A Legacy of Awareness and Acceptance: Claire Dees’ Inspiration for Empowering the Autism Community

Spectrum Autism Support Group started as the answer to parents’ need for support; it’s grown into the fulfillment of a legacy for Executive Director Claire Dees.

“My son, Blake, was severely autistic and nonverbal,” Claire shared. “He required somebody with him all waking hours because of his challenging behaviors and safety issues since he was unable to communicate.”

When Blake was young, Claire sought help from the school system to care for him and made a life-changing connection with another mom.

“This single mom talked to the autism director at the school who had become good friends with me because my son needed so much support,” she said. 

The single mom had her own child with autism and was looking for a support group at the school. The autism director saw the need, offered a space for the group and connected Claire and the mom. 

In October of 1998, the two women hosted their first Spectrum Autism Support Group meeting and over 100 people attended the meeting.

“Every month we brought in local speakers to talk about behavior challenges or speech and communication or self-care, whatever we thought was helpful for parents,” Claire said. “Then we started doing family events, realizing that a lot of families are socially isolated and just need to connect with other families in a judgment-free environment.”

As Spectrum began to expand and equip more families in the community, Claire’s own family experienced an unexpected tragedy.

“Blake suddenly passed away from a heart attack in 2011. He was 23 years old,” Claire shared. “He had finished school. He was a community volunteer going out delivering with Meals on Wheels and taking clothing to Goodwill with two adults supporting him.”

After Blake’s passing, Claire decided she needed to continue serving the autism community. 

“It’s become my passion to help other families, and I feel it’s a part of Blake’s legacy that I continue the work. When I drive up to our building every day, I think that if it weren’t for Blake, none of this would be here. I wouldn’t be doing any of this,” she said. 

Claire’s involvement grew from volunteer to executive director as she expanded Spectrum’s services, even catching national attention.

“We were on the Netflix show Love on the Spectrum in season 2,” she explained. “We do a speed dating event to make friends, and a lot of people found us because they saw the event on the show.”

Claire has also built partnerships with local organizations like the Hudgens Center for Art & Learning and Aurora Theatre to provide outlets for children with autism as well as developing after-school and homeschool programs.

The Community Foundation has been an asset to connect Claire with leaders and organizations like these across the community and to help Spectrum steward their funds.

“We were looking at how to best manage our money as we were saving to purchase a building down the road. That was a big dream for us,” she said. “That’s why we call our fund the Spectrum Dream Fund.”

Spectrum did purchase their building and has been steadily paying it off for the last few weeks, hoping to make their final payment in the fall. As the rate of autism has grown, so has Spectrum’s outreach and ability to serve this community.

“I’ve been able to attend events in the community so people could learn we are not just a tiny support group but an organization with camps, respite programs, family events, community education and training,” Claire explained. 

“Awareness is there. We’re focusing on acceptance now — accepting people who are different and understanding how to include them.”

Join Spectrum in sharing support for the autism community by donating to their fund!