“Building Community Through Advocacy”

Symone Wheatley – Hey is a sole parent of two neurodivergent children, both of whom have ADHD. Her background is in senior executive support roles, however she has found her passion and purpose through her advocacy work, which stems from her own journey in advocating for her children in mainstream public schools and her volunteer work as state coordinator of Square Peg Round Whole WA.

 Through lived experience, she  has developed a deep understanding of the challenges and obstacles that many families and educators face. With a passion for helping others, she focuses her advocacy work at a systemic level, where she advocates for the rights and needs of neurodivergent children and their families, and to support those working in education to advocate for and adopt neuro affirming practices in their own schools and classes.

 Her advocacy work has made a significant impact in the community, providing support and resources for families in need and raising awareness to create change. Through her dedication and commitment, she has become a respected voice in the field, inspiring others to make a difference in their own lives and on a community and systemic level. Her dream is to create a community of support and shared experience where teachers, families and neurodivergent individuals can combine voices and strength to create lasting change for the children in WA schools.

Gowri Glasson is an Art Therapist, neuro-inclusion advocate and a late-diagnosed neurodivergent (AuDHD). Gowri’s 23-year career as a system and process engineer came to a halt when her son was diagnosed with autism and subsequently, ADHD. Her son is also Gifted 2e. Gowri found the initial journey with her son’s interventions laden with ableism and focused on deficits. Having been subjected to the same in her childhood, she now advocates for a lens shift in society to adopt a strength-based approach to supporting people with disabilities.

Her passion for working with children in need started over 20 years ago in Malaysia and continues to date in Australia. Amongst others, her work in Malaysia involved helping children and teens from lower socio-economic backgrounds break the cycle of poverty by removing them from child labour and transitioning them back to school. This required developing educational transition plans and active collaboration with parents, teachers, politicians and social workers to ensure ongoing support was given to children and their families. It was the starting point of understanding the complexities involved in a system that was not able to support children with trauma, learning differences or where invisible disabilities were considered taboo.

In Perth, her service continued by supporting CALD families with disabilities, refugees and domestic violence victims in shelters. Gowri also has teaching experience in schools and the community. She is an active child-teen mentor, human values educator and women’s well-being facilitator. Her passion for both education and health embraces a trauma-informed and neurodiversity-affirming approach. Her expertise in identifying policy gaps and risks informs how challenges in current departmental processes can be resolved through healthy collaboration. She is currently completing her Masters in Therapeutic Arts Practice while playing an active role in systemic advocacy with Square Peg Round Whole. Her advocacy work is grounded in promoting fully inclusive and compassion-driven schools as a human right for children with disabilities. Her work across therapy, education and advocacy often informs one another about trauma prevention. Gowri wishes for disabled children to immerse themselves in the community as their authentic selves, and for their community to immerse in them. She promotes ‘Unity in Neuro-Diversity’ as a cultural phenomenon that requires urgent community discourse, support and embrace.