Sheffield autism charity receives over £60k from National Lottery Community Fund
The Autism Centre for Supported Employment has secured £63,000 from the National Lottery Community Fund for their work supporting autistic individuals into paid work.
The Centre creates step-by-step opportunities, starting with supported work placements and moving towards job searching and provides unique one-to-one support with no classroom-based elements to the learning.
The new funding from the National Lottery Community Fund has allowed the small team to take on a new Employer Engagement Manager, Luke Fowler, to provide more support to job-ready clients.
The clients he works with benefit from tailored support in finding suitable roles, interview preparation and negotiating reasonable adjustments, as well as transitional support as they move into a new job role.
Centre staff met with Anushka Price from the National Lottery Community Fund last week, to see how the funding was being used to benefit the local community.
Jayne Butler, Manager of the Autism Centre for Supported Employment, said: “We can’t believe the impact this funding has had already. We were a team of four with huge demand on our services, so having Luke on board has made a huge difference.
“Thanks to the National Lottery Community Fund we have been able to give our clients more time and focus to get over the last hurdles. We are all about achieving the right paid work outcome for our clients, it needs to be sustainable. There are some wonderful employers out there who see the benefits of having a diverse team.”
Anyone wanting to offer employment opportunities can contact Jayne or Luke at [email protected], or phone 07399 122305.