Starbucks West Thurrock Retail Park

We started a local voluntary branch of the National Autistic Society because as parents we knew that there was not enough support in our area. We have been overwhelmed by the amount of parents we now have coming to us, to the point that the small room we rent once a month (funded through us fundraising) is far too small. We have listened to our local parents and the thing they most want apart from ongoing support is training and workshops to give them the knowledge of how to understand Autism and deal with their children, as services have been cut. We want to provide parent workshops on understanding autism, building confidence to encourage interaction and communication and learning to manage behaviour, as well as offering family days out for all the family.

Living with autism affects not just the person with the diagnosis but the whole family, we want to build on their social skills and stop the isolation that many families experience, we can do this by providing a lego club and music therapy sessions for children and their siblings plus create social events for parents and carers.