The Autism Hub in York: surviving lockdown and anniversary celebrations

Blog | 20 October 2020

Joe Smart

We were forced to temporarily shut the service earlier this year due to COVID-19 but rather than see this as an end to the support, the staff team saw it as a new beginning and developed online activities that our customer base could access.

Since October 2016 we have been providing people we support with an activity base from which they have been able to develop existing and new skills, make and maintain friendships and increase both their confidence and self-esteem.

Cracking down on Coronavirus lockdown isolation

The staff team put together and delivered craft kits to individuals to ensure that we maintained the links and reduced the likelihood of isolation during lockdown.

Getting creative

Take a look at some of the wonderful arts and crafts that people we support have created during lockdown:

Lots of colourful art and craft projects, made by service users of The Autism Hub in York

Reopening the service

We managed to safely reopen the service a few weeks ago and it has been so lovely to welcome the people we support back in to the Hub and finally get to work directly with them again!

Some of our staff were so excited to be reunited that they decided to wear fancy dress:

Staff from The Autism Hub in York are wearing fancy dress costumes - Isabel Bullon is dressed as a leprechaun on the left of the picture, Andrea Dixon is dressed as an Italian chef in the middle and Andrew Bowen is dressed as a rock star on the right. — Left to Right:
Isabel Bullon as a leprechaun, Andrea Dixon as an Italian chef and Andrew Bowen as a rock star.

Our Autumn project

Since The Autism Hub re-opened, the people we support have been working on an Autumn themed mural.

They worked individually to respect the government rules, whilst also collaborating as a team on this project…

Here is the finished mural (pictured at top and below):

Close-ups of the different animals in the Autumn-mural.

How you can help

The Autism Hub is one of our community services in York, providing support for people with autism and other learning disabilities.

You can find out more about our services in the York area here: https://www.unitedresponse.org.uk/urtec/

You can also donate to United Response – to help fund community services like this for people with autism and other learning disabilities: https://www.unitedresponse.org.uk/get-involved/donate/

To contact our Fundraising team, please email: Fundraising@unitedresponse.org.uk