What would you do if your child had autism?

When I launched Aktiv Tactics, I knew that my personal preference was to work with organisations that are really making a difference in people's lives. However, I expected that I'd have to spend much of my time working with profit-hungry corporates in order to "pay the bills", and set aside just a small portion of our resource and time to assist the more altruistic organisations.

Somehow (I'm inclined to ascribe it to divine providence) I'm actually finding that many opportunities are arising to assist organisations which see their role as being far more than purely commercial profit.

One such client that I've just started working with is Quickstepz Paediatric Therapy, an inspiring small autism therapy clinic founded by Kate Boland in St. Leonards, NSW, to make a real difference in the lives of autistic children and their families. Kate is an accredited Occupational Therapist who has also pursued training in the Greenspan Floortime therapy model. Kate's therapy services offer real hope for families who have struggled with the challenges associated with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Children with autism exhibit a number of socialisation difficulties, due to their impaired ability to understand normal interactive cues and engage with their peers in an appropriate manner. Quickstepz Paediatric Therapy works with children and their families in an individualised manner to identify the developmental delays a particular child is experiencing and then proactively focus on therapies which will enhance their abilities in each of those areas.

My role, as a consultant to Quickstepz, is to improve their visibility in the community and ensure that families who have a child diagnosed with autism will become aware of the services available through Quickstepz. Working to a tight budget, we're commencing with a range of web site optimisations and improved internet marketing, but are also exploring opportunities for media coverage of the Floortime techniques, as this is a new initiative in Australia.

For more information about Quickstepz, Autism Therapy, or the ways in which I can assist your organisation to be more effective in impacting the lives of other people, please email me or phone 1300 85 70 75.

Time for a new look

Welcome to my new look site! After simply running a duplicate of my Aktiv Tactics web site here at www.brookes.com.au for ages, I've finally decided to do something a bit different.

Essentially, I'm using this site to spruik me, whereas www.aktiv.com.au is being used, appropriately, to promote my company, which really means services for clients who want to engage a team replete with a variety of complementary skills.

So what can you expect to find on this site? Aside from the obvious necessities like my contact information and a bit of a bio about me and my interests, I'll try to regularly share with you a range of ideas that reflect my professional knowledge and in some way help you to consider improvements in areas of your business you may not previously have been confident (or aware) to address.

Over the next few days I'll focus on creating the "peripheral" elements (which should remain fairly static over time) and then I'll start dumping my thoughts here fairly regularly so that you've got a legitimate distraction from your work which won't get you labelled a procrastinator ;-)