World Autism Awareness Week, from 29 March – 2 April, is going to be a colourful and creative affair for Aspens this year!  We've got an action-packed week planned to celebrate the creativity of the people we care for, and our theme is ‘My AuSome Art’.

We're excited to kick off the activities with the launch of our ‘My AuSome Art Competition' today. The competition is open to all children and young people, with entrees being encouraged to use any medium they would like to express their creativity, from lego to photography. 

The competition will be judged by our Chair of Trustees, Gill Marcus and Trustee Peter Green, and winners announced will be announced during Autism Awareness Week. An AuSome Spectrum e-book will be produced to showcase the artwork entered after the event and all funds raised through the competition will go towards Aspens’ Family Support service. We're open for entries now (£5 per entry) - find out more and register here. 

As Autism Awareness Week gets underway, we will be sharing videos featuring the stories from the people we support describing how art helps them express themselves and showing examples of the amazing work they’ve produced across our social media and here on the website. 

It’s going to get very colourful as our team, including the people we support and our staff, wear their most vibrant and bright clothes throughout the week and we'll be sharing photos of them all!

There will be Facebook Live Q&A sessions with Aspens’ Family and Specialist Support team offering help and advice on issues surrounding autism and garden designer Camelia Taylor will be giving daily social media updates on sensory plants and how nature can help express creativity and boost wellbeing.

The week will round up on Friday 2^nd April, with a kids’ Insta-takeover when young people supported by Aspens will be taking control of the charity’s Instagram page for the day and showing off their most creative art, video and photography.

We hope you can join in the colourful fun and help us celebrate this very important week in our calendar.