Ninety autistic young people and their families will benefit from new technology to help them learn, thrive and achieve, thanks to a grant from London Freemasons.
The young people all attend Ambitious College, which is a specialist autism day college in London. It is run by Ambitious about Autism and has two campuses based in Tottenham and Isleworth.
The £60,000 grant to Ambitious about Autism will fund a new Assistive Technologist over three years, who will enable young people with complex autism to communicate more effectively through technology.
The goal is to identify the right technology for each young person and enable them to use it to best effect in order to pursue their education and communicate their needs.
Families and carers will also receive training, so they can understand the technology, learn how to fix problems and to support their child to use it at home.
Specialist knowledge
The enormous range of technology on the market whilst exciting, can be difficult to understand without specialist knowledge. The Assistive Technologist is a special role as it will bring this specialist knowledge in technology, teaching and autism combined.
Jolanta Lasota, Chief Executive of Ambitious about Autism, said: “We’re very grateful to London Freemasons for their generous grant, which will provide immediate support to autistic young people who have been deeply affected by the Coronavirus pandemic. This grant will also have a long-term impact, allowing our team of experts to develop new ways of supporting autistic young people that will improve many more lives in the future.”
Tony Shields from London Freemasons, said: “I’m very pleased we’ve been able to help Ambitious about Autism, who do wonderful work for young people with autism. New technology offers major opportunities to help them improve their wellbeing in ways that were not possible only a few years ago and this will allow many of them and their families to take full advantage of it.”
Click here to visit the Ambitious College website
Click here to visit the Ambitious about Autism website
