April is fast approaching, a month synonymous with Easter, spring rain showers and high school prom.

But it is also Autism Awareness Month.

This year, the Hormel Historic Home is leading the charge in the Autism Friendly Austin initiative, a push to help Austin businesses and organizations become more accommodating.

The Hormel Historic Home, which hosts award-winning autism-friendly summer camps and family respite nights at the YMCA, has been involved in autism awareness since 2010.

An average of one in 68 children are diagnosed with autism. For parents of autistic children, everyday tasks can be difficult.

“Parents from the community will say, ‘Taking my child to the dentist or the hairdresser can be very overwhelming because they don’t know what to do or what to expect’,” Hormel Historic Home Executive Director Holly Johnson said. “We just want to put together a toolkit for service providers and retailers so they’ll know about autism and recognize it and be able to accommodate it.”

Johnson said the Hormel Historic Home has invited over 40 different organizations to be a part of the initiative, such as the Mayo Clinic, Austin Public Schools, the Austin Fire Department and Riverland Community College.

Another goal of the initiative is to help autistic people with finding employment.

“There’s sort of a drop-off after school, and the question is what happens after that,” said Jenelle Cummings, a volunteer and member of the Hormel Historic Home Board of Directors.

“The challenge is that a lot of these children grow into adults and are not offered opportunities for employment,” Johnson said. “Our hope is the employers can look and say, ‘Hey, that person has unique qualities and I can use them in my business.’”

The biggest goal of the initiative is to get people involved, something Cummings does not feel will be an issue.

“I see this spreading to the whole community,” she said. “In Austin, it won’t be anything unusual to find community members to get involved. It’s just making people aware.”

For those who wish to learn more about the Autism Friendly Austin initiative, a luncheon will be held at the Hormel Historic Home from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. on April 6. The guest speaker will be Mike Dierdorff, an autism advocate and member of the board of directors for the Autism Society of Iowa.

Other autism awareness activities in April include the Pizza Ranch Tip Night, an autism programming fundraiser on Monday, April 3, from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Austin Pizza Ranch, and the Stepping Out for Autism Walk on April 23.

“There’s a beautiful side to autism,” Cummings said. “There’s a real beauty in the way people are wired differently and see the world differently and think differently.”