Hope For Three is honored to announce our April Autism Superhero, Giset King!
Giset is a bilingual teacher, and her passion for education has led her to create the non-profit Café Azul, to provide education and training to Spanish-speaking and bilingual families. Currently, Café Azul has held three conferences, more than 15 workshops, and over 30 events.
Giset started her journey when her daughter was diagnosed with autism. Giset and her husband started looking for support groups where the focus was education, but at the time, she could not locate one oriented to the Hispanic community or Spanish-speaking. In 2018 she started a support group called Cafe Azul Tx Autism, which became a non-profit organization in 2020.
Through Café Azul, her goal is “to inspire parents and people in the community to stand up and advocate for their child’s rights. Why ‘Cafe Azul’? Giset explains, “In Spanish, ‘Cafe’ means coffee.
In the Hispanic culture, coffee is like a hug to your soul, a shot of energy. Also, coffee is the favorite drink to talk with a friend or have at the end of a good meal; coffee makes you feel like you are at home. At the time, blue was the color representing autism. Giset said, “I know they use red or golden now, but the colors don’t matter. What really matters is that we still stand for education, inspiration, motivation, and advocacy.”
Giset is also a published author. She was invited to be part of a wonderful opportunity to become a contributing author for the book, Autism Relationships Matter, published in 2020 and available on Amazon. She shared, “It’s a beautiful book about the beauty, complexity, and vulnerability of autism relationships from different points of view.”
Giset is working to build a better future toward a more inclusive society. She says, “The rights and benefits we have right now are because of the brave people that fought for them in the past. We need to pave the path for new generations so they can have a better future in a community that accepts and includes neurodiversity.”
“Do you know of an adult (on or off the spectrum) that has greatly impacted the community, a Superhero? Hope For Three would like to acknowledge them for their hard work.