Richie Smith and his charitable organisation Awesometistic have teamed up with the Metrocentre to share positive messages to young people living with autism.
Just before Christmas, Richie organised messages of support from his charity to be shared on one of the digital billboards at the centre, in Exhibition Square just above the indoor ice rink.
Awesometistic help train and educate parents and carers on what their children are going through as well as helping to support the child themselves with their individual needs.
Richie has taken Awesometisitic to hundreds of schools in the North East, and children are very receptive to his fun and colourful personality. He has also worked in the Community Hub in the Metrocentre where he provides this service.
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Helen Atkinson, Centre Marketing Manager at the Metrocentre, has spoken about the work Richie does at the Community Hub.
"Richie and Awesometistic were actually one of the first charities to come and work with us in our Community Hub and we have been working together since last year."
"It is great to see the space that we have created in order to nurture our links with the community be used in such a positive and inspiring way."
This is a real passion project for Richie, as he had a difficult upbringing himself, and struggled to fit in and understand people around him. He was diagnosed with autism at the age of 33 and this massively changed his life. Everything seemed to fall into place and the behaviours that he never understood finally had a reason.
Richie now works to ensure that young people with ASD do not have to go through the same difficulties as he did, and aims to encourage children to be themselves in a way that he could not.
Richie was joined by several of the young people that he helps and their families to show them the positive messages and to celebrate the success of Awesometistic so far, and he spoke about why he was there and exactly what the messages were he was delivering.
"Through Christmastime autism can be really hard, there's a lot of sensory changes, noise and busyness that can affect young people. I wanted to show the kids that autism can be awesome and these messages are a great way to do that."
"On the slides it says 'it's ok to be me' and 'voice your own needs' which are very important points to make, as everybody with autism is different and people can learn from each other. In my organisation we like to talk about all the positive things to create positivity and a healthy mindset in a young person with ASD."
"Somebody messaged me this morning to say that her three autistic boys were out shopping with her at the Metrocentre, and them looking up and seeing 'autism can be awesome' was a real highlight of their day and brought smiles to their faces, and that's exactly what I want to do."
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