A Mother Builds an Autism Haven — and Why That Matters
Photo/graphics credit: Kareem’s Mission
Sometimes the most useful journalism is also the simplest. PennLive recently ran a feature titled “A mother’s love creates a haven for the autism community.” The story centers on Hagir Elsheikh, a mother who built Kareem’s Mission, a community space for autistic people. No jargon, no cure talk, no deficit framing — just the clear fact of someone creating something real and needed.
It’s worth pausing here. Autism coverage in the press often leans on two unhelpful frames: the tragic burden narrative or the miraculous cure breakthrough. Both erase the people in the middle who actually build support systems and only feature autistic people to emphasize their difference or dependency. This article does the opposite. It names what Elsheikh did and shows the concrete impact without slipping into pity or panic.
From an AAB perspective, that matters. This rare news piece strengthens rather than erodes public understanding of autism. It tells readers: autistic people deserve havens, and here is one example of how those havens come to be. No coercion. No compliance talk. No “fixing.”
Does it center a parent’s perspective rather than autistic voices? Yes — because in this case, that’s who built the space. There’s no harm in naming authorship accurately. The work exists because Elsheikh made it. That doesn’t erase autistic leadership elsewhere; it simply records one valid story.
The more important point is that this coverage demonstrates what ally journalism can look like. It shows the value of love and labor directed at community, not at normalization. It models a story frame where autism is met with care and respect, not panic or pity. PennLive and author Joyce M. Davis deserve our gratitude and admiration for a piece that should not be so rare.
My enthusiasm for this piece is revealing. Not because every story must be about mothers or families but because of the almost complete failure of journalism to refuse the deficit lens like this one does. Whether the builder is autistic or not, the measure is the same: does the narrative uphold dignity, agency and belonging? In this case, the answer is yes.
So let’s call it what it is: a small and rare-but-powerful example of journalism getting it right.