A new café and hub in a Teesside shopping centre is serving up life skills and career opportunities for young people with autism and ADHD.
About 85% of the paid staff and volunteers at The Glowsticks Project café and hub in Middlesbrough ’s Dundas Shopping Centre have autism or associated conditions. But all involved stress the café – which occupies the old Orchard Café site – is very much for everyone.
It’s the brainchild of Teesside mum Rebecca Ibbotson, who set up The Glowsticks Project to offer support to children and young people with Autism Spectrum Disorder and ADHD. Rebecca and her son Oliver, nine, have autism and, she says, “struggled to find our place in the world, which is how the Glowsticks Project came about”.
It’s called Glowsticks, explains Rebecca, “because if you're a little bit broken, it just means that you can shine bright like a glowstick.”
The café idea has been on the table since last April but now, after a major refit of unit 13, it’s open for business following a launch event that included music from autistic Middlesbrough singer-songwriter Bella Rose. With trained chef Phil Stockdale among those cooking up tasty dishes, it’s a large but welcoming and colourful space to drop in for anything from a tea or coffee to breakfasts, light bites or main meals.
But Rebecca stresses it’s more than just a café, as it also includes a sensory room, pool table, ice cream bar and has been purpose-made for young people to access comfortably and freely without fear of being judged.
It will also host art therapy, music therapy, arts and crafts, cookery lessons, adult autism socials and male ADHD support groups, as well as a dedicated Early Years Foundation Stage group. And underpinning it all is the idea of supporting young people into employment in a safe and supported environment where they can thrive and move on to alternative workplaces, equipped with the skills they need.
Rebecca, 37, said: “We will train young people to become baristas and first-aiders and provide quality training such as food hygiene, health and safety and manual handling. And we’re completely not-for-profit – everything you spend here goes straight back into our charity.”
Open Tuesday to Saturday, 9am-2pm, the refitted café has received support from the likes of the National Lottery’s Community Fund, the Screwfix Foundation, Middlesbrough Council and Tees Million.
Trained chef Phil, who was working as a Human Resources manager in Hampshire, said: “I came in for a cup of coffee and never left! What they’ve done in such a short time is incredible – and the team are wonderful.”
And Rebecca, who paid tribute to everyone involved, says she’s been delighted by the reception so far. She said: “It’s been phenomenal – people seem to love it. We’re kind of at capacity now for paid staff, but we are always taking on additional volunteers that have learning disabilities or otherwise.
“But we're largely run by neurodiverse people – basically, they’re why we’re here.”
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