Aim: Our aim is develop online business skills training to autistic young adults who can’t access our in-store work experience offer.
Our Vision
At Happybara, our vision is to create a more inclusive world where autistic young adults have meaningful access to skills, and work opportunities. We believe that every young person deserves the chance to grow, contribute, and feel valued – whether that’s in a physical/ social environment or through virtual experiences.
Within our first year we’ve already supported many young autistic people to grow in self belief, social & business skills through our shop in Wilton, helping them build real-world confidence through retail tasks, creative projects, and community interaction. We’ve seen how positive this opportunity is to individuals and the great impact is can have to them and their families. Now, we want to take this further - offering more skills and work experience opportunities to more young people!
Why This Matters
Only around 30% of autistic adults in the UK are in any form of paid work – the lowest employment rate of all disability groups (Autistica, 2023). This means many talented individuals are missing out on the chance to develop purpose, build confidence, and feel part of something.
We want to challenge this. By creating more opportunities for autistic people to develop their confidence and skills in a real work situation, whilst also receiving understanding and support, we can help change the story for autistic young people – our expanded offer of online business skills training with online mentorship and support means we can support more people wherever they are.
Why We’re Expanding
There are 2 main reasons we are needing to expand and increase our offer at Happybara.
Firstly- Not every autistic young adult is ready – or able – to access in-person work experience in our Wilton based store. Some individuals are too anxious to leave their home or work in a retail environment. A more gentle, supported starting point will be helpful and can still provide a sense of purpose and achievement through online working
Secondly, our work experience and skills development offer at Happybara is very bespoke and led by every persons individual need, We work 1 - 1 with every person we offer work experience to and this means we currently can only support 3 - 4 people at any one time. Since we have been open and the success of our work experience has grown we have developed a large waiting list and we simply will not keep up with demand if we do not expand our offer.
That’s why we’re developing a new online training and work experience programme to bridge the gap and offer flexible, meaningful opportunities from home as well as within our shop.
With dedicated support, we’ll deliver learning around topics like website development and management, content creation, and customer communication – all rooted in real tasks that support Happybara’s day-to-day business. Happybara has identified a skilled partner with aligned values (Bee @seo.bitch) to work with to provide the digital skills element, and Happybara will expand its work mentors alongside this.
How the Money Will Be Spent
With your help, we aim to raise £4,000 to fund:
Every penny will go directly into creating inclusive pathways for autistic young adults to thrive in a real-world business environment – from wherever they are.
Come on - Lets Grow Happy Futures!
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 31st July 2025 at 9:00pm