Since their South Shields venue opened in 2019, Sea Change has helped over 100 neurodivergent individuals with employability opportunities. Now, they have branched out and opened a second venue in the heart of Sunderland.
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00:00Having SeaChange in the heart of Sunderland City Centre as part of the Sunderland Museum and the Winter Gardens is absolutely excellent.
00:09It's banging the city centre, we're hoping it'll encourage footfall.
00:14We already have hundreds of thousands of people that come to visit the museum and SeaChange is perfectly fitting for the environment that we're in.
00:22At the current time, Sunderland is undergoing a really exciting period of regeneration and transformation.
00:29We have additional funding that will be coming into Sunderland Museum which will help restore it over the forthcoming years.
00:37SeaChange is great to celebrate people being able to work who have neurodivergent needs and learned disabilities, so we're really excited to have them here in the city.
00:49I think SeaChange is unique. It's an employment offer to people with neurodiversity and learned disability where those are seen as talents and skills rather than things that can disadvantage people.
01:03We don't have anywhere else like this in the city centre at the current time but we are keen to engage in discussions going forward.
01:10The museum and the Winter Gardens, we have an activity scheduled all year round with artwork.
01:17We've had recent exciting exhibitions about the coal works and a Lowry exhibition.
01:23We'll have a full timetable going forward. We'll have the beautiful Winter Gardens which is a great place to come and relax and we also have the park itself which is a good place to go and get some steps in.
01:36Since their South Shields venue opened in 2019, SeaChange has supported over 100 people from across the neurodiverse community.
01:43With 20 people progressing into paid hospitality roles and five securing independent employment through its SeaChange for Employment programme.
01:51CEO Sarah Farrell-Forster is passionate about her business and what it stands for.
01:57So SeaChange is a cafe with a difference. We're a cafe on a mission to offer support employment opportunities to neurodivergent adults and we specialise in autism and learning disabilities.
02:11We've always wanted to expand and would love a SeaChange in every town city. That would be great.
02:18We heard of an opening in the cafe in Sunderland Museum and I thought that would be great for us.
02:24So I came along to an open event where other organisations came and had a little look around straight away. I knew that would definitely be a great place.
02:34Sunderland Museum asked for our business case and we put it forward and they really wanted to work with us as well.
02:42And now we're here. It's just a lovely location for our staff members. It's very busy so I feel like only some of them might be able to work here at first.
02:54But then with further training hopefully we can bring more trainees in.