Orange Elephants Creative Minds was born in 2017 as a writing and editing business that supported and mentored self-published authors. At the time founder Jennifer Althaus was a full-time carer for her two autistic children. During this time Jennifer wrote and published her novel, A Journey of Love, a mother’s memoir, guest speaking at local libraries and events. This was followed by the publishing of her children’s picture book Bored! Bored! Bored!  and Life is Learning, Learning is Life a home-schooling journal. Whilst working with clients Jennifer worked on her personal and career development, completing a Bachelor of Arts (Creative Writing and Criminal Justice) at Griffith University.

It was this degree that sparked the birth of Orange Elephants Creative Minds as it is today. With a developed interest in youth justice and autism, and her personal experiences with her children’s learning, along with experiences of traditional therapy not working, Jennifer began to develop programs that fitted the needs of her own children. This saw an increase in the development of their executive functioning skills, social skills, and life skills. These programs filled the gaps Jennifer found existed within traditional therapy. During this time Jennifer completed a Graduate Certificate in Autism Studies at Griffith University. She is currently completing a Master’s in Autism Studies.

The flooding of her house in 2022 saw stage 2 of the business come to fruition. April 2022 saw Orange Elephants Creative Minds move to a small studio on the property of Hand Bent Banana Art and Health Centre Tallebudgera Valley. Although the serene natural bush was suitable for mental wellness it was soon found to limit the clientele due to the remoteness of the location. Despite this, in the near 12 months that Orange Elephants has been at Tallebudgera Valley the clientele base has risen by 70%.

With the location being remote a solution needed to be found. Innovative online programs were designed to reach clients who could not travel and who lived outside of the demographics. Home visits are provided for clients who cannot travel to Tallebudgera Valley. The previous involvement in the writing and home-schooling industry has not diminished with Orange Elephants Creative Minds providing programs that engage these communities. 2022/23 has seen engagement with Ikon Institute taking on Art Psychotherapy placement students.

Orange Elephants Creative Minds has outgrown the small studio space, with demand for services seeing clients on the Gold Coast requesting a location that is more accessible. The vision for stage 3, a commercial rental with exposure to the community, includes a recycled art room available to the wider community. This places Orange Elephants Creative Minds closer to the mission of supporting individuals, through the engagement in creative activities, embrace their individuality and uniqueness and find a sense of belonging, acceptance, and empowerment. With this comes community inclusion, providing a place for businesses to recycle unwanted items for art therapy use. The securing of a commercial building accessible by public transport would allow the provision of employment opportunities for autistic individuals who engage in the governments Disability Employment Scheme. It is this project we are seeking to fund through donation. Funding would allow us to pay the bond and rent in advance to secure a commercial building and put stage 3 into place. 

One of the key goals of both the National Disability Strategy and National Disability Agreement is to increase the economic and social participation of people living with disabilities. People with autism struggle with social engagement – it is the nature of their disorder. In 2012, the data shows an association between having an autism spectrum disorder and struggling with economic participation, with lower levels of post-school qualifications and labour force participation compared with other people with disabilities. The services and programs of Orange Elephants Creative Minds address this by offering a place for autistic individuals and their families and employment of people living with disabilities.

Stage 4 is a vision of a sensory room within a shopping centre that allows autistic and cognitive impaired individuals a place to go when sensory stimuli becomes overwhelming. This provides a place for mothers and carers to destress and divert meltdowns so they can continue with their shopping in a more peaceful manner. This sensory room would provide a place for occupational therapist, speech therapists and physiologist to bring their clients that is cohesive to positive outcomes. This would also provide employment for autistic and cognitively impaired individuals.

We appreciate any help, contact and funding individuals and communities may be able to offer us. It is our dream that neurodiverse and neurotypical communities become one and no one gets left behind due to abilities.