Autism Village

Our mission at Autism Village is to create practical tools for those living with autism. Our current initiative is to create an app for autism families an also those and the spectrum to find, rate and review businesses that are autism friendly. With decades of experience as a technologist, sales person, marketer, strategist and board member from early to later-stage start-up companies to overseeing marketing for North and South America for global financial information firm Reuters, Topher Wurts founded Autism Village as a family resource that brings together all the key stakeholders for an autistic child or a group of children. Autism Village’s primary audience is the parents of autistic children, to “help parents lost in a sea of questions.” Wurts knows firsthand that the outcome for autistic children improves with intensive social and educational interventions with the aim to raise self-sufficient adults. From diagnosis, Wurts knows how daunting it is for parents and the parenting load remains heavy transitioning the child to school. “There is a ton of paperwork”. At school, there is a team of special education administrators, teachers, classroom aides and psychologists. At home, with state and federally funded programs, parents contend with a different team of psychologists, insurers, behavioral support consultants and case managers. Then there are the developmental pediatricians, speech pathologists, special education attorneys, nutrition and therapy specialists, play therapists and audiologist pathologists. All important groups trying to help an autistic child but they cannot easily communicate with one another because of HIPAA privacy laws.