Woman-Founded Nonprofit Highlight: Arms Around ASD Founder Michele Louzon Wraps Her Arms Around More Space

Business & Finance

Apr 1

By meg hale brunton

Executive Director Michele Louzon founded the nonprofit Arms Around ASD for the purpose of providing care, support, and services to autistic people, their families and caregivers, and the professionals who work with them.

Originally from Chicago, Illinois, Michele attended college for journalism at University of Illinois and worked as a stringer for a neighborhood paper in Chicago. She eventually went back to school and got her master’s degree in Counseling. She got a job as a counselor at a women’s health clinic in Atlanta, Georgia, a role that she says became more focused on community outreach, which she enjoyed. “It meant trying to keep women educated about STI and pregnancy prevention and out of the clinic except for well-woman care,” she explains.

Twenty-one years ago, Michele’s husband was transferred to Asheville, North Carolina for work. Michele loved Asheville and got a job, teaching sex education in local schools through the Health Adventure. “We could speak freely about contraception, sexuality and STIs in Georgia,” she explains. “But by the time I lived [in Asheville], the government provided funding for ‘abstinence only’ curricula. So, I could only talk about the importance of condoms if someone asked a question.”

Michele says she had always had friends who were (or who had children who were) neurodivergent. She had begun to consider how important a sexuality program would be for neurodivergent people. From there, she began to put together a curriculum of services, including pet therapy, for people with autism and those closest to them. After a two-year planning process and securing their 501c3 status, Paws on ASD was started in January 2015 out of Michele's basement.

Michele says that she mistakenly had assumed that most of her clientele would be kids. “Like so many people, I didn’t make the connection that autism does not go away and children become adults,” she explains. “The people who really need services are adolescents and adults.” Michele says that neurodivergent people can be in high school until they are twenty-two years old, but that services drop off during middle school. She explains that these individuals have very limited access to services after that point. Michele also has many clients who are recently-diagnosed adults.

As they continued adding more services and focusing less on pet therapy, Paws on ASD evolved into Arms Around ASD and secured a location on Charlotte Street in Asheville. During the COVID-19 pandemic, their services went virtual. When it came time to go back to seeing clients in person, it became apparent that the Charlotte Street location was no longer ideal.

Arms Around ASD’s board president at the time suggested to Michele that they check out a location in the Asheville Mall. “I was super-hesitant,” Michele admits. “But everybody was so nice. The mall has bent over backwards to have us here. Being in the mall gives us all kinds of new and different opportunities.” The new space was also about three times larger than the former location.

They signed the lease on the Asheville Mall space in December 2020 and moved in February 2021. The space, however, required intense renovations to fulfill all of Arms Around ASD’s needs. Michele worked with an architectural firm to create the perfect space. “We did all the painting, finishing, and so, so much cleaning,” she says. “People volunteered their time; they really stepped up.”

Michele was also thrilled to see Arms Around ASD’s mailing list double within their first year of being in the new space. “We have walk-ins five times a day!” she exclaims, stating that foot traffic has been fantastic for their top-of-mind recognition, as well as for convenience. “Public transportation is huge. All buses come to the mall. It’s much more accessible than Charlotte Street.” Michele says that many of her clients were taking two buses, and riding for two hours just to get to their old location.

Now comfortably positioned in their space near the food court, Arms Around ASD provides a wide range of daily activities, services, and even hosts a variety of events. It also has offices and professional spaces in which their volunteers and service providers can do their work and meet with clients. “Our focus is really different from most organizations,” Michele describes, explaining that they focus on self-care, improving cognitive processes, and developing executive functioning skills. “No one is born with executive functioning, but it’s harder to develop if you’re neurodivergent,” she explains.

Arms Around ASD now offers over forty services, including: meditation and mindfulness, acupuncture, belly dancing, yoga, art classes, chiropractic care, gardening, dental screenings, massage therapy, reiki, zumba, and supportive counseling and psychotherapy. The new location also gives them the opportunity to operate a small retail space. The store includes the arts and crafts of the autism community (of which the artists receive 75% of the sale), as well as ‘curated thrift items’.

Now, with over 1,300 clients and 75 volunteers, Michele wears many hats at Arms Around ASD. “To say that I do everything would not be an understatement, but I have a lot of help,” she acknowledges. “There is no way to get an organization like this off the ground without tons of people coming through and helping. It takes everybody coming together to make the vision happen.” Michele says that, on a daily basis, she can be found doing everything from running the front desk and seeing supportive counseling clients, to working on the website and social media, to doing the laundry and putting out merchandise. She receives no salary for her work at Arms Around ASD.

As Arms Around ASD continues to grow, Michele hopes to continue to expand the organization’s services. She is currently working on a physical and mental health program called ‘Be Your Best Self,’ that incorporates all of their services and allows clients to utilize them for points to earn incentives. She hopes to receive a grant for the program in the coming months. “Our biggest issue, like so many nonprofits, is finding money for the day-to-day,” she says, adding that most grant money is only applicable to specific programs, and not for the basics that are required to run an organization.

Despite the funding challenges, Michele says she loves the organization she has created. “Our community is comprised of some of the most interesting and wonderful people you can imagine,” she says, smiling. “I’m so happy to be here.”

For more information on Arms Around ASD, visit their website: www.armsaroundasd.org

To make a donation, go to: www.armsaroundasd.org/donate/