Another of Landau’s projects has hit the news this month with BBC Midlands Today covering our new £1million All Age Autism project.

Landua is inviting small and voluntary organisations that provide support services to autistic people, their families and carers in Birmingham and Solihull to apply for grants as part of it’s new All Age Autism project.

The project is being funded by NHS England with Landau working in partnership with NHS Birmingham and Solihull Ltd to award grants averaging between £5k and £20k, although this may be more depending on the service being provided.

To date, Landau has awarded funding to 12 organisations, all of which are detailed on a new dedicated Service Directory that Landau has developed as part of the project to help people easily find support services available across Birmingham and Solihull. The Directory’s search function enables users to find services by keywords/ location and the site also contains useful articles, podcasts and details of upcoming events.

The Service Directory also incudes a very simple online referral process, enabling users to make referrals through the Directory to any of the grant-holding services listed on the site. The short online referral form can be completed by individuals for themselves or on behalf of someone else, for example by GPs, social workers, carers, and family members.

Landau’s Project Co-ordinator for the All Age Autism project, Sharon Brown is delighted to be part of a project that is focused on providing wider support for autism, having experienced first-hand just how difficult it is to find help.

Sharon’s eldest son has a diagnosis of autism, along with moderate to severe learning difficulties, and her other two sons display autistic traits. She says she would have welcomed more tailored services to help her family manage her eldest son’s needs: “I think support needs to be tailored to the individual’s circumstances, the individual’s family and the individual’s parents because there is a multiple of needs. In terms of my son becoming an adult, we haven’t had any support but he could do with respite care – not to get away from us but to have his own space and do his own things.”

Sharon adds: “Landau’s focus through this project is to support autistic people of all ages by giving money to third party organisations.  Without these services, people like my son would just be sat at home not really doing anything and therefore not really helping their well-being.”

Sonia Roberts, CEO of Landau says: “The project fund has the potential to make a huge difference across Birmingham and Solihull and we would encourage anyone who provides a service or activity for the autism community to apply for a grant.”

Autistic people suffer health inequalities which means they are likely to die on average 16 years earlier than the general population. The All-Age Autism project aims to rebalance those health issues while also supporting families and carers.  

Sonia adds: “This scheme will improve and increase the number of integrated community support services on offer to autistic people, both children and adults, as well as their parents, siblings, wider family members and carers.”

The funding is already helping to provide art classes, work experience placements and vital support sessions to help equip young people with life-ready skills and Landau is confident that autistic support services are going to keep on improving throughout 2023 and beyond.

Organisations that run autism services in Birmingham or Solihull that are interested in finding out more about the scheme or applying for grant funding can visit www.allageautism.co.uk or email [email protected]

More about Landau

Landau is a supported employment and training charity that has already transformed over 800 lives a year across the West Midlands by providing routes to employment, access to learning, social enterprise help and support for personal growth.

In addition to the new All Age Autism project, Landau has also recently been awarded funding by the Construction Industry Training Board to provide tailored training, mentoring and support to around 700 new construction workers or those returning to the sector.

Landau also currently manages an IN2 Employment project, which is funded by the European Social Fund and the Department for Works & Pensions to support 16-24 year olds into employment by providing a variety of training and learning provisions across Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and Herefordshire.

Other recent project successes include the Building Better Opportunities programme (funded by the European Social Fund and the National Lottery Community Fund and managed by Landau across Shropshire and Herefordshire) and Community Grants (funded by the European Social Fund to support small organisations with the delivery of targeted and effective localised programmes of support to help people towards a happier life). The Building Better Opportunities programme alone helped 4,500 people furthest from the labour market move towards employment across Shropshire and Herefordshire.