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SuperValu supporting Autism charity AsIAm

With the support of long-standing partner SuperValu, Autism charity AsIAm produced an innovative resource to assist children coping with a return to the classroom environment after lockdown

uperValu began a

Spartnership with Autism charity AsIAm four years ago. Adam Harris, founder and CEO of AsIAm, explains, “Autistic people experience the world in a very diff erent way to people who are not autistic, and that can mean that there’s barriers in day-to-day life doing things like going to the supermarket that most people would take for granted. And SuperValu wanted to try and make this experience easier.”

AUTISM AWARE Over 50,000 families in Ireland are living with autism, and SuperValu got on board to support initiatives that would combat the social isolation that can be felt when autistic people face barriers to inclusion, introducing measures in their stores to make them more Autism-friendly—“specifi c times of the week in which music was reduced or turned off , lighting was lowered, and the environment was kept a little bit calmer”. A desire to bring these learnings in stores out to the wider community led to the Autismfriendly towns initiative, which started in Clonakilty and rolled out across the country, everywhere from Tralee to Castlebar to Lucan.

“The last 19 months have been a major challenge for the Autism community,” Harris notes, “because we’ve all lost routine and structure, which is so important for autistic people. And also we’ve seen the closure of vital support services.”

THIS PROGRAMME WAS A MEANS FOR US TO SUPPORT PARENTS, TEACHERS AND SPECIAL NEEDS ASSISTANTS TO WORK WITH YOUNG PEOPLE LAST SUMMER, TO PREPARE FOR THAT REALLY IMPORTANT OPPORTUNITY TO RETURN TO THE CLASSROOM.

MUSGRAVE

BRIDGE BACK SuperValu has supported a series of seminars, which moved online last year, providing advice and support to autistic people and their families. Among the other initiatives they funded was a new initiative called the Bridge Back to School programme, which was an evidencebased resource to prepare autistic children to reconnect with the classroom.

“A lot of our learners weren’t able to learn remotely, and that was hugely challenging because we’re not just talking about people falling back academically, we’re talking about people struggling with basic life skills, such as communication and personal care,” Harris says. “Online learning just didn’t work for many in our community, so this programme was a means for us to support parents, teachers and special needs assistants to work with young people last summer, to prepare for that really important opportunity to return to the classroom last September.

“What people may not realise was, it is as challenging for an autistic person to re-establish a routine, so if you’re somebody who fi nds certain environments overwhelming, who fi nds it quite exhausting communicating with lots of people every day, if you haven’t had to do that for many months, and then you’re suddenly doing that again, it can be quite a diffi cult transition. And of course, we weren’t returning to the classrooms that people left behind in March 2020, we were returning to very diff erent environments.”

EXPERT RESOURCE Working with education experts, including Maria Dervan, Primary Teacher and PhD Student and Prof Emer Ring, Dean of Early Childhood and Teacher Education from Mary Immaculate College, a 50-page resource booklet was developed and 20,000 copies distributed for free through the network of SuperValu stores. The topics covered range from social skills to ‘my fi rst day back in school’ and are augmented by an online bank of further information and activity sheets.

“The resource looks at the key skills that people might need in return to the classroom, whether it was personal care, communication skills, the ability to work with other people and interact, the ability to self regulate, to manage yourself through the environment and through the day,” Harris explains. “The activities that we developed were designed in such a way that they could be delivered at home or in a school setting.”

SUMMER PROVISION Normally students would have the opportunity to undertake the Summer Provision Programme which provides additional teaching time to autistic students, and other children with additional needs, during the summer months, thus shortening the gap where they are out of the classroom environment.

“It’s recognised that autistic people need continuity. There was a big question mark whether the Summer Provision programme would happen last year, and AsIAm was very involved in the campaign to make sure it did happen. We knew how important it would be,” states Harris. “And we knew that there were more schools potentially doing it for the fi rst time, and indeed, more teachers and SMEs who had never done it before providing the programme, and didn’t know how to approach it or where to start.”

The resource was designed in such a way that it could be adapted to use for any age group. “Whether you’re working with an 18-year-old or a 4-year-old, whether you’re working with somebody who is more independent or somebody with very high support needs, you could adjust these activities to the needs of the child sitting in front of you.”

The success of the project was such that when schools closed again after Christmas the Bridge Back to School booklet was relaunched to coincide with children with special educational needs returning to school. The resource was sent to all primary schools and 10,000 copies were available in SuperValu stores nationwide.

Having originally been developed for just circulation in Ireland, the success of this innovative project has led to the resource being translated into several European languages and being used internationally.

Adam Harris, CEO, AsIAm

IT’S RECOGNISED THAT AUTISTIC PEOPLE NEED CONTINUITY. THERE WAS A BIG QUESTION MARK WHETHER THE SUMMER PROVISION PROGRAMME WOULD HAPPEN LAST YEAR, AND ASIAM WAS VERY INVOLVED IN THE CAMPAIGN TO MAKE SURE IT DID HAPPEN.

SuperValu is committed to making communities around Ireland more inclusive and is leading the way in autism-friendly shopping by continuously raising understanding and awareness of autism among its communities, customers and staff. In a year like no other the autism community faced huge challenges in preparing their children to return to school. We were delighted to support the development of the The Bridge Back to School resource by Mary Immaculate College and AsIAm, it has proved to be a great support for families

as they prepared to return to school.” Julie Dorel, Corporate Communications, SuperValu