With the grant support of £19,653 from players of People’s Postcode Lottery, Autism East Midlands proudly launch Autism Can!
Pruning: Autism East Midlands service users at the Sherwood Centre, a flexible day service centre in Nottingham
Autism Can! was kick-started last month and has the planned capabilities to continue onwards until 2029.
The grant will be spent on purchasing a variety of equipment, products and supplies to enable a varied scheme of projects to run across Autism East Midlands’ flexible day service centres across the county.
Autism Can! will provide support to Autism East Midlands service users to progress towards independence, including employment.
Planting: another Autism East Midlands service user working at the Sherwood Centre
Autism Can! provides work-related activities tailored to our 200 service users (people with autism with complex needs) within horticulture, art and design and cooking / catering.
The Autism Can! goal
The scheme will provide short work tasters, starting at 15 minutes for those with the most complex needs. The goal will be progression towards a vocational qualification and employment within partner social enterprises.
The work tasters will include horticulture, propagating and maintaining a variety of plants and vegetables. These are then used internally for service user meals or sold by selected service users at partner garden centres to broaden their understanding of the workplace.
Art and design will include designing t-shirts and other clothing, then printing and producing the items and packaging them for distribution.
Catering and cleaning will include production of simple seasonal food items for sale to staff and parents. There will be progression towards preparation of meals for themselves and peers.
Progressing towards independence
The Autism Can! project arose from our Service User Voice programme. It asked service users what they wanted to see in their daily activities and what aspirations they had for their future development. Many service users expressed an interest in understanding employment and progressing towards independence.
The project will enhance existing day service activity and will be led by vocationally qualified existing staff.
