Pizza Party: Skills by the Slice

Aim

Pizza Party turns pizza into real kitchen training and a pathway to paid work, closing the 70% employment gap for autistic young adults.

Help us turn pizza into a pathway to work

Pizza Party is using pizza to unlock independence for autistic young people.

We are building a real food business with a social mission baked in: uncomplicated pizza people genuinely want to eat, and life-changing training for autistic young adults who are too often shut out of work.

Why Pizza Party exists

I’m a brand strategist, founder and mum to a 14-year-old autistic boy.

Pizza Party began with one boy’s love of pizza and every parent’s hope for independence. In our house, pizza is comfort, ritual and joy. It is one of the few foods that never needs negotiating. If there’s pizza, it’s a party.

But as the parent of an autistic child, the bigger question is not what’s for dinner tonight. It is what happens tomorrow.

Where will our children work? Belong? Build confidence? Find purpose? What is their path to independence?

Too many autistic young people are pushed towards vague, classroom-only or unsupported routes into work. Yet many thrive in real environments when the work has clear rhythms, defined roles, visible progress and the right support.

That is the gap Pizza Party is here to help close.

The problem we’re tackling

Only around 3 in 10 autistic adults are in work.

That means too many autistic young people are locked out of the income, confidence, structure, pride and belonging that work can bring.

At the same time, hospitality needs good people. Restaurants need reliable teams. Employers increasingly want to be more inclusive, but many do not know where to start.

Pizza Party sits in that space.

We are not creating training for training’s sake. We are creating a real kitchen, real work experience and a real pathway into paid roles.

Why pizza?

Pizza works because it is joyful, democratic and teachable.

For many neurodivergent people, pizza is predictable comfort food. It can be adapted without drama. No cheese, only cheese, no sauce, square slices, triangle slices, crust only. No problem.

For training, pizza is perfect.

Dough. Top. Bake. Pass.

Clear steps. Defined stations. Visible progress. Different roles for different strengths. A finished thing to be proud of.

What we’re building

Pizza Party will start as a delivery-first kitchen in North West London, serving uncomplicated pizza and running small training cohorts alongside the business.

Through Pizza Party Prep, autistic young adults will learn inside a real hospitality setting. They will build practical kitchen skills, confidence, communication, stamina and workplace readiness, supported by people who understand how to make work clearer, calmer and more accessible.

Our first stage will include:

• Launching a delivery-first pizza kitchen
• Running our first small training cohort
• Hosting supper clubs and community events
• Building partnerships with job coaches, schools, colleges and hospitality employers
• Proving the model before growing into a neighbourhood pizzeria

Our vision

Our vision is simple: prove that pizza can unlock futures.

We want Pizza Party to become both a brilliant local food business and a repeatable employment pathway for autistic young adults.

In year one, we want to prove the model.

In year two, we want to open a neighbourhood pizzeria that can employ our first cohort.

Over time, we want to build a network of London pizzerias and hospitality partners who can offer paid roles too.

The long-term goal is real skills, real wages and real futures.

How your support will help

The money we raise will help us start properly and safely.

It will go towards:

• Kitchen set-up and essential equipment
• Ingredients, packaging and early operating costs
• Training materials and visual work systems
• Chef-trainer time
• Job coaching support
• Pilot supper clubs and community events
• Learner support during the first cohort
• Building the partnerships needed to move trainees into paid work

Every contribution helps us get closer to opening the kitchen, training our first cohort and proving that this model can work.

Why this matters

We know people will not order from Pizza Party just because we are a social enterprise.

They will come for great pizza.

They will come back because it is consistently good, easy to choose and generously hosted.

But every order will help us build something bigger: a route from training to paid work for autistic young adults who are too often overlooked.

What success looks like

Success means autistic young people building confidence in a real workplace.

It means families seeing a more hopeful path towards adulthood.

It means employers seeing what is possible when jobs are structured properly.

And it means young people earning, belonging and building a future through work.

Pizza Party starts with uncomplicated pizza. But it is really about something much bigger. It is about confidence. Work. Belonging. Independence.

It is about giving autistic young people a clearer path into adulthood, one shift, one skill and one slice at a time.

This is where we start.

Join us.

“Not every child has a hidden genius. But every child deserves a slice of independence.”

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 5th October 2026 at 11:15am