A FURNESS community group has received National Lottery funding to go towards new projects in the area for young people with autism.

Stitch-Ability is run by A Stitch Different Community Interest Company and Leonard Cheshire Youth Ability.

The project is a new social enterprise where products are created, managed and sold by young people with disabilities.

The aim is to help the participants increase their confidence and gain experience of a work environment.

The project is based out of Walney community centre and has been running since March 2018. It began as a small group of participants with a £40 budget, stitching together hand-crafted items to sell.

It was announced this week that National Lottery has agreed to give £10,000 of funding to the project.

Amanda Bland, founder of A Stitch Different, talked about the thinking behind Stitch-Ability and its goal of getting more people with disabilities into employment.

She said: “A lot of people with disabilities are simply looked over in the workforce. But we want to show if you address the difficulties these individuals face, they are very employable.

“The project is designed to equip the participants with the necessary skills to be part of the workforce. We’re teaching them about manufacturing, health and safety, administration and various other skills needed to run their own social enterprise.”

The £10,000 will go towards buying products like wool to allow the participants to keep making things to sell. The money will also go towards maintaining the project for the next 12 months, as well as enabling the organisers to purchase specialist equipment to aid in manufacturing.

Anyone looking for more information should email mandy@astitchdifferent.co.uk