with a new information age in which the virtual and the real are a seamless continuum, layers of reality built on digital views seen by a single person or millions, depending on your choice. But the consensus reality of the digital world is available only if, like his thirteen-year-old granddaughter Miri, you know how to wear your wireless access—through nodes designed into smart clothes—and to see the digital context—through smart contact lenses. 

With knowledge comes risk. When Robert begins to re-train at Fairmont High, learning with other older people what is second nature to Miri and other teens at school, he unwittingly becomes part of a wide-ranging conspiracy to use technology as a tool for world domination.

How to access this book

• Book Club book access and purchase guide for 2025 list.
  

Cost: $5 for AV members, $10 for non-members.

Become an AV member today to access discounted tickets for groups and events, members-only programs and interest groups, and to support all the wonderful work our volunteers and staff team do for our community.

If cost is a barrier, please contact AV admin.

All attendees must register before attending an AV activity.

For online activities, you will need to register to receive the Zoom meeting link.

Community Guides (step by step information to support our community)

• How to register for an AV activity

• How to view your registration details or cancel a registration
  

• How to access an AV Zoom Activity (includes tips on Zoom etiquette)

• AV Zoom Guide (includes details of in-Zoom features)

For more information

• Call 0480 385 710, or email our AV admin team.
  

• The AV phone is switched on from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Thursday.

• Tech and admin support for after-hours activities is available by phone call only an hour before the activity start time and for the first hour of the activity.

• Please note that our email inbox is not monitored outside business hours.

AV Groups Way

AV Privacy Policy

AV Event Terms & Conditions

Book Club: September

About the AV Book Club

If you enjoy reading fiction and would like to have an incentive to read more, expand your reading list, and to meet with others to share your thoughts and insights and to hear others' perspectives, consider joining the AV Book Club for your next literary adventure. We read and discuss work by autistic authors as well as non-autistic authors.

This month, we will discuss The Framed Women of Ardemore House by Brandy Schillace

A sharp, savvy mystery about an autistic editor who inherits a crumbling English estate, only to find herself at the centre of a murder investigation when a family portrait vanishes and a dead body turns up.

Jo Jones has always had a little trouble fitting in. As a neurodivergent, hyperlexic book editor and divorced New Yorker transplanted into the English countryside, Jo doesn’t know what stands out more: her Americanisms or her autism.

After losing her job, her mother, and her marriage all in one year, she couldn’t be happier to take possession of a possibly haunted (and clearly unwanted) family estate in North Yorkshire. But when the body of the moody town groundskeeper turns up on her rug with three bullets in his back, Jo finds herself in potential danger—and she’s also a potential suspect. At the same time, a peculiar family portrait vanishes from a secret room in the manor, bearing a strange connection to both the dead body and Jo’s mysterious family history.

With the aid of a Welsh antiques dealer, the morose local detective, and the Irish innkeeper’s wife, Jo embarks on a mission to clear herself of blame and find the missing painting, unearthing a slew of secrets about the town—and herself—along the way. And she’ll have to do it all before the killer strikes again…

How to access this book

• Book Club book access and purchase guide for 2025 list.
  

Cost: $5 for AV members, $10 for non-members.

Become an AV member today to access discounted tickets for groups and events, members-only programs and interest groups, and to support all the wonderful work our volunteers and staff team do for our community.

If cost is a barrier, please contact AV admin.

All attendees must register before attending an AV activity.

For online activities, you will need to register to receive the Zoom meeting link.

Community Guides (step by step information to support our community)

• How to register for an AV activity

• How to view your registration details or cancel a registration
  

• How to access an AV Zoom Activity (includes tips on Zoom etiquette)

• AV Zoom Guide (includes details of in-Zoom features)

For more information

• Call 0480 385 710, or email our AV admin team.
  

• The AV phone is switched on from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Thursday.

• Tech and admin support for after-hours activities is available by phone call only an hour before the activity start time and for the first hour of the activity.

• Please note that our email inbox is not monitored outside business hours.

AV Groups Way

AV Privacy Policy

AV Event Terms & Conditions

Book Club: November

About the AV Book Club

If you enjoy reading fiction and would like to have an incentive to read more, expand your reading list, and to meet with others to share your thoughts and insights and to hear others' perspectives, consider joining the AV Book Club for your next literary adventure. We read and discuss work by autistic authors as well as non-autistic authors.

This month, we will discuss Nine Minds: Inner Lives on the Spectrum by Daniel Tammet

Nine Minds delves into the extraordinary lives of nine neurodivergent men and women from around the globe. From a Fields Medal-winning mathematician to a murder detective, a pioneering surgeon to a bestselling novelist, each is remarkable in their field, and each is changing how the world sees those on the spectrum.

Exploding the tired stereotypes of autism, Daniel Tammet – acclaimed author and an autistic savant himself – reaches across the divides of age, gender, sexuality and nationality to draw out the inner worlds of his subjects. Telling stories as richly diverse as the spectrum itself, this illuminating, life-affirming work of narrative nonfiction celebrates the power and beauty of the neurodivergent mind, and the daring freedom with which these individuals have built their lives.

How to access this book

• Book Club book access and purchase guide for 2025 list.
  

Cost: $5 for AV members, $10 for non-members.

Become an AV member today to access discounted tickets for groups and events, members-only programs and interest groups, and to support all the wonderful work our volunteers and staff team do for our community.

If cost is a barrier, please contact AV admin.

All attendees must register before attending an AV activity.

For online activities, you will need to register to receive the Zoom meeting link.

Community Guides (step by step information to support our community)

• How to register for an AV activity

• How to view your registration details or cancel a registration
  

• How to access an AV Zoom Activity (includes tips on Zoom etiquette)

• AV Zoom Guide (includes details of in-Zoom features)

For more information

• Call 0480 385 710, or email our AV admin team.
  

• The AV phone is switched on from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Thursday.

• Tech and admin support for after-hours activities is available by phone call only an hour before the activity start time and for the first hour of the activity.

• Please note that our email inbox is not monitored outside business hours.

AV Groups Way

AV Privacy Policy

AV Event Terms & Conditions