Where it all began..

Hi, my name is Michelle and I am the CEO & Founder of Aspire, Support, Learn (ASL) and Bridget's. 

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My story began in 2015 when I was working at a day service offering activities for people with special educational needs (SEN) in Harlow.

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I realised there could be greater personalisation to the services and adaptation people with SEN to help optimise their development. I approached my local MP to see what options there were, who advised me to reach out to Essex County Council. The council agreed that personalised services would benefit people with disabilities, but did not have the funding to action this. Therefore I would have to fund this myself if I wanted this to happen. 

 

With my heart now set on helping to improve the services on offer and with the support of my family, we invested all of the savings we had and I started my journey to creating ASL. In 2016, we opened a summer club for people with SEN to gauge the need for more services and to our amazement, the response was overwhelming. 

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6 months later, in February 2017, ASL was a registered service supplier for people with SEN with Essex County Council. We quickly outgrew our temporary space and moved into larger permanent premises at The Priory, Ware, Hertfordshire. Our second location has now opened in Chobham Manor, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford and we could not be more excited to spread our love into London.

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Our purpose is to offer permanent employment within our tea room, to adults with additional needs and so far we have made this possible for two adults with Down syndrome.

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Our goal is to offer a 100% fair working environment and provide many opportunities for people with additional needs, on their pathway to employment. 

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