How AutismAble gives a young Queen fan rock solid support

But Ellie doesn’t just listen to music, she performs it too. As a member of Garage Above – the ‘house band’ at National Lottery-funded project AutismAble – she sings and plays guitar, bass, drums and trumpet.

Ellie said, “Growing up I liked Status Quo because my parents played that music in the house. At a certain point I watched the movie Bohemian Rhapsody and fell in love with Queen.”

As an autistic person, Ellie has found AutismAble the perfect place to make friends and develop new skills. As well as refining her musical chops at its music workshops – an outreach project combining neurodivergent and neurotypical musicians – she’s a regular visitor to its Geek Cafe, a Saturday morning session Ellie describes as “a safe space where you can go and play games and stuff”.

Although the Geek Cafe has plenty of gaming consoles, Ellie’s favourite pastime is a card game called Dungeon Mayhem.

AutismAble’s Sarah Windle says the music workshops and the Geek Cafe are tailormade to support Ellie and other neurodivergent young people. She explained, “Ellie needs a safe space to socialise and be herself. She can struggle with a lot of emotional things and while she has mostly great days, she has some bad days as well. She needs people around her who make her feel safe and help her not go too deep into those moments.”

The National Lottery is supporting AutismAble’s incredible efforts to help neurodivergent young people in South Shields with £180,000 of funding over two years. The money will support the Building Futures project which is designed to “empower young people to be positive about the future and develop new skills”.

Building Futures is comprised of three strands: Future Bites, Future Skills and Future Connect. Future Bites provides the opportunity to learn valuable skills working in the kitchens and serving the public at South Shields’ Sea Change Cafe. The Future Skills strand focusses on skills, such as managing money, communication and socialising, something many people with autism find tricky.

The Geek Cafe is part of the third strand, Future Connect. Sarah said, “It has games consoles because computer gaming is quite a common interest among neurodivergent people. We also have a creative social club which offers activities like music and craft.”

Ellie is full of praise for AutismAble. She said, “They’ve really built my confidence, helped me get out of my comfort zone and develop new skills. If I didn’t come here, I’d be in a bad position. Even on a bad day I know as soon as I walk in here something will cheer me up. They know how to get me from down to happy just like that.”

28th March 2025.