Aspie – Small Good Stuff grant winner
Part of Community Catalysts’ ethos and social enterprise business model is to support the sector and reinvest back into the wider community. Earlier this year, Community Catalysts ran two grant programmes for our fantastic Small Good Stuff members who run tiny community enterprises, organisations and groups that offer help and care for others. In this ‘super story’ we find out more about our grant winner ‘ASPIE’ and how they used the money to provide more opportunities for the people they support….
ASPIE stands for Aspies into Everything. We are a social self-help and motivation group for adults with Asperger’s Syndrome and we provide a centre in Worcester where Aspies feel welcome and accepted.
“So glad we found you guys. Thank you for providing such a fabulous service and place for people”
People with Asperger’s crave routine and certainty to reduce anxiety in order to be able to function. Lockdown ripped away the security of meeting twice weekly at ASPIE for support and friendship. The abrupt change to every aspect of daily life sent Asperger adults into turmoil with some, particularly younger ones, teetering towards the edge.
We used the grant to provide extra counselling/mentoring support sessions to adults with Asperger’s to ensure they survived the Covid-19 backlash.
“A big thank you to Aspie for everything you’ve done to help me recently. It’s been so very helpful and has given me hope for the future for the first time in many years.”
With the grant monies our counsellors provided reassurance, advice and practical help to five young adults in crisis referred to us by Mental Health teams etc. They each received 6 face to face trauma counselling sessions.
“The lockdown caused me a lot of distress and following a meltdown it was clear I needed support. I have developed a much stronger understanding of my traits and helped me to take multiple views of situations to make an informed choice as to how to approach things. I have learnt to develop my emotional intelligence so that I am much less reactive and this has improved my relationships with colleagues at work. I have a lot to thank ASPIE for their work with me and I do feel that I am on a new and very exciting journey ahead.”
Meet all grant winners from our Small Good Stuff grant programme:
Meet all grant winners from The Buzz grant programme which helped community enterprises to create and share videos for our online platform of inclusive, exciting and accessible activities: