Speaker Kate Swenson of Finding Cooper's Voice

Welcome to an evening with Speaker Kate Swenson of Finding Cooper's Voice at Blue Heron Elementary School! Join parent and advocate Kate Swenson as she reflects back on her family's journey through an autism diagnosis, early intervention, and transition to school services, and the emotional toll these processes can take on a family. In this presentation, she will discuss the transformation she made as not only a parent, but as a person, and the support that parents need from professionals, family members, and those within their community to help their family adjust to this new chapter of life. This presentation will not only inspire but also educate whomever is listening. Don't miss out on this chance to be inspired and empowered!

Proceeds will be going to help our SPecIal Needs - Centennial Parent Group to help pay for 2024-2025 meeting speakers and childcare and to The More Than Project a non-profit serving special needs parents, siblings, teachers and more.

More about our speaker:

Kate Swenson, founder of Finding Cooper’s Voice, launched her website in November of 2014 in secret from her living room. She knew something was different about her son. She knew she was sad and confused and that it was a lot harder than it should be. She also knew she didn’t want anyone else to ever feel this alone in their feelings. She searched for a safe space, both online and in person, and couldn’t find one. So, she created one. Her writing speaks to the secret world of autism, the day-to-day wins and struggles and the joy that comes from it.

In the beginning she wrote for herself, with each post being read only a handful of times. In January of 2017 she launched the coordinating Facebook page to give her family updates on her son’s progress. What it has turned into is almost unbelievable.

She has been called honest, polarizing, raw, and gritty and her relationship with her son has been described as breathtaking. She has created a safe place for families of children with disabilities to come together and share the unique joys and struggles that make up their lives. She publishes daily content written by special needs parents along with her own writing and videos.

In 2021, during the heart of the pandemic, Kate co-founded a nonprofit called The More Than Project that brought free mental health counseling to caregivers in need. Since it’s launch, her focus has turned to in-person retreat like events for hundreds of female caregivers twice a year to come together to laugh, cry, share, and learn. Kate’s mission is to make it so no other mother ever feels as alone as she did in the beginning of her parenting autism journey.

In April of 2022, Kate’s first book, Forever Boy: A Mother’s Memoir of Autism and Finding Joy was published. This book has proven to speak to all audiences – it’s not only an honest, inspiring journey relatable to any family with autism in their lives, it’s also an eye-opening look for those who don’t. Forever Boy was a USA TODAY and WALL STREET JOURNAL bestseller, was featured on NBC’s The Today Show, and was picked by Amazon at best of the month pick: Nonfiction. Since the launch, Kate has launched her public speaking career and brings listeners into what she calls The Secret World of Autism.

Kate’s reach is incredible: Finding Cooper’s Voice has 9.5 million pageviews and has had over 2.9 million users since it started tracking analytics in 2017, and that’s in addition to community engagement on social media—Kate has 156,000 Instagram followers, and the Finding Cooper’s Voice’s Facebook page has over 1 million followers, a number that is growing steadily. In addition, Kate was one of the early users of Facebook’s new paid supporter platform, where nearly 4,500 super loyal fans subscribe at a monthly fee for an inside look at Finding Cooper’s Voice, as well as to share and receive support from other followers.

Kate’s Facebook posts reach over 6 million people a month with nearly 3.5 million engagements. Her videos average nearly 5 million views per month. Her fans are highly engaged and comment, like, and share at an incredibility high rate. Kate’s Substack (E-Newsletter list) adds another additional 32,000 engaged followers.

Since launching Finding Cooper’s Voice, Kate has had many videos and articles go viral. She started by speaking at town halls, local news stations, and the Minnesota capital, pounding the pavement for basic rights for people with disabilities. She has advocated for inclusion, Medicaid, and much more.

In 2017, she shared a heartwarming video of her nonverbal son ‘saying’ mama with a speech device as an entry for a contest to meet Jimmy Fallon. Cooper won and suddenly nonverbal severe autism was front and center on Today.com. Shortly after, she had a video go viral where she spoke about her son being verbally assaulted at a local special needs park. She shared her story with local and national news outlets. The video was incredibly polarizing as it spoke to the realities of raising a child with severe autism.

Kate’s most emotional video, The Last Time We Believe It’s Going to be Okay, was shared by The Today Show an April of and put her in the spotlight once again. Her voice is well respected throughout the special needs communities and her page is the go-to in the world of autism.

She writes for Today’s Parents and has had multiple pieces shared on their Facebook page as well as The Today Show. She has written for many sites including Scary Mommy Special Needs, Next Avenue, Babble, Her View From Home, Huffington Post Families, FireFly and For Every Mom.

Her most recent viral piece, which talked about the struggles associated with motherhood, has been shared nearly 6,000 times from her Facebook page. It was covered by The Daily Mail, Café Mom, and The Sun, and shared an additional 8,300 times from Love What Matters.