Speak Up: Helping Hands Autism
This year's Speak Up grants all focus on the voices and experiences of children and young people in Sheffield.
Helping Hands Autism is a group for parent carers of children with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) including autism, running the group at the Israac Somali Community Association. Attendees are mostly women from a Somali background, many of whom speak limited English.
The group used their Speak Up grant in a slightly different way - they had identified a lack of strong connection between these families and formal support services in Sheffield. Many families didn't know what support they could access, and professionals don't always understand their complex personal circumstances. With this in mind, the focus of the project was to provide information and build these connections to improve care and support for this group of children and their parents.
What did Helping Hands Autism do?
They provided 4 sessions for parent carers - these covered a variety of topics:
- Session 1: Support from Sheffield Children's Hospital, and carer burnout
- Session 2: A children’s activity day
- Session 3: A parent mental health session
- Session 4: Stigma awareness
These sessions supported parents to better understand how to access services, including special health services and other organisations working with SEND families, as well as available support pathways and ways to look after their own wellbeing.
Downloads
Find out more about the Helping Hands Autism information sessions by reading their project report below.
