Dumfries Charity café expands help across the region to help autistic adults find work
Local fire stations will be used as venues.
The Usual Place Charity Café from Dumfries has teamed with the Scottish Fire Rescue Service to tackle barriers for people with learning disabilities to find employment.
Through their 'Good Connections' project, the local fire stations will be used as venues across various dates so The Usual Place team can interact with more autistic adults and young people across the region.
Their open days are free for anyone with a connection to autism to come along to where they can meet with organisations to chat with and discover more about services and available support within the work industry.
Some of the charity café staff will also be there, some of whom have learning difficulties, and will be able to talk about their experience and guide a person to find work.
Good Connections Project Coordinator Alison Ball tells us more about their drop-in sessions:
“We have a small group of local organisations, usually four or five, and people can have a chat with them on the day, but what we can also do is if there are organisations that would be useful to people, we can work with them to access those.
“We can make a phone call or send an email. This means that people aren’t going away with just a leaflet at the end of the day, they’re going away with a plan and an introduction to somebody.
“The idea is that this reduces some of the barriers for autistic people. We want to find out what those barriers are and help break them down.”
She hopes that this will attract more people across Dumfries and Galloway by using the local fire stations as venues:
“We can go to more venues and cover more of the region. People generally know where the fire station is in the town, and we hope this makes it more accessible for everyone. It’s a place that people can go to and know they will be safe there.”
Ball adds that she hopes this will be a good networking opportunity:
“We want to chat with autistic people and help them, but this is also a good chance for them to meet other people with autism, including some of the staff that will be there, and see that employment is absolutely something that they can do.”
Lived Experience Trainer from The Usual Place Luke says, “This is a good opportunity for The Usual Place to work alongside the Fire and Rescue Service, promoting local organisations in a space where people feel safe.”
Lucy Donaldson, Station Commander at the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, says: “We are so pleased to be able to offer our support to such a fantastic community initiative in Dumfries & Galloway.
“Good Connections is a wonderful project which will continue to benefit autistic adults across the area, and we are very proud of our contribution to this.
“We hope many more people can be supported by this programme in the future and look forward to seeing it grow in success.”
A list of where their drop-in sessions will be and when, can be found here.