We are delighted to have raised £284,444 for Purple Patch Arts from the National Lottery Community Fund's Reaching Communities programme.

Purple Patch Arts empower people with learning disabilities and autistic people across Yorkshire to lead their best life. They provide inclusive and creative learning experiences to increase confidence, mental wellbeing and social networks and support people to learn new skills.

We started working with Purple Patch Arts in July 2019 after we were commissioned by North Yorkshire County Council's Stronger Communities team to support the charity with their fundraising. We initially completed extensive prospect research to identify trusts and foundations with a high propensity to support Purple Patch Arts work. Our prospect research identified the National Lottery Community Fund's Reaching Communities programme as the top priority.

Through late-2019, we worked with Purple Patch Arts to develop a new project supporting young people with learning disabilities and autistic young people in Leeds and Bradford leaving school, college and young people’s services to transition successfully to adult community services. We had a successful meeting with our Funding Officer in December 2019 and confidently submitted our first stage application in mid-March 2020.

Unfortunately, our timing could not have been worse! The COVID-19 pandemic saw the National Lottery Community Fund pause all existing applications. Thankfully, our application was reactivated in December 2020 and with some adjustments for a post-COVID environment it has finally been successful.

Over the next 44 months, Purple Patch Arts will deliver transition workshops to 290 young people with learning disabilities and autistic young people in partnership with local schools and colleges in Leeds and Bradford. They will use art, drama, music and dance to empower young people to use their voice to talk about what they want to do next and help them discover activities/services in their community. Young people will be equipped with new life skills, so they transition to adult services feeling confident, with increased self-esteem and independence.

Alongside the transition workshops, Purple Patch Arts will provide one-to-one support to young people who need longer-term, holistic support to transition to adult service, including support to attend taster sessions. They will work with local partner organisations to train young people with learning disabilities and autistic young people to become Buddies, so young people attending taster sessions are supported by a peer.

We are absolutely thrilled our application has been successful. We cannot wait to see the outcomes!

"Capidale's knowledgeable, supportive, open-minded approach made them a dream to work with; they inspired us to shape a bigger, better project, giving us confidence and passing on valuable skills that will support us for many years to come. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend working with them."

Fran Rodgers, Chief Executive Officer, Purple Patch Arts