A "friendly" Wirral café is giving autistic adults opportunities they "wouldn't have been allowed" in days gone by.
Bromborough Pool Garden Centre, run by Autism Together, shut for two years due to different safety rules it had to follow as a service supporting autistic people. But it reopened its doors to the public in May, and the autistic adults volunteering there "have more of a hands on approach than ever before", according to the garden centre's café manager Mike Christiansen. The 38-year-old said: "We're basically trying to develop everyone's skills, so they can possibly get another job out in the community themselves."
Founded in Wirral in 1968, Autism Together is a charity offering specialist autism services, residential care, supported living, training and advice to 400 people on the autism spectrum, and their families, in Wirral, Cheshire and North Wales. Along with its own garden centre, it also has a farm, canal boat, rock-rap band and choir, and it gives people the chance to learn skills like swimming, cycling, trampolining, rock climbing, painting, ceramics.
