Want to start a GRASP Support Group?
We want you to. We want to be the National organization we already are in as deep a capacity as we can be. It can also be done, given the portable nature of how we run our meetings. Contact us at info@grasp.org and we'll get you started in terms of understanding our procedures.

From your end, you must agree to running meetings with the same goals and attitudes of GRASP in mind. We also require you to follow our strict subscription process, a system that eventually creates a database of all contact info (especially email addresses) of all your members. This way when we send out National GRASP info, we know people get it. The upshot (which we'll explain how later) is that our process means LESS work for you, not more. We also require that you never charge people for attending your local GRASP support groups.

We lastly ask that you lead your group in one or more fund raising activities each year. Be this through holding fundraisers, raising funds from individual donors, or through identifying local foundations that wish to give money to sponsor your group, we ask that you experience the reward of being a part of our/your survival. If GRASP is unable to create a financially successful organization, then we will have proven very little. Through our national office and our network of support group facilitators we will provide you with lots of support to get your fundraisers off the ground.

There is a second way of starting a GRASP support network, though it is less-ideal . . . If no one on the spectrum seems ready to lead or facilitate such a network in your area, then paying for someone from NYC to come and run a group is an option. Though this option brings more money to our national office, it is less preferable in that GRASP will grow more when its networks are run by people within the community in question (i.e. locals leading locals). Under this option, we keep and update all administrative records, we make the meeting announcements, we make the announcements of local events, we take the phone calls, the emails, and we make the advocacy calls on members' behalf to employers, family members, professors...etc. If you'd like more info on this option, please email us at info@grasp.org.