Gold Foundation

For over 17 years, Gold Foundation has provided a holistic service offering social skills programs for 6 to 12-year-olds, life skills programs and social groups for teenagers and employment pathways for young adults as well as fun events for the whole community. Our motto is, ‘Discovering the Unique Abilities of Young People on the Autism Spectrum’, meaning we endeavour to focus on young people’s ‘abilities’ vs their ‘disabilities’. Gold Foundation’s current priority is its ‘Go for Gold Project’, in which it seeks to provide ongoing employment, education and training opportunities for young autistic people as they transition from school life into adulthood.

Our unique approach to Autism Spectrum intervention has been highly successful in the form of our ‘Shine Like Gold!’ Mobile Cafe social innovation project, which uses a fee-for-service model and currently employs 30 young autistic people aged 14-25 years. To expand the reach of our inclusive employment initiative, we are seeking an ACF grant to help us establish a permanent cafe in the Adelaide CBD, which will provide ongoing employment to young autistic people, whom we will train as baristas.

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