| Collection | Shirley Foundation Collection |
| Description | Much of the material in this file is indicative of approaches to autism in the early 2000s. People were still looking for a set of biological causes and cures, and Dame Stephanie Shirley, through The Shirley Foundation, funded projects with that focus. This project eventually produced Autism Speaks, a sister charity to an American charity of the same name. From 2007 these charities became completely separated, and the UK Autism Speaks became Autistica, which still focuses on scientific research in the field of autism today. As time has progressed, it has been recognised that autism is not a medical condition with treatments that lead to a cure, but a developmental disability, and people with autism can use treatments to help them live full lives and manage their disability. Material in The Shirley Foundation Collection can chart the change of focus from looking for cures to supporting people managing their disability. Some of the material in this file may be distressing, as the material is from a time when autism was not considered as a disability, but as a condition that needed curing.
Operation Kaspar was intended to be an 'international consortium of scientists and benefactors who will implement a plan of biomedical research initiatives with the goal of ultimately making available preventions, treatments and cures for severe autism to parents worldwide'. Around 2004 the name Kaspar was abandoned, and the alliance with the National Alliance of Autism Research (NAAR) was being negotiated, and a partnership with the American charity Autism Speaks being considered. By 2007 that partnership was agreed, and the body being set up in the UK through this project became known as Autism Speaks.
This project was originally called Kaspar, then became associated with NAAR, and finally with Autism Speaks. The Shirley Foundation was originally working on this project, but it became a personal project of Dame Stephanie Shirley with some funding from the Foundation.
File 1: Project cover sheet; budgets; excerpts from The Shirley Foundation trustee meeting minutes; correspondence, reports and agendas for visits to and from the MIND Institute at UC Davis; correspondence related to the project; project plan and presentation documents; correspondence and schedule for Roberta d'Eustachio's visit; project reports.
File 2: MIND Institute at UC Davis leaflet; MIND Institute annual report 2001; MIND Institute PowerPoint presentation print out with some handwritten notes; booklet of MIND Institute plans; proposal for partnership between MIND and The Shirley Foundation; winter 2001/2002 MIND Institute newsletter.
File 3: Dame Stephanie's personal file relating to this project, contains presentation documents, a paper titled 'Enhancing the Strategic Impact of Autism Research - Ideas for The Shirley Foundation, Board of Directors meeting minutes 1st-16th meetings (missing 3rd, 10th and 14th). |