The aim of the project is to enable young children and their families who are directly affected by autism to attend local mainstream pre-schools. This funding, will enable us to work with a new cohort of local children with autism and their families to encourage and support them to access mainstream pre-schools.
With The National Lottery Awards for All grant, our tutors will be able to support the child in their pre-school setting and they will also work collaboratively with staff and volunteers to put in place agreed strategies and procedures to best meet individual needs. This work will not only provide direct benefit to the child had their family, but will also benefit pre-schools in order to better equipped staff with supporting children with autism in the future. In turn, this reduces the likelihood of families becoming excluded from their local community simply because their child has autism. Local community pre-schools form the heart of a community and for families who already feel isolated because of their child’s autism, being able to attend the local pre-school can further exacerbate their sense of exclusion and hopelessness.
We are incredibly grateful to Awards for All for enabling us to extend the support that we offer young children with autism. Our newest beneficiary, little Hur from Basingstoke (featured here) will now be able to have the ABA support from a tutor within his local pre-school.
