CommuniKeys Participation Partners

Creating real-world opportunities for non-speaking autistic adults to participate in community life

CommuniKeys partners with local businesses, organizations, and community leaders across Northern Colorado to create inclusive community experiences for non-speaking autistic adults.

Our Participation Partners help open doors to hands-on learning, community engagement, and meaningful participation. Together, we create environments where individuals can build confidence, develop skills, and connect with their community.

Ways Organizations Partner With Us

Experience Hosts

Host a small-group experience such as a tour, demonstration, workshop, or hands-on learning opportunity.

Program Collaborators

Share your expertise by teaching or guiding an experience (art, cooking, outdoor skills, crafts, and more).

Community Event Partners

Collaborate with us on inclusive events such as performances, workshops, festivals, or community gatherings.

Learning Environment Partners

Provide spaces where participants can develop skills over time — gardens, studios, maker spaces, outdoor environments, and more.

Sponsorship Partners

Provide financial support to help create and expand participation opportunities.

Why Organizations Partner With CommuniKeys

Our partners help strengthen a more inclusive Northern Colorado community by:

• creating welcoming and accessible experiences
• engaging new audiences
• demonstrating community leadership
• supporting meaningful opportunities for autistic adults
• collaborating with a mission-driven nonprofit

Most importantly, partners help build a community where everyone has the opportunity to participate and belong.

Our Community

CommuniKeys serves non-speaking autistic adults and others who do not have reliable access to spoken communication.

Many of our students communicate through spelling, letter boards, AAC, and supported communication methods. Our participants are curious learners, creative thinkers, and motivated community members seeking meaningful real-world experiences.

With the right support and welcoming environments, they bring insight, creativity, and unique perspectives to every partnership experience.

Become a Participation Partner

CommuniKeys is actively building a network of Participation Partners across Northern Colorado.

If you are interested in hosting an experience, collaborating on an event, or exploring a partnership, we would love to connect.

CONTACT: executive.director@communikeys.org

DriveWays

DriveWays, led by Occupational Therapist and Certified Driving Rehabilitation Specialist Heather Ackart, helps individuals develop confidence navigating transportation environments. Through mobility education and adaptive driving expertise, DriveWays supports people with diverse neurological and sensory needs as they build independence in their communities.

Loveland Youth Gardeners

Loveland Youth Gardeners (LYG) empowers youth facing challenges to build life and work skills, environmental stewardship, and a spirit of community service, because everyone deserves to thrive.

Founded in 1996, LYG uses hands-on gardening and agriculture as a tool for youth development, helping participants cultivate responsibility, confidence, and connection. Now serving children and youth ages 3–21, LYG offers programs spanning early education, leadership, and vocational training. Youth grow food, care for animals and pollinators, and engage in environmental learning while donating or selling produce. This responsibility-based, nature-centered model fosters resilience, teamwork, and self-reliance, preparing young people to succeed in work and life.

Temple Grandin Equine Center at Colorado State University

CommuniKeys is developing a partnership with the Temple Grandin Equine Center at Colorado State University to create structured, scaffolded orientation and participation opportunities for non-speaking autistic adults in an equine environment.

This partnership supports gradual exposure, sensory accessibility, communication access, responsibility, routine, and meaningful engagement. Students are introduced to the barn environment through supported orientation experiences that help determine comfort, readiness, and future participation pathways.

The goal is not a one-time visit. CommuniKeys is working toward a thoughtful participation model where students can build confidence, understand expectations, engage with the environment, and participate with dignity over time.

National Sports Center for the Disabled

CommuniKeys is partnering with the National Sports Center for the Disabled to expand adaptive cycling and outdoor recreation opportunities for non-speaking autistic adults and their families.

Through this partnership, students are introduced to adaptive bikes, supported movement, comfort-building, mobility readiness, and outdoor participation in a structured and accessible way. These experiences help CommuniKeys better understand individual equipment needs, confidence levels, sensory considerations, and future pathways for biking and community mobility.

This work supports a broader CommuniKeys mobility pathway focused on purposeful movement, community access, confidence, safety, and belonging.

CONTACT US

Interested in partnering with CommuniKeys?

CommuniKeys is actively building partnerships across Northern Colorado with organizations, businesses, educators, recreation providers, and community leaders who want to help create meaningful participation opportunities for non-speaking autistic adults.

We welcome conversations about hosted experiences, recurring learning opportunities, community events, adaptive recreation, sponsorship, and program collaboration.

Together, we can build more accessible pathways for communication, participation, and belonging.