Dear Community, We’re still tired, yet feeling grateful. WOW! Festival International just ended as you know. We saw many of you there which was freaking awesome. Without you, we wouldn’t have a safe space (Zone Detente) at festival. Without 24CP, we could not have elevated what we had from last year. SIGNAGE! This was part of our ask so that felt good to be able to showcase some of that. Shout out to MakeMade for making that happen. Being about to educate people that stopped by the space with proper signage felt very fulfilling and necessary. And of course increased audience knowing what we do and our goal(s) are. We are happy to say that there were 6 autistic people and many more with sensory challenges that were part of our volunteer team.
Current: We are in works for buying a 10 x 20 tent with The Beluga Project logo that is durable enough for multiple seasons, not just one. We are working on setting up a system where individuals can rent our equipment for a price at their event. We will have different tiers from just renting equipment, us going to set it up and us providing the people power for the space. We need to keep funds coming into the project, so this is road where we are just arriving at the intersection. Any thoughtful suggestions would be gladly received from our community
We are in talks with another team from our cohort, Team Inclusive Prom, to put a space at Pride Acadiana 2023. Thanks Wendy and their squad for getting this going! Appreciate y’all. Appreciate everyone who came by the space at Festival. From Butch and his family to you reading this, we were so happy that you stopped by. This is just the beginning. The space is one thing…the education to our community and beyond is the ultimate goal. See you at Pride! Love you all. Now…it’s time for us to rest and return.
We are still so grateful for the support that we have received for this project. The relationships are connections we’ve been able to establish and harness is more than inspiring. We are happy to announce we will be partnering with the city of youngsville to bring a safe space to their Mardi Gras parade. Kudos to Youngsville for being progressive.
We are also in talks with UL to have a space for one of their home games! Yeah UL! We will be providing sensory bags for the autism society’s annual event as well as the DREAMS Foundation event on April 29. Just another example of our community together for one cause: inclusion. Purpose acceptance and opportunity are what we all deserve. These spaces allow for that!.
We are ready to hit Festival International head on even better than last year and can’t wait to purchase equipment and signage! Not only will this help us make our mission mobile but it will allow us to educate our growing community on sensory processing and the challenges and individual and their families face when there’s nowhere to go at an event. Our community is strong …our community is growing and we don’t see an end in site! Thanks so much! Stay tuned. #beluga
Dear the (coolest, funkiest and most supportive) community members,
First of all: THANK YOU. Thank you all: the backers, our team, the other teams, the 24 hour citizen/civicside team, YOU, to those you’ve told, et al. We are so grateful. We learned and will continue to learn from those that inspire us most, our community. For us to have the support and now some financial backing from our community means that many individuals will now be able to participate more readily at events in our community. Whatever capacity they/you want. We all deserve to have that opportunity, that’s what true inclusion looks like. We truly believe that this is just the start. THANK YOU!
In case you were not aware, as of November 5, our project was chosen to be funded! We had already created some relationships with many organizations and individuals in the community prior to our launch, but since then we have created quite a buzz and we are taking it in positive strides! While it is exciting, it’s a bit overwhelming too…nothing we can’t do together right?. We are in talks with the city of Youngsville to establish a Sensory Safe Space at their Mardi Gras Parade. They have just moved into their new offices, so we should hear back prior to/around the first of the year. We have a connection already for a UL-Lafayette football game, Festival International and some other options of events. Our goal is to do 3-4 large scale events in 2023. In 2024, our goal is to increase that by 1-2 and do 1-2 smaller scale events, as well as provide (many) events with our “sensory bags”.
Our next steps include continuing to form meaningful relationships in our community about our goal for inclusion, awaiting the funds which will allow us to thoughtfully order the equipment we need to make this mobile space happen! We are aiming for a Mardi Gras festival in 2023, but also are leaving room for that possibly being too early in the process.For those that may have some questions such as: how does this space differ from a VIP area? How long can you stay in this space? Why aren’t you doing this space at all events? What is The Beluga Project? Answers will come, please email or contact us on The Beluga Project social media pages.
