Digital Storytelling with autistic young people at The Cullum Centre

Caitlin McGinley, Head of The Cullum Centre: “I think the students really valued the experience and were proud of their stories. We definitely plan to use them during autism awareness week to raise awareness of autism amongst staff.”

This project was in collaboration with The Cullum Centre at Hove Park School, a specialist resource designed to help students on the autism spectrum get the support they need to thrive in a mainstream school setting. We worked with a group of seven autistic young people, in five workshops on Friday mornings in December 2022 to produce digital stories about their experiences of autism. Whilst some of the activities were challenging for the group, a real sense of community developed over the course of the project and the young people were mutually supportive and had a great sense of fun! Some of their stories revealed how hard it could be at times to deal with autism in the school environment, whilst others celebrated their autism.

Nicole Monney, a parent of autistic children and autistic herself was instrumental in getting the project started and joined the group as an assistant facilitator but also found the time to make a story herself about her experiences both as a child and a parent of autistic children, which you can see below.