In this episode, host Debra Caldow talks to Ellie Hedley Dent, the Employer Partnership Manager at Team Domenica, about their employment program. Ellie explains their initial focus is on building foundational skills and providing work experience to prepare their candidates to move into a Supported Internship. Using an holistic approach, Team Domenica equips young people with the tools they need to succeed in their careers and beyond.

https://teamdomenica.com/

In this episode, host Debra Caldow talks about the importance of helping our young people to develop the abilities and the skills they need in life. She emphasizes they must also develop those attitudes that make their success in whatever they choose to do much more likely. She also talks about how the type and level of support we give to our children will evolve as we give them the space they need to live their own lives.

In this episode, my guest Rosie Barnes shares her journey as a parent, from writing a book 'Understanding Stanley, Looking Through Autism' to helping her son find a housing solution that’s right for him. Rosie discusses the challenges faced by families looking for inclusive housing options in their communities. She talks about the radical concepts behind 'Satsuma Neighbour', a project she started which will create an urban community that fosters inclusivity and neighbourliness.

https://www.satsumaneighbour.org/

Alison Berkley from Invictus Enterprises talks about the impact of the pandemic on Invictus and how the way they’ve responded has actually opened up new opportunities. She explains how the pandemic meant that future plans they had for program delivery got accelerated and why the pandemic could be a catalyst for more easily sharing best practice and the growth of community based employment opportunities.

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David Hunter from Acceptable Enterprises talks about the impact of the pandemic on their various businesses. While the online business is growing, other parts haven't been so lucky. But opportunities to pivot have been found as well the chance to expand other initiatives. Find out why David is also focused on showing how providing social value has an economic value and why social enterprises could help solve some of the logistics issues the pandemic has highlighted. 

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The podcast is back after a short break with a new name to reflect a renewed passion to promote real change. Find out why we changed the name and what we are doing next including what to look forward to in our first series which is looking at the impact of the Pandemic on work opportunities for people with Additional Needs.

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By changing attitudes we change behaviour, and this is something the guests on this week’s episode are part of making happen. Celia and Maya from WAVE talk about the ethos behind WAVE, and how it aims to bring people together, and by doing that helps change the way they think and their attitudes.   

Celia explains why she started the organisation, what kind of support it provides and how it is grown. WAVE stands for Were All Valued Equally, and Celia explains the importance of this as a value and the way that they break down barriers and reduce the fear some people in the wider community have towards people with additional needs. Maya also talks about her own experiences at WAVE and how it has helped her become more confident and made her feel part of something. 

Inclusion is a word used often but not always practiced. WAVE is an example of an organisation practicing inclusion and, by doing this, it really is creating a WAVE for Change.

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The average person has between 12-15 jobs in their work life. This makes developing transferable skills an essential part of any employability training. A great example of how to make this happen comes from Sunflower Bakery. This week’s guest Sara Portman Milner, co-founder of Sunflower Bakery, shares their story as well as offering  advice to anyone thinking of starting a similar enterprise. 

Sara details what Sunflower Bakery does to help young people with additional needs develop transferable skills which they can use to help them gain employment once they finish their training. She explains exactly how the different aspects of the training program works. Sara also talks about the ways in which the training programs build confidence in young people while focusing on helping them in a way that works best for their individual needs. 

Sara shares her top tips from her experience with Sunflower Bakery for anyone considering starting a similar enterprise, including finding the right people to help within building the enterprise and also reaching out to the local community.  Sara’s main advice, though, comes back to just starting. The story of Sunflower Bakery serves as a reminder of how true the saying is: every journey begins with a single step.

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Sometimes we need to change direction quickly and find the right information so that we can make an informed decision as to which road we need to take. This week’s guest Kerrie Highcock helps provide that information. Kerrie is the Family Development Manager at North East Autism Society, and her role is not only to provide support but to help people identify where to find information that is useful for their particular situation. 

Kerrie talks about the importance for anyone who has been diagnosed with autism,  and their families, recognising that they need support; but it does need to be the right kind of support focused on the positives, not treating autism as a negative in someone’s life.

Kerrie also talks about the need for everyone to move away from awareness and understanding to acceptance. She also talks about the importance of listening and learning from the young person who has the additional need, finding out what they want and for them to be talking to each other because they understand the challenges more.   

After all we all need to ultimately be in charge of our own journeys and for some people they need a facilitator more than a carer. 

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When we go to the theatre we see a different world than the one we live in. Theatre can broaden our horizons challenge our perceptions and this is exactly what the CO/LAB Theater Group aims to do. CO/LAB provides, people with additional needs, a space to be creative and along the way change their perceptions of themselves as well as the perceptions of the communities they live in. 

This week guests are Becky Liefman Co-founder of CO/LAB and Liz one of the CO/LAB actors. Becky discusses why and how CO/LAB came about,  through the passion of a few friends to provide a creative outlet for a group of people who don’t always have those opportunities. She also discusses the challenges along the way including those around funding. Becky also talks about the wider role that CO/LAB seeks to have in the wider community to educate people about the talents and skills of the CO/LAB actors. Liz talks about the impact that being at CO/LAB has had on helping her develop her skills as an actor whilst also widening her social network. She also talks about the impact CO/LAB has also had in terms of her increased self-confidence.

The CO/LAB Theater Group is not only providing a space for creativity for people with additional needs it is building a community of like-minded people that understand the importance of creativity in being human.

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When we’re young we think we can do anything, be anyone, achieve everything. But as many of us get older we learn to fit into the box of expectations. For young people with additional needs this box can be small, with many assuming that they will not be entering the employment market any time soon. 

This week’s guest Alison Thwaite, the Employment Development Manager of the Workfit programme run by the Down's Syndrome Association, does not agree. She offers a much better model of presumed employment. 

Presumed employment comes from the angle that employment will happen at some stage and works towards that time. The Workfit program takes young people though the process of deciding what jobs they might like to do while also helping them be realistic in terms of the skills they have. In addition, they are helped to identify whether there are local employers that can offer the roles they may be suited for. 

Alison talks about the wider issues around why young people with additional needs find getting paid employment a challenge, as well as the role that parents play – this can be very positive but occasionally can also restrict opportunities and hinder progress. She also discusses the importance of supporting employers, educating fellow employees, and providing ongoing support to ensure that the transition into paid employment is not only as smooth as possible but is also sustainable in terms of the individual staying in a role and even advancing within the company.

If presumed employment was a reality for all young people with additional needs who do want a paid job, then we really could see an inclusive society where people are valued for themselves as individuals and not for any label they may have been given. 

https://www.dsworkfit.org.uk/

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For many young people with additional needs finding a job can be incredibly challenging. It takes planning and for most requires them to go way outside their comfort zone. This week’s guest Dr Michael Reiter runs work readiness workshops and he talks us through the three areas he focuses on to help the emerging adults in the group find and keep a job. 

Michael talks about the importance of setting goals and making sure these are SMART as well as identifying the types of jobs a young person might like to do but also has the required skills to do. He discusses the interview process and the fact that as much as this is about the practical things like being able to answer questions it’s also about the ability to manage your own anxiety. Interviews are stressful for most people so ways to help manage that stress, so you still are able to perform at your best is a key part of finding work. Finally he discusses how they address the after you have the job issue looking at the social skills required in a workplace and how to manage those. 

Michael talks about the need to have realistic expectations around work but for the emerging adults he works with using this approach he is actually providing them with a realistic change of finding and keeping a job. 

Getting a job for our young people will probably never be easy but by helping them prepare properly, using a model like this, and giving them greater autonomy to plan their own work future we are helping increase the probability it will happen one day.

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If not now when? Planning for the future can be scary for anyone but it’s especially hard when that planning is for a young person who we know will face any number of challenges as they  navigate towards their ideal life. 

In this episode Carol Wakeford from Heartventure shares her story about how she and husband have planned and then worked towards providing an independent future for their son. Carol talks about the original idea she had of starting a dating agency and why that original model didn’t work and how it has now transformed into a different model which provides not only a social life for her son and his friends but also helps to break down barriers and build wider understanding in the local community. 

Carol also talks about independent living in terms of how to create a supported living house for young people. She discusses the practical challenges of making it work and how to find the right people to work with.

Planning for a future, we won’t always be a part of, isn’t ever going to be easy. Planning though can not only provide our young people with the security of realistic options it can provide us with peace of mind and help us stop asking what happens when I’m no longer around.  

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In this episode, I’m talking about our approach to supporting our daughter to learn to cook for herself without the need for any support or supervision.  Our solution involved discarding conventional cooking techniques that didn't work and looking for new options. In our case, it’s meant using an air fryer a slow cooker, and five-ingredient recipes. By adapting recipes for the food she wanted to make, this approach has enabled her to cook independently. 

To find out more about the course we have developed based on our experiences visit https://bit.ly/independentcooking

We all appreciate the importance of good mental health but sometimes lack the toolbox and even the support to consistently achieve it. This is often the case for young people, particularly those with an additional need.  In this episode, we are talking with Kimmy Obongonyinge from Kooth a UK-based organization offering an innovative way of delivering support when and where young people want it.  Kimmy explains what Kooth offers and how it supports young people particularly, at those times where they are not sure who to reach out to. Kimmy also discusses healthy coping strategies that young people can use to manage their mental health and activities that contribute to positive feelings of well-being.  Kooth is an innovative service that takes advantage of the benefits that technology can bring to all of us when used in the right ways. But even with the use of technology, it is all still about people reaching out and supporting each other reminding each other as Kimmy does that we all have good and bad days and we all need to work on our own positive mental health.

https://www.kooth.com/

Emotions are part of being human.  But for many of us there are times when we wish we had better tools to manage our emotions. This can be especially true for young people with additional needs who often face extra internal and external emotional triggers. In this episode we hear from Dana Bishop a Relax Kids coach on some of the strategies that can be used to not only manage the way we feel but to harness these feelings and increase our mental health wellbeing.

Dana shares the 7 steps model of Relax Kids explaining each step and providing examples of how has used it.  The steps model  work around the idea that you can’t just decide to relax but rather you need to go through a series of steps which will help you get to that relaxed state you are after. Some of the tools Dana talks about are one’s we have all heard of like breathing exercises  and affirmations but she provides a timely reminder that it’s the simple ideas which are still the best.

Being able to understand and manage emotions is key for our young people in their daily lives and a skill that most will need to explicitly learn. The Relax Kids model of understanding that to relax is a process not just an end, and knowing what the steps are, will be for many people an invaluable addition to their emotional toolbox.

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Everyone has unique skills; everyone is a specialist in something. This is something this week’s guest Thorkil Sonne from Specialisterne understands completely. Specialisterne which translates from Danish as “The Specialists” is an organisation focused on helping young people with additional needs find meaningful employment. The focus is on matching the skills of the individual with the role not trying to make the person fit the job.

Specialisterne have also developed a unique approach to assessing the skill of individuals in a way that enables them to showcase their individual skills as well as show how they work in a team. This is in recognition that traditional interview approaches limit the opportunities for young people with additional needs to fully illustrate what they are capable of.

Specialisterne also work with employers proactively, to not only help them maximise the skills of their employees but, with practical support around what reasonable adjustments might be necessary in any workplace.

Specialisterne also has a much wider purpose than just helping people find work, they are on a mission to show employers how they are missing out on utilising an incredible pool of talented individuals with specialist skills that could give their organisation a competitive advantage.  

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Sometimes it’s the small ideas that can have the biggest impact and this is certainly the case with this week’s guest Ric Womersley from Spotlight Brewing. Ric founded Spotlight Brewing to make great beer whilst providing genuine employment opportunities for people with additional needs. Not only is Spotlight Brewing doing this very successfully but through their products they are educating their customers about the challenges people with additional needs can face.

In this episode Ric discusses some of the practical issues around setting the brewery up and running it. He also talks about the challenges they faced as a small business finding equipment, training as well as the obvious challenge of how to fund everything they needed.  Spotlight Brewing is a social enterprise and Ric also outlines why he chose that structure over other options. He also talks about what’s next for Spotlight Brewing.

Spotlight Brewing is a perfect example of taking an idea and flipping the switch to get it started. The results are already amazing. Spotlight Brewing might be small now but it's growing fast, not only in sales and the reach of its products, but, in influencing opinions and changing perceptions of what people with additional needs can contribute to business and community.

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We sometimes feel that we are alone in our journey but often by simply looking around we realise we are not. The focus of this week’s podcast, Yoocan proves this in the way they provide an online space to share stories and to inspire each other. In this interview Moshe Gaon co-founder of Yoocan explains why Yoocan exists and what its primary aims and objectives are.

Moshe also talks about how important collaboration is in advancing the way we do things and helping speed up the pace of change for young people with additional needs. He explains why we need to look outside what we know into other areas to find solutions that have been created for other reasons but help us to solve our own problems.

Moshe also talks about why Yoocan is a social enterprise not  a charity and why this is important in the long term not only for the success of Yoocan as a platform for collaboration but also why social enterprises are a better way to bring about real sustainable change.

The hint in the name really but actually Yoocan is about more than what each of us can do it is about understanding that you can do more when you look at what others have done before you or are doing beside you. 

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Accepting ourselves by embracing our strengths and understanding our weaknesses is key to our own happiness. How to do this is the theme of this episode with Alis Rowe founder of The Curly Hair Project. 

Alis talks about her own journey from when she was diagnosed in her early twenties with Asperger syndrome. She explains why she created The Curly Hair Project, what is does, and how it aims to help people on the autism spectrum and their families. Alis also shares some practical ideas that she has implemented to enable her to navigate difficult situations and live the life she wants. Some of the ideas are simple, and could apply to any young person with additional needs, but they make a massive day to day difference to someone’s life once they start using them. 

Alis also advocates the importance of putting yourself first and making decisions around what is best for you, not others. She acknowledges this won’t always be the easiest option because it requires you to sometimes be very honest with those around you and often with yourself. 

Finally, Alis reminds us to be ourselves because, as she says, “Where the magic happens in life is where you embrace the natural strengths and interests that a person has.” We could all do with a little more magic in our lives and listening to Alis should serve as a reminder to all of us that we are so much more than what the world sees on the surface. 

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One of the best things about becoming an adult is that no one can tell you what to do, when to do it and what time to be home. However, that’s not always the case for young people with additional needs. Often they still have rules in place that don’t apply to their peers. Stay Up Late is all about changing that and making it easy for anyone to stay up late, stay out late and enjoy the social they want on their terms.

Paul Richards the founder of Stay Up Late explains where the idea from stay up late came from when he saw first-hand what happens when people are not able to have choose how they spend their evenings.

Kate Ogden the manager of Gig Buddies which buddies people up so they can go to gigs in a safe and supportive way discusses how gig buddies works, how they make sure people are safe and how they are expanding the model around the world though a franchise model. 

Stay Up Late is such a simple idea but one that does so much more than what it says it does, it promotes integration, acceptance and provides people with additional needs a solid base upon which they can start to build a social life of their choice.  

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Did you know what you wanted to be when you grew up? Most of us didn’t but we figured it out along the way because we were given opportunities for part time work or work experience. For many young people with additional needs this doesn’t happen, meaning they don’t always have a clear idea of their options.

In this episode Guy Chaudoir from Scope explains why this shouldn’t be the case, and discusses some ways to help young people increase their options. This includes changing theway they approach applying for jobs and the interview process. It’s also about changing the
perceptions of employers and Guy explains the work Scope has been doing in this area.

Scope provides a bridge to employment by helping young people with additional needs find their own path into work. They also help open doors with employers, so the path can continue forward for both the young person and their employer.

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It’s fine to be aware and even try and understand autism but actually what matters most is acceptance. This is the view of Kieran Rose, also known as The Autistic Advocate. Kieran has autism so he speaks from personal experiences and explains why he believes that acceptance is what is needed even more than awareness.

Kieran shares his personal journey and provides practical advice for both parents and young people with autism on how to manage the challenges they will face. He also discusses the way people with autism are often stereotyped and the impact that has. He also talks about what he sees as an industry that has been built around autism, and how that is actually contributing to delaying real change.

Kieran might be talking specifically about autism, but the really his message applies to everyone with an additional need. Barriers would fall much quicker, especially in things like employment, if people focused on positive acceptance of each individual’s strengths and their weaknesses, not just passive awareness.

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It's not only about finding work, but it's also about matching the skills of the person with the job. This is the view of Derek Groves, from Employment Futures, who discusses the idea of vocational matching and the many benefits it brings to a young person with additional needs and employer. He also talks about how employers still have some way to go in terms of being flexible in their employment practices, especially when it comes to the use of a traditional interviewing process which simply does not allow some young people to showcase their strengths.

Another issue that Derek addresses is positive disclosure, that is how much to disclose to an employer about an individual's additional needs. Although, as he says, its a personal choice in many instances, it can help the employer match the person with a job role and ensure that reasonable adjustments are possible without being costly or disruptive to the workplace.

The work of organizations like Employment Futures is so important in breaking down the barriers into work and helping employers change their perceptions about employing young people with additional needs.

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In this second part of my conversation with Julia Wright from Ken’s Krew, we discuss the importance of work experience in transition programs and the improvements that have taken place in these programs which are enabling more young people to be work-ready. She also offers advice to families about how to plan ahead and why planning is so important because it makes that move from education to employment much more likely to happen.  

https://kenskrew.org/

https://www.facebook.com/kenskrewjobs/

What next? is a question we constantly ask ourselves as we help our young people navigate through the education system. As they get older and age out of the system, this question becomes more urgent and often the answer isn’t as easy to find. This week’s guests Adeel and Anthony asked that exact question and when no answer was obvious they created their own solution: Able Coffee Roasters.

Able Coffee Roasters is on a mission to create sustainable paid employment for young people with additional needs. Through the use of innovative techniques like point of view video modeling and focusing on making accommodations so that each young person can excel at the tasks they are given, Able Coffee Roasters is answering for some young people the question of what next.

What Anthony and Adeel are doing is not only inspiring because it has the potential to help so many young people on their journey to independence but is inspiring because it shows what is possible if we focus not on the question but on looking around for potential solutions in our own communities.

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Finding a supportive safe space for our children to have a variety of social experiences is so important. In this episode, we hear about CASPA which is providing that space and doing a whole lot more. Helen Dyer from CASPA explains not only how CASPA came about and what it does in terms of providing social experiences for a range of age groups. Importantly as CASPA has grown and the young people who started with them have gotten older CASPA has realized the needs of its young people are changing. So CASPA is expanding what it does now focusing on not providing a space to build social skills but also developing programs which help their young people develop those key skills which are transferable into the workplace.

CASPA provides a vital link for young people to begin the journey into work and greater independence. What the world needs is more organizations like this so that an independent future can become a reality for more young people with additional needs.

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Only successful organizations can provide sustainable, long term paid employment and expand to provide more job opportunities. This weeks guest Patrick Bardsley and Tim Howe from Spectrum Designs certainly understand this. Spectrum Designs is a social enterprise making custom apparel, such as hats, hoodies, and T-shirts. Spectrum Designs focusses on the enterprise as much as the social, and in doing so continues to expand and create more employment opportunities for young people with autism.

Patrick and Tim share the story of Spectrum Designs, how it grew from an idea into a business that now provides custom made apparel products to some of the biggest companies in the world. This didn't happen because Spectrum just focused on just providing employment opportunities: it happened because it focuses on quality and on-time delivery as this is what matters to the end customer. By doing this the business has grown to now provide even more jobs for people with autism.

Spectrum Designs is the perfect example of how to marry the social and the enterprise, and illustrates how simply delivering a quality product on time can drastically change the perceptions of and expectations of young people with additional needs.

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We all understand why work is an important step towards independent living, but all to often the employment opportunities are limited for young people with additional needs.

This weeks guest Pascal Fintoni is not only helping to create employment opportunities in digital marketing, but he is also having the conversations around reasonable adjustment that will help create a greater number and a wider choice of employment options.

Pascal talks about his work with the North East Autism Society, in the UK, around developing an internal marketing program designed and developed by young people with autism. This not only helps them to develop digital marketing skills but also offers them a voice in determining where the future of the organization lies.

In addition, as an employer, Pascal is making sure that he has the kind of conversations with other employers that will help change perceptions and make the term reasonable mean exactly what it should mean: 'Reasonable'. As he points out most employers make and have been making reasonable adjustments for their employees every day.

It is forward thinking employers who understand what reasonable adjustments are that will ultimately benefit from a motivated workforce with varied skills. 

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For most of us being part of a community is essential for our wellbeing and often starts where we live. This week’s guest is Jillian Copeland from Main Street, an organization not just building a community but actually building the space where that community can grow and thrive.

However, as Jillian explains, Main Street is much more than about building an apartment block where people with and without additional needs will live. Main Street is about creating opportunities for independent living, for work, for socializing and for learning from each other. The best communities are those where everyone feels an equal part of that community and Main Street is certainly creating that kind of community.

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Accepting ourselves and being more kind to ourselves are the themes in this episode. Anna Pinkerton from Kindness Incorporated talks about her personal and professional journeys and how she has combined them to help her daughter build the life she wants.

Anna shares not only the journey she has been on with her daughter but also how that has crossed over into her professional life. She shares her thoughts around why we aren't kind enough to ourselves and the long term impact that can have on our lives.

Anna also suggests ways we can help our children learn to be more kind to themselves as well as how and why we need to all start with genuinely liking ourselves.

Listening to Anna might just help you analyze how you feel about yourself and whether you need to change the message you tell yourself.

For resources to support you on your journey visit redgiraffesolutions.com.

Any journey is made easier by walking with others. That is the focus of this episode - the impact of collaboration with, in this case, the theater as the space where the collaboration starts.

In this episode, Katie Sweeney, a parent and board member of the CO/LAB Theater Group in New York, talks about her individual journey and the role musical theater has played not only in her life but also her son's life.

Katie talks about CO/LAB and how they help young people with additional needs change the way they see themselves and, through reaching out to the wider community, change the way others see them as well. Here collaboration is about bringing people together and using everyone's individual strengths to create something more than one person alone can create. Katie also talks about the wider impact that finding and building a collaborative community around her son has had when it comes to planning and imagining what the future might be like.

For resources to support you on your journey visit redgiraffesolutions.com.

Days out and going on holiday are an important part of family life, but when a young person has additional needs they can be much more of a challenge. How to make the process easier is the focus of this podcast episode with Lizzie Murphy, from A Curious Journey, offers some tips and ideas on traveling with children who have additional needs.

Lizzie talks about the importance of preparation and making sure that everyone understands what is going to happen, and preparing for the unexpected. She suggests some useful tools which can help manage expectations. Lizzie also discusses practical ways to prepare for each journey, including talking to airlines and researching what destinations are already able to offer in terms of assistance. As she highlights, there are tools out there already which can help make the whole experience much easier for parents and children.

The benefits of having new experiences are obvious in helping build a young person’s confidence and social skills, as well as creating family memories. However, we can all sometimes feel overwhelmed by the preparations needed and its reassuring to know there are proven approaches to dealing with many of the issues that arise.

For resources to support you on your journey visit redgiraffesolutions.com.

What might be the future uses of virtual reality, and how do we need to manage this to stop potential dependence on technology? These are the main themes of this episode.

In part 2 of this interview Dr. Nigel Newbutt, who is researching the uses of virtual reality and virtual worlds, talks about what the future uses of virtual reality might be and how it could be used to help young people with additional needs live more independent lives. He also addresses some of the concerns that have been raised about the use of these types of technologies.

The future uses of virtual reality are exciting but as Nigel cautions we need to remember that is it simply another tool. We will need to make sure we monitor its actual effectiveness to ensure it has the desired impact of helping our young people develop the skills which will enable them to live more independent lives.

For resources to support you on your journey visit redgiraffesolutions.com.

The use of virtual reality and virtual worlds can be used to change the future for our young people and just how this is happening is the topic of this episode. My guest this week is Dr. Nigel Newbutt who is researching how virtual reality and virtual worlds can be used to help young people with additional needs access and manage real-world situations that they often find overwhelming.

Nigel explains the work he is doing to develop programs which can be used to help develop employment skills, prepare young people for social situations and provide a way to rehearse situations which could otherwise be overwhelming without a prior opportunity to experience what the encounter might be like.

This is the first of a two-part episode and in the next episode, Nigel talks about what the future of virtual reality might look like and also addresses some the concerns that people have around using these types of technology.

The work being done by Nigel is helping make these technologies accessible and relevant to our young people enabling them to develop specific skills in a controlled way which can then hopefully be translated to make their real-world encounters much easier.

For resources to support you on your journey visit redgiraffesolutions.com.

In this episode, we learn about Ken's Crew, an organization co-founded by parents through a partnership with Home Depot. Julia Wright from Ken’s Krew shares how they facilitate meaningful employment for young adults with additional needs through partnerships with a variety of organizations providing intensive training and ongoing support. Julia also discusses some of the challenges faced, such as communication skills and parental concerns, and the importance of sensitivity training for colleagues.  

https://kenskrew.org/

https://www.facebook.com/kenskrewjobs/

All around us are people working in their local communities to make the lives of young people with additional needs better. This week’s podcast guest Sue Clark is one of these people. Sue talks about her work with Pegasus Playscheme which is located on the south coast of England.

Pegasus Playscheme provides activities for young people with additional needs in the summer over a 3 week period. The purpose of this is to help young people experience independent activities where they make new friends. Pegasus also aims to reduce the isolation that many young people can experience when not at school.

Sue explains not only the history of Pegasus but provides from her own experience practical advice and insights into how to set up a similar scheme, which could provide a social outlet for young people in your own community.

Sue shares her story and also discusses the practicalities of fundraising and the logistics of running a scheme like Pegasus. Sue provides a great example of what can be done by a few people with dogged determination and perseverance. Sue says every town needs a Pegasus but as she is also happy to say she learned while she was doing. Sue reminds us it’s the getting started that is often the most daunting thing, but the rewards are well worth overcoming the fears.

For resources to support you on your journey visit redgiraffesolutions.com.

Getting to know any young person is the essential first step in understanding what they need when it comes to helping them achieve greater independence. This is the core ethos of this week’s podcast guests Trudy and Darren Dzirasa-Payne from Impacting Lives.

Impacting Lives provides housing and associated support services for young people with additional needs.  What they focus on is providing services that work for the individual and balance this with running what is a business by keeping their costs under control through the use of technology and keeping administration costs low. This combined with clear processes helps ensure they can provide what is needed by the young people they support whilst continuing to run a sustainable business.

There is no doubt that services that provide accommodation for young people with additional can often have a bad reputation. impacting Lives and Trudy and Darren show that the residential care home model can be less about the home and more about the care. It ultimately comes down to the core values of the organization.

Whatever the individual solution that works for our young people it is reassuring to hear about organizations like Impacting Lives and people like Trudy and Darren who are driven by a greater purpose to help change the lives of individuals and ensure they live the kind of lives they desire.

For resources to support you on your journey visit redgiraffesolutions.com.

Rather than waiting until we have to act the better option is to start exploring what is already out there and start actively working towards creating solutions. This is exactly what this week's podcast guest Mike Sweeney is doing.

Mike talks about the various projects that he has become involved in as he looks towards finding a community for his son Dustin to live in when he is ready for independent living.

Mike talks about how he has moved from thinking of housing as being the most important focus of his efforts to the realization that work would as he puts it "changes people’s perspective".

He also discusses how the system in the USA is changing towards young people with additional needs being given more control over their own futures through what is known as self-direction. Mike also reminds us how important integration is in terms of ensuring that our young person with additional needs can have an independent future even when we are no longer around.

Although Mike's journey is not a unique one, there is much to learn from the way he is navigating his way through the challenges. Listening to Mike's story will help you as you plan ahead for your own son or daughter’s future independence.

For resources to support you on your journey visit redgiraffesolutions.com.

At some point in all of our journeys, we need support. Some of us find it in family and friends, others look to support groups. In this week's podcast, Elaine Kelly, who runs a support group, talks about how support groups can help when maybe others around you simply don't get it.

Elaine explains how her support group is run and what she believes is important to consider to provide a supportive and welcoming environment. She reveals how support groups can help against isolation and also make people aware of organizations and resources they can use.

Elaine also addresses why some people don't seek out support groups and explains how for many people they are only used for short-term support and for others provide a long-term space to share.

Sharing our knowledge and experiences makes all of us stronger. It doesn't have to be in a support group setting, of course, but wherever we do it we are making the journey of those following us that little bit easier.

For resources to support you on your journey visit redgiraffesolutions.com.https://redgiraffesolutions.com/

This is a celebration episode, celebrating reaching 50 episodes, celebrating all the amazing guests who have been on the podcast and are out there changing the lives of young people and helping ensure that they will have the kind of independent lives they want.

In this episode, rather than talk to a guest as I usually do, I share my own key takeaways around Purpose, Relationship, and Daily Living. 

For resources to support you on your journey visit redgiraffesolutions.com.

Job carving can help create sustainable employment opportunities according to this week’s podcast guest Neil Willows from Pure Innovations

Neil is the Assistant Internship Contract Manager at Pure Innovations which is based in Manchester in the UK. His role is focused on using supported internships to help young people gain work skills and find long-term employment. Neil explains how their supported internship programme works helping to develop real employability skills. They work with local companies to provide a range of work placements and job opportunities for young people. Ongoing support is also provided to the employer and their staff. Some have limited experience of working with young people with additional needs and so, having a support system really helps them ensure any issues are dealt with quickly and effectively.

Neil talks about how one of the most important aspects of this type of training is around building the young person’s confidence and allowing them to showcase their talent to employers. Whenever the young person experiences what might be a barrier to employment, they are helped to find ways to overcome it. The example Neil uses is a young person who struggles to tell the time which could then lead to them being late to work. Together with the young person, they look at the best tools to use to overcome the issue such as using a mobile phone alarm or other prompts.

Neil also explains the concept of job carving. He talks about how it can sometimes be difficult to find suitable job roles for people with additional needs. However, through job carving where he talks to employers and helps them to identify new roles or to create jobs out of what was not a previously a defined job role. Many of these roles can be repetitive and so often suit young people who prefer a clearly defined role. In addition, they might be roles that the employer has not been able to define as a role because of the nature of the tasks required. Neil provides a number of examples of where job carving has led to long-term paid employment opportunities for young people.

Neil and Pure Innovations are not only helping young people build work skills and find jobs they are supporting employers by introducing to them the idea of job carving which can help them effectively fill a variety of job roles with highly motivated employees.

For resources to support you on your journey visit redgiraffesolutions.com.

Tennis, because of its repetitive nature, is an excellent therapeutic tool which can develop not only physical skills but also builds language and social skills, according to this week’s podcast guest Lisa Pugliese, from Love Serving Autism.

Lisa is the founder and CEO of Lover Serving Autism and has combined her skills as an ex-professional tennis player and Speech-Language Pathologist to develop an innovative program that uses tennis to help young people on the autism spectrum develop skills. These can include the physical skills around increased fine and gross motor coordination and hand-eye coordination. In addition, other benefits include providing aerobic and cardiovascular exercise, as well as improving speed, flexibility, and agility. Playing tennis also helps to increase visual and auditory processing skills.

Lisa explains how the program is also useful in developing the language and social skills of young people. Many of them are reluctant to try anything new because they prefer to know what’s coming. Some struggle to transition to a new sport, which is why Love Serving Autism uses “Social Stories” to help participants learn what to expect from a tennis class. This helps to prepare them and familiarise them with the classes in advance.

As Lisa explains the classes are very structured so, at the beginning of class, the students meet and greet one another, which helps to improve their language and communication skills. The organization also encourages them to partake in different group activities, such as practicing tracking with the ball by rolling it back and forth with a partner as well as practice catching and throwing the ball. Lisa explains how tennis has helped many of the young people become more independent as they progress, and their individual skills develop.

Lisa talks about the challenges of running an organization like this. They are reliant on volunteers, but fortunately, they have plenty of people offering to help out. She talks very honestly about how challenging some volunteers find it to work with the young people on the program. Although the volunteers are all excited about helping, they aren’t sure how to help. They often wait on the sidelines for instruction from the program director and one of the main issues is that they just aren’t sure how to speak to autistic children. It can take time build their confidence so that they feel more comfortable helping and being part of the team.

This applies equally to the tennis professionals Lisa uses on the program. They quickly find they need a different set of skills and have to think of new ways to teach the sport. But, as Lisa notes, what they learn on this program will make them so much more effective as they go on to teach other young people who have additional needs. In a sense, they will serve as ambassadors for tennis as sport and tennis as a therapy.  

Like many similar organizations, Lisa has had to navigate the world of funding. She talks about the approaches they use, which include organizing events to raise money and to also promote autism awareness. She also talks about the long-term goals of Love Serving Autism which are to expand the program to more locations across the USA.

Lisa has been able to very effectively combine her passions to change the lives of many young people, impact on the volunteers and tennis professional she trains, and show just how tennis can be used as a therapy in a way which is fun but also meets the long-term objective of building the self-worth of the young people she serves. 

For resources to support you on your journey visit redgiraffesolutions.com.

The job of a parent is to be there whatever and whenever for your child – those are the rules! That certainly applies to Claire Sutton, this week’s podcast guest. Claire shares her truly inspiring, but sometimes heart-breaking, story. Her daughter Jade, who is now 14 years old, has ADHD. The road to getting Jade diagnosed was drawn out. As Claire put it, Jade “slipped through the cracks of the education system.” Her early school years were a struggle and it wasn’t until year 5 that she was formally diagnosed. Claire and her family moved across the country and enrolled Jade in a much smaller school that was better equipped for Jade’s needs. Unfortunately, even though Jade seemed happier, her struggles continued.

By the time Jade started secondary school, Claire had discovered the heart-breaking news that Jade had been self-harming for over a year. Jade had managed to hide this from her family, and when it was discovered Jade was adamant that she didn’t want any external help. This is when Claire realized that she needed, as she puts it, “to be the light”.

Claire talks in depth about what being the light really meant in terms of listening to how Jade was feeling and hearing some things that parents never want to hear from their children. She talks about the need to stay calm and not get drawn in to what she calls the darkness. Although a lot of the things Jade talked about were quite dark and upsetting, Claire knew she had to be her rock, so she couldn’t let emotions get in the way of that. Claire was determined to be the light in her daughter’s life and get her through the darkness.

Claire talks about how she would constantly reassure Jade that they would get through it and that there was light at the end of the tunnel, and they were heading for it no matter what. And slowly Jade began to gravitate towards her mother’s light. Claire’s ultimate goal was to help Jade see the value in herself again.

Claire talks also about the need to shift the focus to something more positive in situations like this. Jade was a fan of pageants, and although Claire had her concerns, she soon realized that modern-day pageants are less about physical appearances and more about showing off the beauty inside a person. Jade loved the idea of competing in a pageant and Claire talks about these as a key part of her daughter’s recovery.

Being a contestant has also meant that Jade had to do a lot of charity work, and give back to the community. So Jade began focusing on a new project that helped other kids her age who struggled with similar issues. She went and talked at assemblies in local schools about her experience with ADHD and depression. This project is now growing, and Jade has appeared on television in the UK, talking about her life and how she has come through the other side. She has now become an identifiable role model for other young people going through similar challenges in their lives.

Finally, Claire talks about the three main areas she focused on with her daughter to bring her back to a more positive, happier place in her life:

1. To value herself again
2. To set inspiring goals
3. To give back

These 3 things have helped her daughter not only come to the light but also to be a light for other young people struggling with the same challenges she has faced.

Both Claire and Jade are inspiring individuals and remind us all what love and perseverance can achieve.

For resources to support you on your journey visit redgiraffesolutions.com.

What happens to young people with additional needs when they finish full-time education? How will they find employment? How will they cope on their own throughout adulthood?. One organization helping to provide some of the answers to these questions is Invictus Enterprises based in New York. In this week’s podcast, we hear from Alison Berkely co-founder of Invictus Enterprises about how they are helping young people with autism acquire the work skills they need to get into paid sustainable employment.

Alison talks about the challenges of getting the training program started and explains the benefits of basing the training program in the culinary industry. The first product launched was No Bones About It dog biscuits which have proved to be a commercial success with the profits being used to fund the training of even more people.

Alison talked about the need to teach both hard and soft skills. Invictus Enterprises have a support team with a variety of professional backgrounds and they help support the individuals physical and sensory needs in a way that enables them to learn effectively. When it comes to making the dog biscuits, for example, participants are shown how to follow a recipe, use the cooking equipment and develop the stamina required to be on their feet for a large part of the day. They also focus on developing their skills around teamwork and social communication skills.

Alison also explains the importance of technology and she describes it as the real “game changer” for the organization because it opens up the world of work for many young people who otherwise would not have an opportunity because they are not able to communicate verbally. Alison has even created a digital cookbook curriculum that takes students through the entire baking process using touchscreen technology.

As Alison says we all worry about what the future holds for our children. But there’s no doubt this worry is amplified when the child has additional needs. What Invictus Enterprises is doing serves as a reminder of the importance in aspiring to the future and finding new and innovative ways to help our young people find and keep paid employment. This will make the question how will they cope on their own a lot easier to answer.

For resources to support you on your journey visit redgiraffesolutions.com.

Successful sustainable employment opportunities for young people with additional needs comes when support is provided for not just the young person but also for their employer too. This is the message in this week’s podcast with Lisa Campbell-Squires from Team Domenica. Team Domenica is a social enterprise charity with a vision to help people with additional needs reach their full potential in the workplace.

Lisa explained how Team Domenica was started by Rosa Monckton in response to her own daughter’s lack of training and employment opportunities. They now operate a café (Café Domenica) as well as training facilities and work with local employers using a supported internship model.  Lisa also spoke of her own journey and why she had been inspired to get involved with helping young people with additional needs access employment opportunities.  

Lisa explained the various programs on offer at Team Domenica, which includes a first-year introductory program that works on developing communication skills, social skills and general employability skills. This involves all the young people working in Café Domenica as well as work placements with local employers. This not only helps develop skills around teamwork and problem solving but also allows the young people to experience different work environments, which helps them identify what types of job role really interest them.

 When candidates reach the second year, they begin the Supported Internship Program. This program is based in a workplace with a specialist job coach who works with the young person and the employer. The job coach helps them work on the skills they need in their new roles which might also include how to manage their time in the workplace or travelling to and from work. The “end goal” of the Supported Internship Program is to move the young people into paid work. The success rate for doing this is very high and the team are justifiably proud of this.  However, it’s not just about finding each candidate paid employment. It’s about finding them a job that they enjoy within a supportive and positive work environment.

The support from Team Domenica does not end once a young person has found paid employment. The support continues and then focuses on helping the employer deal with any issues that may arise in managing the young person at work. Lisa talked about the high numbers of young people who having completed a supported internship program and found paid employment are not in that paid role after 6 months. Lisa suggested that a reason for this was often to do with a lack of understanding when things “don’t go according to plan”. The young person may be struggling in the work environment and the employer may not have the knowledge or experience to manage the situations. To help combat this issue, Lisa and the team at Team Domenica, continue to provide long-term support for each of their candidates long after they’ve completed their supported internship.

Team Domenica has developed a very successful model for training young people with additional needs. This is clearly down in part to the focus on ongoing support for not just the young person but for everyone that is involved in helping that young person keep a job they enjoy and feel valued in.

For resources to support you on your journey visit redgiraffesolutions.com.

In this second part of a conversation with Mel Simmonds, from Hidden Gem Services, we focus on what we can do at home to help make the transition into paid work smoother for our young people. When they go into their first job, they will have lots of new information to take in and skills to learn. However, the transition will be made easier if we have already helped them build transferable skills they can use at work. Mel provides some practical examples of how to do this as well as explaining the role we can play in developing their confidence by discussing their daily work experiences and encouraging independent decision-making. She also touches on the potential pitfalls of parents acting as job coaches.

https://www.hiddengemservices.co.uk/

To truly learn, it has to be caught rather than taught is the mantra of this week’s podcast with Diane King, author and special needs teacher. One way to do this and at the same time develop childrens’ self-worth is through storytelling and creativity.

We start with Diane’s own journey which has been an interesting one. As a child Diane was a selective mute and struggled to communicate with the world; that was until her sister introduced her to the magic of storytelling. Diane found that through storytelling she could release the built-up emotions she had kept hidden. She also decided quite young she would become a teacher and help children who were struggling as she had.

Over her years as a teacher working with children with additional needs, she noticed that the vast majority of children had speech and language issues which limited their ability to communicate impacting on their confidence. After working with speech and language therapists, physiotherapists and educational psychologists she realized the importance of the relationship between rhyme and alliteration in stories, and how this could be used to help children learn easier and, through that, feel better about themselves.

Using this knowledge and from her own experiences as a child, Diane has written a number of children’s books, including Ruby Red which uses rhyming and alliteration. Ruby Red is a story about a young girl with additional needs and how she is constantly learning how to deal with her emotions, how to articulate her thoughts and how to communicate with the people around her. It is also about the inner struggles young people with additional needs have as they try and understand a world that for them can sometimes be a very scary place. The stories are intended for younger children but could also be used as a tool to teach anyone more about the struggles children with additional needs often face.

Diane talked quite a lot about the importance of allowing children to express their feelings. If a child isn’t allowed to express their emotions, it’s like a dam that’s ready to burst. She believes, as parents, we should always encourage children to express their emotions and make sure we model to them the best ways to cope with and release these emotions.

Diane acknowledges that there will be times when it will be difficult for parents to find the time and space to deal with their children’s emotional releases, so she offers some ideas as to ways that we can help our children manage their emotions. She talks also about the different ways everyone learns and how some children are oral learners, others visual learners and others are kinesthetic (learning by doing) learners. Diane is a strong advocate for providing as many kinesthetic experiences as possible because these, she argues, will enable children to manage their emotions better in the long term. She uses her own journey as a parent to illustrate what she means, and how she would encourage her children to express their emotions and the kinesthetic experiences that worked for her children to develop their sense of self.

Diane also talked about how even young adults can benefit from storytelling and other creative activities. These can provide them with spaces to express themselves, understand and manage their own emotions and through all of that develop the confidence to become more independent because of their increased feelings of self-worth.

For resources to support you on your journey visit redgiraffesolutions.com.

“Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right,” according to Henry Ford: this week's podcast guest Marjorie Madfis clearly believes this to be true. With Yes She Can Inc., Marjorie has not only created employment opportunities for her own daughter, but she has also created a training process which other parents can use to help their children develop better employability skills. In essence, by using the same processes she has used, you too could create a sustainable business to help young people with additional needs to gain work.

Marjorie starts off by explaining why she started Yes She Can Inc., which is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping young women with autism spectrum disorders develop transferable job skills. Marjorie watched as her own daughter received job skills training which simply wasn’t fit for purpose and which wasn’t teaching the right job skills that would help her to get a job.

Her daughters' dream job was working for American Girl, a doll production company, so Marjorie decided to help her daughter go towards achieving her dreams by opening a store which resold used American Girl merchandise. Once she realized that it wasn’t only her daughter who needed a space to develop job skills she turned her business idea into a non-profit organization, focusing on helping young women on the autism spectrum develop transferable job skills

Marjorie talks about the importance of having a “proof of concept” trial. She started out small and got professionals involved, including social workers, psychologists, and occupational therapists. Once the trial was successful, she was then able to scale up quickly to have a “Girl Again” retail shop along with a connected training program.

Marjorie talks about the training program and some of the challenges for the young women on the program. In particular, the need for them to realize that their work isn’t always about them. It’s about the customer and satisfying someone else’s needs before your own. Marjorie talks about how her own daughter struggles with prioritizing the immediate customers’ needs over other tasks she had already begun. She also explains the kind of skills that the young women learn from data input to phoning customers to writing marketing materials.

She also talks about why a reselling business is an ideal route for training young people with additional needs. She explained how a business like this has a variety of job roles which other businesses might not have, from sorting stock to online selling. This enables young people to develop a much broader range of skills than other types of work might. In addition, as with her daughter, the right kind of business can enable young people to work in a business they are genuinely interested in. Marjorie also talks about her belief that training programs need to have qualified professionals, such as occupational therapists and psychologists, actively included in the design and delivery of any training rather than less qualified training providers. She argues that professionals have a much better understanding of why behaviors occur, and so can help develop long-term strategies to help the young person developing coping skills in the workplace. This ultimately helps the young person.

She also explains very well why we all need to think differently about the job options for our young people. As she explains the job market has become more generalized. Organisations want flexible employees that can carry out several or more tasks. Why? Because businesses aren’t in the business of employment. As Marjorie puts it, they want as few employees as possible. This means that one of two things need to happen young people need to develop a variety of skills which is what the Yes She Can Inc. program aims to do. Alternatively, as Marjorie also suggests we need to find smaller employers who have a job role which matches the core skills of the individual.

Marjorie also discusses how the model developed at Yes She Can Inc might be replicated how the processes used and best practices developed could be taken by other parents and professionals and used across any reselling business.

Like many parents/carers of a child with additional needs, Marjorie is on a crusade to change perceptions about what young people with additional needs are capable of in the world of work. She has created a model and process which we can all use as a guide to our efforts to change our young person’s work future. 

For resources to support you on your journey visit redgiraffesolutions.com.

Do you need more sleep because your child needs more sleep? Maybe this weeks guest can help.Vicki Dawson is the CEO of The Children’s Sleep Charity and helped write the Children and Young People’s Sleep Manifesto presented to the UK government, which argued among other things for quality sleep support to be available for all families and for sleep to be recognised as a vital component of mental health.

Vicki was once a sleep deprived mum who struggled to get enough sleep at night and had no time to take a nap during the day. She realised how little help there is for people suffering from sleep deprivation or sleep issues with children. So Vicki decided to take things into her own hands and launched The Children’s Sleep Charity in 2012.

Vicki explains the process of helping a parent who comes to the charity for advice. They usually discover the charity via social media or by word of mouth. The first step is to talk to a sleep practitioner who helps to identify the causes. Vicki stresses how key it is to understand the triggers causing the sleep issues before thinking about what strategies might work.

Vicki discusses also how important is to find strategies that work for individual families and fits their parenting style and their schedule. As she says when people are sleep deprived, it’s often difficult to have the capacity to make massive changes. So it’s essential to come up with a plan that works for each individual family.

Vicki shared some of the things she has learnt about helping children develop a more structured sleep pattern. Vicki suggested that parents consider the time their child naturally falls asleep and use that time as a starting point. So, if your child falls asleep at 11 pm, put them to bed at 11 pm. Then, gradually move the bedtime to a more appropriate time to help strengthen and readjust your child’s natural body clock. Also, try and make sure that you wake up your child at the same time every morning (including weekends!). Developing this habit will help to strengthen their body clock, resulting in a more structured sleep routine.

Vicki emphasised the importance of investigating the hour before bedtime in close detail and offers some practical ideas for that pre-bedtime routine. These include encouraging children to eat foods that induce sleep, using relaxing and therapeutic play activities like lego, drawing and play dough to help promote a sense of calm, using a warm bath to foster relaxation and the obvious one getting rid of ALL screens.

As Vicki says many parents feel like others are judging them when they talk about their child’s sleep issues as well as offering unhelpful comments to make them feel like bad parents. The Children’s Sleep Charity provides the support sleep-deprived parents need without judgment.

For resources to support you on your journey visit redgiraffesolutions.com.