Community Learning and Development Device Fund 2022 (360G-SCVO-a133z00000I4FKQAA3)

Better Lives Partnership (BLP) aims to develop and deliver a range of opportunities for children and young people with autism and related disabilities as well as their families. Our flagship project is the Bridge to Employment (B2E) Programme. We now have B2E sites across D&G based in Castle Douglas (Stewartry), Stranraer (Wigtownshire) and Dumfries (Nithsdale & Annandale). We cater for almost 70 young people across our sites and have 23 referrals at the moment in the pipeline. The majority of young people (40) attend our B2E site in Wigtownshire which means we need to provide more laptops in Stranraer to suppport their learning.The B2E Programme is a success offering young people a Programme comprising of 5 inter-linked strands which are delivered in a person-centered way to give them the best opportunity for transition to work, further education, training, self-employment. Our Programme is not career focussed or time limited, however, we expect young people will have moved on within 2 years. We deliver ASDAN courses which give young people a recognised accredited qualification. For some of our young people they have not been able to achieve qualifications whilst in mainstream education. Our core courses are Employability SQA/ASDAN, Independent Living ASDAN, Enterprise ASDAN, Environment ASDAN. In addition we find the young person a work experience placement in a career of their choice. We support the young person and the employer to ensure the experience is positive for all concerned. We also offer Independent Tasks which can be whatever the young person needs to achieve their outcome ie some have achieved online Open University Courses, Skills accreditation Programme with Borders College online while others require support with independent travel. Our programme is very person-centered we have a structure and a timetable but it is flexible with young people attending for the parts of the Programme that will benefit them. Some attend 5 days a week while others attend 2/3 days a week combining the B2E Programme with a College Course or work placement.We need laptops for our young people to use within our sites to support their learning. In Stranraer we need to expand the number of laptops we currently have and in Dumfries, our newest site, numbers of young people are increasing with 17 attending and several referrals in the pipeline. These 2 sites will benefit from laptops purchased if we are successful with this funding bid. We find this a constant struggle to source suitable equipment at an affordable price to provide for the ever growing number of young people. We have purchased a number of new laptops ourselves and have been gifted Natural Power laptops when they were upgrading their stock. We paid to have these checked over and re-purposed but are finding in reality they are not performing adequately ie they are 'old' and break down regularly. Having the funding to purchase 18 new laptops to spread across our sites would make a huge difference to the learning of our young autistic people.