About AUTGEMS

AUTGEMS was the brainchild of two individuals, one of whom is autistic, from the Centre for Autism Services of Alberta (CFASA), with the goal of exploring the unique barriers that Autistic women face when trying to navigate employment. This was expanded early on to include non-binary/gender-minority individuals. 

Phase I

The Autistic Women’s and Non-binary Network of Edmonton was formed in late 2019. Various forms of expressive media and guided reflection were used to facilitate exploration and sharing of personal experiences of our employment journeys and being a gender minority and Autistic. 

Some examples of our group’s activities included the creation of…

• A graffiti wall to highlight our autistic strengths and sparks (i.e. passions);
• Poster-sized game boards representing each member’s employment journey;
• Wellness wheels to explore aspects of our current jobs that tend to be positive and help us to thrive and other parts of our work that may negatively affect our wellbeing;
• Clothespins hung on a symbolic laundry line to explore different barriers we faced at work and the strengths we used to overcome them (such as when one autistic member expressed that she overcame ‘feeling overlooked’ at work by using her ‘determination and tenacity’ to succeed);
• Poetry: members were asked to respond to several prompts regarding our employment journeys using descriptive phrases and emotions and then we collaboratively crafted a poem from our initial response.

Phase II

This phase concentrated on building the community by developing a website for connection and conversation. AUTGEMS aims to empower autistic women and gender minorities to pursue employment and leadership opportunities. The website contains curated resources from other websites, infographics of research articles that are behind paywalls, resources created by AUTGEMS members, and information about autism.