Category Archives: Autism

Musical Connections Event – 7 November 2025 – Belfast

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Live Music Now is holding a Musical Connections event in November as part of their ongoing work with Specialist Provision in Mainstream Schools (SPiMS).  This event will explore the role of music education within autism resource bases across Northern Ireland.  You can read more about it HERE

Details:

Musical Connections: Nurturing Musical Cultures in Autism Resource Bases
Friday 7 November
1:00pm – 4:00pm
The MAC, Belfast (BT1 2NJ) 

Flyer for the “Live Music Now” Northern Ireland Networking Event, promoting inclusive music education for autistic children and young people. It highlights research collaboration, event goals, key speakers, and includes a QR code for registration.

Flyer for the “Live Music Now” Northern Ireland Networking Event, promoting inclusive music education for autistic children and young people. It highlights research collaboration, event goals, key speakers, and includes a QR code for registration.

Flyer for the “Live Music Now” Northern Ireland Networking Event, promoting inclusive music education for autistic children and young people. It highlights research collaboration, event goals, key speakers, and includes a QR code for registration.

 

Download Flyer

 

Attendance is free, and registration can be completed here: Register on Eventbrite

 

Introducing AUTISM CONNECT!

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Introducing AUTISM CONNECT!

 

Bolster are excited to launch our brand new service…

AUTISM CONNECT is a person-centred social hub, a safe, creative space for adults with a diagnosis of autism only or awaiting a diagnosis.

Why are we launching this service?

 

In March 2020, the Southern Health and Social Care Trust commissioned  Bolster Community to co-ordinate a consultation to gain a depth of understanding of the wider social issues relating to autism in adulthood. A series of consultation events ran over twelve months and culminated in the Being Awesome (Autism and Adulthood 2021) conference in March 2021.

Here is a link to this Report: https://bolstercommunity.org/…/being-awesome-report….

 

Over 700 people with Autism along with parents, carers and professionals participated in the consultation and three clear overarching recommendations emerged:

  1. Community based autism support services focused on adults are urgently needed
  2. A distinct service grounded in the social model of health is needed for adults with autism but without a learning disability or mental health diagnosis and
  3. Support pathways -where navigators can co-ordinate and proactively share information, and provide highly responsive, individualised intervention to strengthen social connections within a community context in the Southern Trust area.

 

In response to the consultation recommendations, we’ve launched Autism Connect- a community-based support service that will provide a signposting, navigation and social opportunities for adults with an autism only diagnosis.  Would you like more information about this service? Contact Jena at jena@bolstercommunity.org

ASD and Supporting your Child with the War in Ukraine

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ASD and Supporting your Child with the War in Ukraine

Some children and young people with ASD are struggling to understand the current situation in Ukraine. Talking about war to children can be very difficult.

The Child and Adolescent Autism Service in Belfast Trust has produced this guide to support you in talking to your child… we hope you find it helpful.

Click Here: https://bit.ly/35QVgIS

Would this help you in dealing with your children’s big feelings?

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Would this help you in dealing with your children’s big feelings?

 A few years ago, when I read Dan Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson’s book the Whole Brain Child, I thought this would have really helped me when my kids were younger.

That started a journey of taking ideas from that book, with the help of others, creating a resource Building our Children’s Developing Brain and training workers to use it with families.

Now with along with the Autism Team in the South Eastern Trust , we have put these tools into an accessible Page Tiger tool that can help us all as carers and parents  help our children with their big feelings. This may be particularly useful as we all help our kids through these challenging times.

What one parent told us: “It is the kind of stuff every parent should look at; I wish I had it a long time ago.”

We hope you find it as helpful as she did. https://view.pagetiger.com/selfcareforfamilies