Meet Shannon Stauff, the Caregiving community key voice. Learn more about what you can expect from this community.
Shannon Stah's son was diagnosed with autism at 2. She has been his caregiver in that capacity for the last 14 years. Stah wants to create a space for caregivers to share their stories without shame. She is a huge advocate for helping people get to help faster.
The caregiver community on Cadre is for you. If you need any practical or emotional support, that's what we're here for. We are here to help you know that whatever you're going through is absolutely normal. And we're always going to be here.
Hey, everybody. My name is Shannon Stah. I am part of Cadre because I believe in sharing our stories so that we can all feel less alone in what we are living through here together. So my son was diagnosed with autism at 2. So I have been his caregiver in that capacity for the last 14 years. That journey for me was incredibly lonely. I struggled to find practical resources. I had all the clinical resources I needed, but I struggled to find community. I didn't actually, and honestly, a lot of shame, even within my family system.
And so why I'm here today is, I think one of the gifts that I've been blessed with is communication. And so I want to be a place for others to be able to speak their truth out loud, to see others like them, to share stories. So I'm here really to just create a space for all of us to gather and know that we can share who we are as caregivers without shame. And so that's. That's why I'm here today. So my life as a caregiver, what you're going to see as I show up on the platform is a lot of reality.
So for me, that is imperfect, it is messy. It is all the things that are just real time stream of consciousness going on in my head as a caregiver, whether that's navigating my son, now becoming an adult and transitioning to that, to the emotions of what it means to go through things. And so for me, I really want to be a couple of things for you. Number one, I want to be a resource. I'm a huge advocate for helping people get to help faster. So how can we take away all the words that are big and scary and don't serve us well and just get straight to practical resources?
So I'm going to be really focused on getting those resources to you faster. And in a more human way, I'm going to be focused on telling you for me what my lived experience is in a very direct way. I want you to know that you're not alone in whatever is messy. It's messy. We're messy. We're humans. So I want you to know that. And I'm going to show up all over the place. I'm actually part of the Cadre team, and so I will be in lives, pre records, meetups, all the places. So I will see you there. So how do you know the caregiver community on Cadre is for you?
You're a caregiver, you're a human, you're a mom, you're a dad, you're taking care of someone you love and you need help. That's it, right? So whether that's practical help, emotional help, whether you feel alone, whether you need to laugh, whether you need to just see another human like you, this community is for you. We are here to help you feel less alone. We are here to help you know that whatever you're going through is absolutely normal. And so whatever kind of caregiver you are, whether that's for a par, whether that's someone with a long term medical diagnosis, whether that is for a child, you know, anything, right?
A sibling, there's so many ways in which we give care to others. If you need any practical or emotional support, that's what we're here for. I couldn't be happier to have you here in a caregiver community. You are one of us. And we're just honestly here waiting to be taught by you, to share with you, to connect with you. And so we're always going to be here. If it's once a week, if it's once a year, if you meet with us every single day, we're going to be here to learn from you and to be here for you.
So thanks for being here with us.
