Aspiedent has received £5,000 to fund social skills training for autistic people in West Yorkshire.
The donation was provided by The Discovery Foundation, supported by Santander, which offers grants to UK registered charities for projects that help disadvantaged people in local communities.
Aspiedent is a Community Interest Company (CIC) which provides training to raise awareness and understanding about autism in schools, colleges and universities in West Yorkshire as well as supporting people with the condition. The grant will provide training and coaching to 12 people with autism to help them understand how they think and interact with the world differently. This will enable them to develop their social skills to subsequently gain and keep employment.
Dr Elizabeth Guest, Director at Aspiedent said: “We have received an incredible amount of encouragement and support from Santander’s Pudsey Branch. We are extremely pleased to have received this grant which will help us to support autistic people to develop their self-awareness and interaction skills to prepare them for work.”
Darrell Wall, Branch Manager at Santander’s Pudsey branch said: “The Discovery Foundation makes hundreds of donations every year to good causes throughout the UK. Our branch is committed to playing a key part in the community and we are delighted to be supporting Aspiedent, and hope the donation makes a real difference to local people with autism.”
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Notes to Editors:
Media Contact
Sarah Webster at Santander Tel: 020 7756 5533
About Aspiedent CIC
Aspiedent is a community enterprise company whose main aim is to improve the employment situation for autistic people. At Aspiedent, we believe that autistic people have a lot of offer the workplace, the economy, and the country as a whole. We seek to change the status quo regarding the understanding of autism and to project a positive message about autism. Aspiedent is passionate about helping people with and without autism appreciate each other, to improve employment prospects and quality of life for people with autism, and to help people gain appreciation of difference.
Aspiedent provides revolutionary ‘Understanding Autism’ training about Autism and Asperger Syndrome to all sectors including Education, Healthcare and both Public & Private organisations. We show how the ‘triad of impairments’ works both ways. Autistic people just think differently. They have just as much a place in the world as any body else and can make highly valuable employees.
We also provide innovative social skills training from the autistic perspective to people with autism (14-16+). This helps them to understand themselves and the world around them better. The ways that people with and without autism prefer to build relationships are fundamentally different. This is why it is important to teach social skills to those with autism and "inverse social skills" to those without autism.
For more information please visit: http://www.aspiedent.com/
The Discovery Foundation
Santander funds The Discovery Foundation which is at the heart of the Bank’s community activities, providing grants to small charities and social enterprises working with disadvantaged people to fund skills, knowledge and innovation projects across the UK. Discovery Grants of up to £5,000 are available to support three types of activity:
- Explorer: improving people’s knowledge
- Transformer: supporting skills and experience
- Changemaker: innovative solutions to social challenges
The Discovery Foundation, which was launched on 1 March 2016, is the new working name of the Santander Foundation. Over the last five years, the Foundation has provided £25 million in funding to 12,600 UK charities and in 2016 a further £5 million will be available through Discovery Grants and Staff Matched Donations. For more information please visit: www.thediscoveryfoundation.org.uk
Santander UK is a financial services provider in the UK that offers a wide range of personal and commercial financial products and services. It has brought real competition to the UK, through its 1|2|3 products for retail customers and relationship banking model for UK SMEs. As at 31 December 2015, Santander UK was one of the most switched to banks. The bank serves more than 14 million active customers with c. 20,000 employees and operates through 857 branches and 70 regional Corporate Business Centres. Santander UK is subject to the full supervision of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) in the UK. Santander UK plc customers are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) in the UK.