Sunderland Empire’s Creative Learning team has won the Inspirational Education Provision (Other) award at the National Autistic Society’s Autism Professionals Awards for going “above and beyond” in their work to provide opportunities to autistic people and their families. (See our news story of 28 February about the nomination and the Awards.) The announcement was made and the award presented at a ceremony on Tuesday 7 March at Harrogate International Centre.
The Awards seek to acknowledge the outstanding contributions and achievements of individuals, teams and organisations who have demonstrated “excellence, dedication and commitment to improving the lives of autistic people.”
“It was an absolute honour to collect the award on behalf of the Creative Learning team, Sunderland Empire and the Ambassador Theatre Group as a whole,” said Hollie Coxon, Creative Learning Manager. “The award recognises nationally the ground-breaking and innovative work we deliver in Sunderland.
“The success of our projects is heavily dependent on strong, local partnership work and we would like to thank all of our participants, parents and key partners—in particular No Limits Theatre, all of whom we represented last night to bring home this truly magnificent award.”
Carol Povey, Director of the National Autistic Society’s Centre for Autism, added, “the Creative Learning Team should be extremely proud to have stood out among so many outstanding finalists, impressing the judges with exceptional work in autism access and creative learning engagement.
“I hope that by sharing team’s and the other winners’ and finalists’ stories, we can inspire other people and organisations. Caring and innovative professionals and services can transform the lives of autistic people and their families.”