Resources for Autism is a national charity with an office in Birmingham serving the West Midlands. The charity provides practical services for children and adults with a diagnosis of autism and for those who love and care for them. RFA staff and volunteers are autism-trained and the group’s services are designed to be welcoming and accepting of users, whatever their level of need and support. This summer, RFA plans to deliver sessions at two locations, in north and south Birmingham on 20 weekdays during the holidays between 10am-3pm.
Sessions are small and include autistic children and young people – often with other needs – across the city. In total, the charity in aiming to involve 100 children aged 5-18 in these sessions, which means each child will have access to only a few sessions each. Most participants are also eligible for FSM.
Activities
Sessions consist of age appropriate mix of play and youth work including physical activity, food education and enrichment activities. There will be a significant element of physical activity during the sessions including:
- play
- rock climbing
- horseriding
- swimming.
Enrichment activities in the past have included: local activities which can be done at the venue or in the local high street – shopping; arts and crafts; picnics in the park; and cooking etc; and activities that require trips off site – including horseriding, swimming and visits to the countryside. Both sorts of enrichment activity are built into the project. The aim being to develop life skills and open doors to new experiences.
Food
Food and eating are important issues for many autistic children and young people Resources for Autism staff and volunteers are well-informed about this both in general and in terms of participants’ own choices and preferences. All relevant staff are trained to Level 2 in Food Hygiene and in Allergy Awareness. Participants will be involved in food preparation and opportunities will be taken for informal education arising from it including taste challenges and looking at nutritional values of food.
RFA has many links to families with autistic family members in the city: most children and young people taking part in the sessions over the summer will already be RFA service users. They are not limited to pupils at any given school and referals to the service are taken from all schools and other services. Services are heavily in demand – each child will attend four, two hour session – a total of 8 hrs of provision over the summer. You can use the Fit for All Booking Enquiry form to make contact with RFA.