Investment theme: Growing social connections
Purpose:
To fund venue hire, autistic volunteers, access & inclusion costs such as communication aids, and volunteer expenses
Year of grant: 27/2/2023
FR Number: FR-0066959
Amount awarded: £5000
Location: Edinburgh
Full description
We will run local autistic-led groups for autistic women to come together for information, support and connection across Scotland. The groups will be run monthly, set up by the autistic Volunteer Coordinator and taken forward by two autistic volunteer co-facilitators who will get ongoing support both individually and as part of the volunteer team.
As well as running groups where demand is highest across the central belt, we will concentrate on starting groups in more remote, rural and underserved areas, where autistic women are more isolated and have less access to services, support and social connection e.g. Highlands and Islands, Orkney, Shetland, Borders, Dumfries and Galloway.
Groups will be run in an inclusive, autistic-informed way, ensuring everyone is comfortable and able to participate. This will include ensuring those who are non-speaking, have high anxiety or have an additional disability are given any support they may need to attend.
The funding will be used towards the cost of an autistic Volunteer Coordinator who will recruit train and support autistic volunteers, as well as the costs of running the local groups - venue costs (where we are not able to secure free venues), access and inclusion costs (e.g. whiteboards for communication and aids for anxiety and focus) and volunteer costs (training and travel expenses).
