❝Having achieved the Autism Friendly Award kitemark, we hope this shows our commitment to being inclusive, enabling autistic people to feel welcomed and respected.❞

The Personal Bests is a fun-filled day where people with learning disabilities come together to enjoy sports and connect with the community. Active LD works with key partners in the Event Management Team (EMT) to deliver this uplifting event, celebrating every participant’s efforts and achievements.

Why did you register for the Autism Friendly Award?

We wanted to make the Personal Bests an even better experience for autistic people, so we approached our friends at Autism Hampshire for their help. While we were doing many things well, we learned that there is more that we can do, and we were keen to implement positive changes.

Working towards Autism Friendly Accreditation has helped us focus on how we can make the way we work even better, and it acknowledges our commitment to helping people with learning disabilities access regular activity in a truly inclusive and welcoming way.

The award will add credibility to our event, and we hope it will reassure autistic people taking part in our activities (participants, carers and volunteers) as well as encourage funders to support us, confident in the knowledge that what we’re offering is truly special.

How did the programme support you with reflecting and developing your event?

It helped provide us with a way of auditing the way we work through an autism-friendly lens.

We have considered what we do well and where there is room for improvement. We were excited to discover ways to become more accessible to autistic people. This is not just every part of our event planning process but also in every part of the work our organisation does.

What feedback have you received from autistic people/families who have attended your event since you received the award?

As a participant led organisation, we are proud of the autism awareness training that our ‘autistic experts’ (experts through lived experience) helped us with. Over 100 people have watched these videos to date.

Our autism experts really engaged with creating the training video, keen for their voices to be heard and to explain what being austic is like for them. They have provided tremendous insight and value.

We have received some really positive feedback from volunteers, coaches and Active LD directors.

❝I would strongly recommend other provisions take part in the Autism Friendly programme. There is no good reason not to!❞

- Betty Chadwick, Executive Director

What areas of practice did you develop and what impact has this had on autistic people and their families?

It has helped give us the nudge to put our ideas into practice, such as greater publicity around our quiet spaces at the event and autism awareness training for volunteers, coaches and Event Management Team. We increased communication and expectation setting for day services and support workers in advance of the event.

Provided autism awareness training to volunteers and have scheduled training sessions for coaches, event partners and Active LD directors.
We created a video to show participants, volunteers and coaches what to expect at the event.
We have increased our provision of quiet spaces and improved the way we promote these.
I have become an Autism Ambassador (part of The Autism Ambassador Scheme for Hampshire, Portsmouth, Southampton and Isle of Wight)

We have updated our registration form in an Easy Read format and introduced an online registration form for those who prefer to sign up digitally. We are asking participants on registration more about their needs rather than their disability, and what we (the event) can do to help support these.

How has gaining the award benefited your business?

Having achieved the Autism Friendly Award kitemark, we hope this shows our commitment to being inclusive, enabling autistic people to feel welcomed and respected. We also hope achieving this award encourages autistic people and their families to tell us what more we can do to help.

We’re thrilled, proud and validated. Also inspired and committed to continue to develop in an autism-friendly way. We are especially pleased to be trailblazers, as the first Autism Friendly Event to be accredited. It reflects our Active LD values of doing our best, inclusion, trust and safety.

I would strongly recommend other provisions take part in the Autism Friendly programme. There is no good reason not to!

Autism Friendly Award

This award supports customer-facing organisations of all sizes to provide an autism-friendly environment and inclusive customer service.

Find out about the Autism Friendly Award

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