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Support Groups
Want to start a GRASP Support Group?
We want you to. We want to be the
National organization we already are in as deep
a capacity as we can be. It can also be done,
given the portable nature of how we run our meetings.
Contact us at info@grasp.org
and we'll get you started in terms of understanding
our procedures.
From your end, we demand that you agree to running
meetings with the same goals and attitudes of
GRASP in mind. We also require you to follow our
strict subscription process, a system that eventually
creates a database of all contact info (especially
email addresses) of all your members. This way
when we send out National GRASP info, we know
people get it. The upshot (which we'll explain
how later) is that our process means LESS work
for you, not more. We also demand that you never
charge people for attending your local GRASP support
groups.
We lastly ask that you give some annual monetary
contribution to GRASP at least once a year. Be
this through holding fundraisers, through your
community leaders (i.e. the support group facilitators)
raising funds from individual donors, or through
identifying local foundations that wish to give
money to GRASP, we ask that you experience the
reward of being a part of our/your survival. If
GRASP is unable to create a financially successful
organization, then we will have proven very little.
So we need people to give. However, this can come
in the form of 24 cents from a cookie sale as
opposed to 24 million from an opera gala—the
monetary amount doesn't matter anywhere near as
much. But the feeling of connectedness, and of
contribution, to us here in New York and everywhere
else GRASP has networks—that does matter.
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There is a second way of starting a GRASP support network, though it is less-ideal . . . If no one on the spectrum seems ready to lead or facilitate such a network in your area, then paying for someone from NYC to come and run a group is an option. Though this option brings more money to our national office, it is less preferable in that GRASP willl grow more when its networks are run by people within the community in question (i.e. locals leading locals). Under this option, we keep and update all administrative records, we make the meeting announcements, we make the announcements of local events, we take the 3 a.m. phone calls (sometimes), the emails, and we make the advocacy calls on members' behalfs to employers, family members, professors...etc. If you'd like more info on this option, please email us. Two of our networks are run in this fashion—they are partnerships with other organizations from the local areas in question—and we can also put you in touch with the partners themselves if you'd like references.