Life changes as we become teenagers the social demands, the academic demands and thinking about life after education can be a confusing, daunting and sometimes scary thought for young people.
We work with autistic young adults who all have a range of different hopes, dreams and desires for their lives but very often they tell us they just want to have the same as their peers; friendships, a social life, support in school and choice of what they do when the leave school either into employment or further/higher education.
The young people we work with are all more than capable of achieving anything they want to in life, they often just need to learn skills a bit differently, need a little more time to master the skills needed and most importantly have people around them to support, encourage and build their confidence to realise their potential. This is where our brilliant young adult team come in!
Working with our young adults aged 14-18 years old either one to one or in groups, the team support the young people in a number of areas, including:
– Work Experience
– Transition to college
– Independent travel
– Budgeting
– Life skills
– Emotional wellbeing
– Anxiety
– Support back in to education
– Physical fitness
– Social encouragement and developing friendships
– And much, much more!
All support is guided by our young people, it is important that we are working on the areas that are important to them and these plans are flexible, person centred and achievable.
We truly believe #ouryoungpeoplecan and this is why we use this hashtag throughout all our social media!
On a Wednesday night through term time we run a social group for our Young Adults. This group is a little bit different to our younger children’s activities sessions as our young people can pick and choose which session they would like to come to, instead of taking part in a block of classes.
We run a variety of different activities including sports nights, cooking nights, gaming nights and visits to One Stop Shop Perth which is the adult autism service in Perth & Kinross.
This term we are running a bush craft session at Willowgate activity centre and also a gaming session with CEX Perth.
We very much take the lead from the young people in the sessions and the feedback they give us is extremely important to how we plan the sessions
Examples of some feedback from our young people:
‘I enjoy the group, I like doing different stuff and the young adult group gives me more independence to learn how to do things ‘
‘I like Young Adults, I feel I am well supported and understood. There is a good range of activities I really like sports activities.’
‘I like how I am treated with respect and can have more adult conversations’
‘I like how I’ve made friends at the young adult group and now have someone to play video games with’
‘I feel like I’ve been made part of the group. I really enjoyed the session. There I always a good variety of activities to pick from’
‘I really enjoyed my first session with the group and am really looking forward to coming back to the next session’
‘I really enjoy the group. The staff are wonderful, there is always an activity I will enjoy and the staff will be able to support me’
If you would like further information on the Young Adult Service please get in touch with one of the team at transitions@perthautismsupport.org.uk
