In celebration of Autism Acceptance Month, LA Metro partnered with the Wylie Center to host “Toys That Make Sense,” a toy giveaway aimed at supporting neurodiverse children. The event took place at West Angeles Church of God in Christ and highlighted Metro’s growing commitment to accessibility and inclusion.
Pastor Charles Blake II greeted families stating, “We’ve been thinking about you all week hoping that you’d be able to come out, have a good time and get some toys for the little ones.” He continued, “thank you all so much for coming. We just want you to know that you are welcome here any day of the week.”
Stephanie Wiggins, CEO of Metro stated, “This is part of Autism Acceptance Month. We’ve partnered with the Wylie Center to bring this ‘Toys That Make Sense’ opportunity to our community.” Wiggins emphasized Metro’s broader mission to serve all Angelenos equitably: “We want to make sure that Metro is accessible to everyone, and we are as inclusive as can be. Autism Acceptance Month is an opportunity to educate our employees about how we can ensure that our service is also more inclusive.”
Wiggins also shared exciting news around the continued engagement with passengers and families experiencing autism. She added: “Supervisor Holly Mitchell got a motion approved unanimously by the board that asked Metro to go another step and work with organizations that serve people on the spectrum and with other neurodiverse challenges. We’re going to survey them about their experience with Metro so we can learn and report back on what more we can do to make sure we have the most accessible system possible.”
Wiggins noted that the initiative had wide-reaching employee involvement, stating, “It ends up being our entire employee base of 12,000 employees that we encourage to be part of this opportunity.”
Employee support for the toy drive was strong throughout the month. “We had two toy drives with Metro employees. The first brought in over 100 toys. And then, earlier this week, as part of Take Your Kids to Work Day, our employees had their kids bring toys that make sense as well. We had over 800 children at Metro on Thursday, contributing to this effort,” Wiggins shared.
She praised her leadership team for their work behind the scenes. “This is all led by our Deputy Chief of Service Delivery for Operations, Edna Stanley, who is amazing. Along with her leadership team, Diane Frazier and Demetrius Jones, they’ve been doing the yeoman’s work in coordinating all of this with the agency.”
The event was coordinated by Ashley Wiley Johnson, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, a nationally recognized Autism and Early Childhood Education expert. A dynamic speaker and author of a widely respected book on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Dr. Wiley Johnson also serves as vice president of The Los Angeles Speech and Language Therapy Center—an institution founded by her mother 46 years ago. Her leadership and expertise brought a rich depth of knowledge and compassion to the day’s programming, ensuring that the event was not only inclusive, but empowering for families navigating autism.
