Our Empowered Beauty project is giving people with autism confidence and skills
A new beauty project is helping people with autism to build confidence and gain valuable life skills.
South Shields-based AustismAble, a leading service dedicated to supporting individuals with autism and learning disabilities, has launched its Empowered Beauty project as a way of helping its service users.
The project sees group members offering nail painting and hand and arm massage treatments to members of the community every Tuesday between 10am and 12pm.
The treatments take place at the Westoe Crown Community Hub, on Sea Winnings Way, in AutismAble’s new beauty salon, which was funded by the People’s Health Trust.
Empowered Beauty aims to give group members the opportunity to build confidence and gain valuable skills such as customer service, booking and organising appointments, and handling money.
Amari Smith, a service manager at AutismAble, has expressed her delight at how dedicated the group members are to the Empowered Beauty project.
She said: “Empowered Beauty has been a true passion project for me. As a qualified beauty therapist, I was driven to share my skills with the incredible group members at AutismAble.
“My goal was to help them build confidence, strengthen communication and money management skills, and offer them a chance to gain meaningful, real-world work experience.
“Watching the project evolve and seeing our salon take shape alongside our members has been nothing short of inspiring.
“Their dedication, the effort they've poured into practicing, and the skills they've developed are truly remarkable.
“Now, they’re brimming with excitement to showcase their talents and share what they’ve learned with others.”
Hannah, one of the group members, commented: “I enjoy doing nails and learning how to give hand massages” while another called Peter added: “I want to learn how to do nails properly.”
Each treatment costs just £5 and the money goes directly to the group, who then decide together on how it will be spent.
Appointments are open to members of the community and can be booked by calling: 0191 825 0035 or emailing: [email protected].
You can find out more about AutismAble at: https://autismable.com/.
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