Description:
Candle House
Centre for Autistic Needs Developing Lifelong Education
Autism is a developmental disorder of the human brain that first shows signs during infancy or childhood and follows a steady course without remission or relapse.
The Candle Trust began in 2001 when a small group of parents in the Plymouth area recognised that as their sons and daughters were approaching school leaving age, their future options were few or non-existent.
The seven young people who inspired the start of CANDLE have severe autism and severe learning difficulties. They require a high level of support and care to enable them to remain feeling calm and able to enjoy their lives.
Some of the young people have limited or no verbal communication skills. Some of them respond positively to the support they receive when undertaking everyday tasks. All the young people need some level of support, if not full support in order to complete daily living skills.
Despite this severe degree of difficulty in understanding what others want from them and in making sense of the world, each of the young people are individuals with very different interests and personalities.
All have a right to:
a good quality of life;
some fun and enjoyment;
an experience of humanity;
provide advice for parents of children or young adults with similar levels of difficulty.
The Candle Trust aims to:
work with other agencies and services to advocate for the needs of such young people;
purchase a base for day and respite services;
help in the individual activity and life skill programs for each of the young people;
provide advice for parents of children or young adults with similar levels of difficulty.
Please help us to provide a future for young adults with severe autism and help us to ease the anxiety of parents who face an uncertain future for their child.
You can read more about autism here.
If you would like to make a donation please click here.
If you would like to get involved in our fund raising activities, you can check our upcoming events here or contact us here.
We are a charity trying to set up a day centre for young adults aged 16 years and over. These young people suffer from severe autism plus severe learning difficulties. They will need a great deal of support for all of their lives, and as yet there is nowhere in Plymouth for these young people to go after leaving special needs school at 16 years of age.
As our children approached the end of their education it became obvious to us that there was no suitable provision available to provide for both their care and development of living skills. Therefore, we undertook as a group to set up a house where all of our young people could receive a daycare provision of two-to-one care and specialist help in acquiring living skills. This provision includes assistance in all aspects of daily living including both spiritual and emotional welfare on an individual basis. Although all of our young people have limited comprehension, and some have no speech, we want them all to be beloved, happy and safe.
This is what we have achieved, along with our wonderful staff, Debbie, Omar and Linda. We want to move forward caring for more autistic young people.
We have a unique way of working, that meets the needs of severe autism and severe learning disability.
We concentrate on the person.
We expand their horizons.
We bring joy to their world.
We make no profit.
We really care.
We are so excited at what we have achieved and look forward to meeting the future challenges necessary to help our young people enjoy and celebrate their unique lives.
Our aim with the help of Plymouth council, social services and all supporters is to provide an excellent day centre run on the basis of Mary Pittman’s ideas.
She was a teacher of the year in 1999 for special needs and is an expert in dealing with autistics. Also the parents of these young people who have many years of experience will have an input in running the centre.
This is a dream that we have been working towards for a few years. With your support we can make it come true.
BETTER TO LIGHT A CANDLE THAN CURSE THE DARKNESS
The Candle Trust has been in existence for over 8 years, carrying out its stated aim of supporting the needs of young people with combined severe learning disability and severe autistic spectrum disorder. Meeting those needs has taken us along a number of routes and each step of the journey has been a steep learning curve, but with the reward of knowing we are providing a form of assistance not available elsewhere in our city.
Flame One
Our first five years of operation were as an educational and support facility (the Flame One project); making it possible for seven young people to access local education for three years between 16 and 19 and remain in their own homes rather than being sent away to boarding facilities elsewhere in the country. Several of our group moved on as their statutory education drew to a close but two remained – Khal and Rosie. Rosie was able to access a mixed disability daycare facility but Khal was not. Therefore, the Candle Trust undertook to become registered as a service provider and to design, set up and deliver a daycare provision to meet all of Khal’s needs.
Flame Two
Candle succeeded in securing registered provider status and set up the Flame Two project; an individually-tailored daycare provision which aimed to provide highest quality care that supported training and developing independent living skills. This has been running for two years and continues to be highly successful.
Night Light
Since February 2010 the Candle Trust has been working toward a change of registered status to be able to provide a respite provision which will extend the development of independent living skills to cover a 24-hour period. This service is aimed at providing support with a long-term aim of providing a smooth transition into an individual living provision. We hope our application will be successful and look forward to the new challenges and possibilities this provision will open up for all of us.