We seek to support Autistic people and their families
What an amazing day we had!!!
We cannot thank all who came to share the day with us enough!! Our volunteers from young to old were wonderful and life-skills we have been developing were put into practical use!
Here are a snippet of the photos throughout the day of some of the laughter, games and guests we had come to St Andrews for the Fundraiser …
We raised over £800!!!!
Letter from Simon – The founder and chair of Sky Autism Support.
“Dear All,
I wanted to give you an update on what we have been up to this year. We are now supporting 144 member families in the Malvern area and our 10-17 and 18+ groups are seeing representatives from 25 families each week.
I think what we do is helping – this is an email in October to Ruth from the parent of a boy in our 10-17 group
“Hi Ruth
Just wanted to drop you a line to say how much (Youth’s Name) …. looks forward to SKY each week – thank you so much! What’s the deal with club subscriptions/donations? No one’s mentioned anything as yet. (Youth’s Name) gets so much out of this; just want to make sure we’re giving back!”
In answer to this parent’s question… If you do wish to support us, please see below
We had a meeting last night of the trustees and senior staff (see photo) and it was a joyous occasion. First of all, we discovered that Charles who leads the over 18’s had got engaged to Theresa- what fab news!!
Following, we discussed how this year we have started getting referrals from social prescribers, who are helping people to access our support. Before bringing them into the group we will sometimes meet with them on a 1:1 and also maybe meet them at the door to the venue to help them enter a room of people they don’t know. It is amazing the progress they can make- I am thinking of “J” now and Charles who met him first, was saying last night how much he enjoys the weekly over 18 meetings in Wetherspoons.
Can I thank our amazing volunteers, Sarah, Joan and June particularly for their help this year!
One person who wasn’t there last night was Jackie who often leads our parents’ meetings – this is what A…, a member, had to say about her impact after the November meeting:
“Hey, fantastic night last night! It was very informative. There was a lot of information to take in and good advice.”
One of our wonderful session leaders, Claire, is also organising a fundraiser for SKY on Monday December 19th at St Andrews Church Hall Malvern WR14 3JX from 11.30 to 3.30. Please contact Ruth or Claire through the website or our Facebook page if you can help or bake- but definitely come along!
Finally, we are looking for volunteer befrienders. Some of our SKY adult members have got a bit isolated (particularly after the lockdown). Maybe if you are retired or just have a bit of spare time we wondered if you might be interested in offering support? Many of those with ASD are fine 95% of the time but can get thrown by a form that arrives through the post and needs filling in or a social interaction that they don’t maybe understand. They also love talking about their passions. If you can spare time and offer a caring ear, please email Ruth at ruth@skyautismsupport.com to find out more.
Happy Christmas and love and blessings from all of us at Sky
Simon
Hi all!
We are very excited to invite you all to our upcoming Fundraiser on the 19th of December!!!
Our youth and adults are already showing great skills by making handmade crafts and goods!
They are also practicing how to make hot chocolates, teas and coffees and helping to wash up.
This fundraiser is to raise money for supplies, for expenses as a charity… and the main desire is to raise enough to take the youth, and the 18+, out on separate trips in January, to help with the Post-Christmas Blues!
If anyone would also like to make a physical or financial donation towards the raffle and tombola, please email: – claire@skyautismsupport.com before the 6th December.
Following feedback from local services and parents, we have decided to set up a Facebook Page to increase local awareness about our groups!
Please head over to our Page and give us a Follow!
If we can just reach one person extra who is currently struggling to find some available support in our area… our new page will be deemed a success!
We had such a wonderful evening last week at the sports hall, playing Basketball, Badminton, Football and with a parachute! Really good to burn off some energy together!
A massive thank you to Jess from Freedom Leisure for helping to set up this experience for our youth!
If you are interested in your child coming to the group, or if you would like to volunteer some time, please email ruth@skyautismsupport.com
10-17’s update: – Social Lifeskills Session
This week the group arrived to a special session, with our tables covered in plain paper. We watched a video called “Words That Hurt”, before encouraging our young people to have some healthy conversations about words they have heard that are not nice, bullying, and even how sometimes we can say mean things ourselves without meaning to!!
Once all these mean words (and describing pictures) were all on the paper, we then >>>> RIPPED IT UP!!! This was quite therapeutic for our young people!
A touching point was when one of our intelligent youth queried “Can we not look at how to be positive and kind instead?”, which set up our next activity beautifully.
We then did “Cards of Encouragement” for one another, filling cards with kind thoughts and encouragements for each other, resulting in some beautiful words and joy around the table. 
If you are interested in your child coming to the group, or if you would like to volunteer some time, please email ruth@skyautismsupport.com
