Aubergine Cafe in Cardiff needs £3,000 to continue supporting autistic, LGBTQIA+ and BAME communities
A picture of Aubergine Café when it was in the High Street Arcade. 700,000 people have autism in the UK, that is 1 in 100 people. Picture provided by Aubergine
Aubergine Café is run by two autistic people, Frankie Thompson-Attwell and Selena Caemawr. They hope that Aubergine encourages people to be “unapologetically themselves” by encouraging diversity and equality.
After a successful trial pop-up in the High Street Arcade, Aubergine Cafe has launched a crowdfunder to raise £3,000 so they can move into a new premises.
The response to the crowdfunder has been overwhelmingly positive, Frankie said, “People can see our mission and they believe in us to deliver it. We raised over £1,000 in the first 24 hours, it was incredible.”
The new premises hopes to have free parking with blue badge spaces, wet rooms for adult changing, a bigger vegan menu and work placements for autistic adults. They hope to also hold Christmas celebrations for LGBTQIA+ people who have been displaced by their families.
Frankie and Selena employed four autistic adults during their time in the trial pop-up in the High Street Arcade. All the staff will be staying with Aubergine on their journey to their new location.
Rose Grounds, an autistic employee at Aubergine, said, “The cafe impacts the autistic people in the community by providing validation and somewhere you are understood.”
The National Autistic Society (NAS) is the UK’s leading charity for autistic people and its goal is to help transform lives and change attitudes.
Although employment won’t be the right path for all people with autism, 77% of unemployed autistic adults want to work according to a study carried out by NAS.
Aubergine’s logo. Only 16% of autistic people are in full-time paid employment. This figure has remained static over the past decade. Picture provided by Aubergine
The Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) released a new guide in September which encouraged autism friendly work-based training opportunities.
Cllr Huw David, a WLGA spokesperson said, “Work-based training and development opportunities are things which many of us perhaps take for granted.”
Frankie and Selena are excited to open the new premises, they said, “We aren’t announcing our new location officially yet, but what we can tell you is that it is in Riverside.”