On Thursday 31st August, a report produced by Ian Hamilton, from BBC Scotland, about the ILF Scotland – Transition Fund was aired on BBC Radio Scotland’s show, Good Morning Scotland.
In his report, Ian interviewed world class sprinter and potential applicant of the Fund, Ryan Cuzen. It was stated that, due to Ryan’s autism diagnosis, he finds it extremely difficult to read a social situation, which may put him in danger.
Ryan said that he would like to apply to the ILF Scotland – Transition Fund (when it opens) to enable him to enrol in self-defence classes, which would boost his physical strength and, in turn, would improve his self-confidence on a daily basis.
The report explained that young disabled people like Ryan can find it difficult to transition from children’s to adult services where the support they would have received in school is harder to access once they have left. It is for this reason that the ILF Scotland – Transition Fund will be open for young disabled people aged 16-21 in its first phase.
Jean Freeman, Social Security Minister, said: “We’ve opened up ILF to particularly young people, 16-21 year olds, with a new fund to help those young disabled people at a key transition point in their lives. And the new fund will be administered by ILF programme across Scotland and will work with those young disabled people to give them the additional support they need to move into independent living”.
Scott Read, from ARC Scotland, said: “This is a fund that will allow somebody to gain independence to live an independent life whereas traditionally they may have been left to get support from their families or charities who do not operate an eligibility criteria so this is potentially game changing for a lot of young people in Scotland.”
You can listen to the radio show here where our section is 12 minutes in.
The report has now subsequently been aired on BBC Reporting Scotland, which you can view here.
Find more about the ILF Scotland – Transition fund here.
