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ACE Dissemination, Training, and Partnership Efforts

Dissemination and Partnership Core: For Autistic Adults, With Autistic Adults

The Dissemination and Partnership Core is funded through the Pitt Autism Center of Excellence. The Pitt ACE Dissemination and Partnership Core is focused on building meaningful relationships with the autistic community and their healthcare providers and ensuring that our science is meaningful to the autistic community. Our Dissemination and Partnership Core team involves over 30 Pitt faculty, staff, autistic community members, and community organizations that all work together to foster positive change with the autistic community.

The goals of the Pitt ACE Dissemination and Partnership Core are to:

Build genuine partnerships and relationships with the autistic community and their providers.

  • The Pittsburgh Adult Autism Research Community Collaborative (PAARCC) is central to all the activities and goals of the Pitt ACE Dissemination and Partnership Core. We meet monthly with our community partners to ensure that our science is inclusive and meaningful.
  • We are expanding our partnerships with local and national autism organizations. We are dedicating resources to co-host events, organize panels, and elevate the voices of autistic people with these partnerships.

Share the latest science with the autistic community and their providers.

Our team is hosting ongoing continuing education series with healthcare providers, mental healthcare providers, postsecondary educators, and vocational rehabilitation counselors. Our series focus on the following topics (not limited to):

  1. Neurodiversity affirming practices in healthcare settings
  2. Crisis Supports for autistic people
  3. Unintended harm
  4. Mental health and suicide risk in autistic people
Our team will work to share science to the autistic community in accessible and creative ways. We hire autistic artists to design study logos and materials. Sign up for our ongoing continuing education trainings or contact us to get on our listserv to receive regular updates on ongoing trainings.

Bring and support new scholars to autism research.

  • See our training page for our initiatives to bring new scholars to research.
  • Trainees are supported in cohorts with individualized mentorship, career development seminars, writing groups, and journal clubs.

Maintain an inclusive and supportive environment for research that attends to and prioritizes intersectionality.

  • Autistic voices have been chronically excluded from research. Our team prioritizes meaningful community partnership with the autistic community above all else. This is central to all of the Core goals and is the foundation to the goals in all of the ACE research projects.
  • Our team embraces the social model of disability and maintains a neurodiversity affirming environment that is inclusive of all involved in our research.
  • Our team is prioritizing authentic engagement with autistic people from groups that have been marginalized, such as people of color and the LGBTQIA+ community. Our team advocates to approve and establish more inclusive research practices and processes at Pitt. We train our colleagues to make sure that all of our participants feel supported and heard. 

Complete our contact form or visit our contact page to sign up our e-list for upcoming workshops, trainings, and continuing education opportunities.

Community organizations and members – Let us know if you want to meet with our Core Leads to form a new partnership. We want to connect with you!