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About GRASP
History
In March of 2001, an adult diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome was asked to take over the Adult Asperger Syndrome Support Group of New York City; an offshoot of a parents group originally begun by Adele Foley. The outgoing facilitator, a wonderful man and grandfather (of an AS child) named Harry Feigenbaum, was stepping down. The new facilitator, Michael John Carley, assisted for a time by Philip Jimenez-Snyder, then saw the group rise from a list of 13 people, to a list of over 300 within two years—The likelihood being that an individual with the diagnosis had a better chance of eliciting the full trust of the group members, and that therefore the turnout rose tremendously.
In
2003, GRASP, the Global and Regional Asperger
Syndrome Partnership, was formed from a generous
grant and fellowship provided by the FAR Fund,
based at the Fund for Social Change in New York
City.
GRASP already has many professional
affiliations. GRASP works in tandem with parents’
organizations such as New York Families of Autistic
Children, AHA (Advocates for Individuals with
High-Functioning Autism and Asperger Syndrome;
also a professional organization) and The Connecticut
Autism Spectrum Resource Center; service agencies
such as JobPath, the New York City Special Education
School District 75; research institutions such
as those set up at NYU's Center for Brain Health;
and with other self-run autism groups. GRASP is
also grateful to be represented, free of charge,
by a major Manhattan law firm, Stroock, Stroock
& Lavan.
For the article, "The Origins of GRASP," published in the Spring, 2006 issue of the Autism Perspective Magazine, please click here.