Life & Work with Autumn Timmins of Gilbert

Today we’d like to introduce you to Autumn Timmins.

Hi Autumn, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Our story started 21 years ago when we married and wanted to start a family. After a lengthy journey of struggling with infertility, we decided to adopt a child. We were placed with a fantastic child six months after attending an information session for prospective adoptive parents through the adoption agency. We received our child one week after he was born. Chris was well into his law enforcement career, teaching defensive tactics and training officers. We noticed at a young age that our son was not meeting developmental milestones. After a lengthy process of doctor appointments and assessments, we received the diagnosis our son was on the autism spectrum when he was five years old. As devastating as the diagnosis was, we immediately decided that this would not define him. Autumn made it her mission from that moment on to find every resource available to ensure his success in life. Preston has taught us much about the value of slowing down to understand that everyone has different needs and responses, especially when in distress. At the heart of our non-profit is a genuine desire for everyone — including those who are on the autism spectrum — to get the help they need when they need it the most. As years progressed as a law enforcement family and a special needs family, we saw a need to reshape the inclusivity of emergency response. We wanted to foster a culture of knowledge, acceptance, and inclusion of individuals within the first responder community. We want to provide better tools within their duty belt and more resources and support for their families. Every encounter is an opportunity to make a meaningful impact and create trust within the community. Through our experience as parents and a first responder family, we lead the charge to help our heroes protect and serve everyone in their communities.

Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Parenting a special needs child along with a neurotypical child and being a law enforcement family has not been without challenges. We focused on teaching our youngest child acceptance, patience, and caring for all. He has embraced this and is his big brother’s strongest advocate. If he had been doing this at a young age, we would have wondered not to do the same. Throughout his childhood, our oldest has dealt with many incidents of bullying and a lack of understanding. He always comes out with a positive perspective. Because of our personal experience with seeing the need to give our children a voice, we found the drive to create this non-profit organization, not only for individuals with disabilities but also for first responders. We quickly learned that taking a mission and forming an organization has bumps in the road but is worth every bump. Along the way, we have found amazing people who believe in our mission and support our passion. Finding like-minded individuals who believe in you has been the key to our success. We still want to achieve so much more and are excited about all the possibilities.

I appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Our non-profit organization provides first responders (police, fire, EMS, and medical staff) education and resources on autism awareness and acceptance. Often, neurodivergence is misconstrued as impairment or defiance, and we are working to show that this is not the case. We are first responders teaching other first responders how to look beyond the book cover to see the story on the inside and provide the best care and resources to our community and personnel.

Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
Stay the course, focus on what is most important, and do not let the bumps divert you.

Contact Info:

• Website: prestonspursuit.org
• Instagram: prestonspursuit
• Facebook: Preston’s Pursuit for Acceptance