Local Area Co-ordinators

Local Area Co-ordination is a way of working which directly supports people and their families to identify some personal goals that they would like to achieve, then to provide support to achieve these goals. LACs work with individuals aged 14 and over who have a diagnosis on the Autistic spectrum and/or learning disability.

They do this by:
1. Working with individuals and families to help you identify and achieve your goals
2. Working at your pace and with your consent
3. Connecting you to services and people who can help to achieve your goals.
4. Developing independence and planning for a positive future, developing confidence and life-skills
5. Supporting you to make new friends and meet new people
6. Helping isolated people become part of the community and make a positive difference.

In more practical terms, we can help with things like; finding volunteering opportunities, signposting to local activity or social groups, support finding employment, help with thinking about benefits and making connections to other services and organisations in the community – please don’t hesitate to ask us for support for something and if we aren’t the right people who can help, then we can hopefully put you in touch with the right people who can.
To receive formal support from our team, we must receive an ‘introductions form’ (available on request) to tell us a bit more about you and what kind of support you are looking for. This form can be written by anyone (family member, teacher, social worker, even yourself). We will then arrange a meeting with you and your family to get to know you a bit better and think of a plan for how we can work together to achieve some of your goals.