Autistic young people to make friends through online gaming as part of Bedford council partnership with charity

Young autistic people are being offered a new platform to make friends – thanks to an online gaming community.

Spectrum Gaming – an autistic-led UK-based charity – has partnered with Bedford Borough Council to enable 100 autistic people aged 10 to 18 to make connections with others, play together online via dedicated discord and Minecraft servers – all fully funded.

The charity is also offering 100 free places on its online Autism Acceptance Course for parents, carers and professionals who live or work in Bedford. The series of six sessions will initially be run four times over the next two years.

Topics will include Understanding Autism, Autism and Trauma, Supporting Young People with Meltdowns, and Understanding Anxiety and Wellbeing. Recordings of the sessions will also be made available.

Two launch events about Spectrum Gaming’s new platform take place via zoom, on Tuesday, May 7 from 11am-12.30pm – visit here for more details

And visit here to sign up for the Autism Acceptance Course – which begins tomorrow (Wednesday) at 7pm.

Benjamin Wilson, general manager of Spectrum Gaming, said; “Our goal is to help create a world where every autistic child knows that who they are is OK. Our young people are at the forefront of our organisation. We’re an autistic-led organisation, for neurodivergent young people. Almost all of our workforce are neurodivergent in some way.”