Our Largest Champion Training To Date

28th August 2026 was a milestone for our Autism Friendly Champion Programme as we welcomed our largest attendance at training to date! 🙌

With so much interest, today’s training took place in a morning & evening session– bringing together an incredible mix of our emergency services, community organisations, local businesses and individuals.

🚒 Dungarvan Fire Service
👮 Dungarvan Garda Síochána
🪖 Members of the Defence Forces
🎈 Ready Steady Play South East
🛟 Helvick Head & Dungarvan RNLI
🪄 James the Magician
🚜 Tom, our local farmer
🤸 Dungarvan Gymnastics Club

We were also delighted to welcome:
🗺 Dungarvan Tourist Office
🧸 Denise Patwell – Play Therapist
🎹 Maria White– Music Teacher
🥅Abbeyside/Ballinacourty GAA club
👥 Colm Dalton & Shannon Cameron – our group’s newest volunteer recruits

This training was made even more special as many of those attending will be joining us at our upcoming summer event with
Autism Support Dungarvan “Meet the Heroes.” 🚒🚓🚑

For autistic children, meeting emergency service personnel or encountering uniforms, sirens, vehicles and unfamiliar situations can sometimes feel overwhelming. Building understanding within these services can make such an important difference particularly during an emergency.

To see so many different parts of our community sitting together and giving their time to learn was something very special.

A very special thank you also goes to Dungarvan Shopping Centre for providing us with our fabulous office and training space. Having this dedicated space right in the heart of Dungarvan allows us to bring people together, deliver training like today’s sessions and continue growing the Autism Friendly Dungarvan initiative.
We are incredibly grateful for their ongoing support in helping to make all of this possible.🫶

And with our Meet the Heroes event just around the corner, we cannot wait for families to meet some of these wonderful people in a relaxed, welcoming and autism-friendly environment.

A huge thank you to everyone who attended today and for choosing to be part of the Autism Friendly Dungarvan journey.
Autism Friendly Dungarvan
A community where everyone belongs.
Asiam.ie