Bridge Creative

Bridge Creative was set up to improve employment opportunities for adults with learning disabilities and autistic adults across County Durham. County Durham has one of the highest rates of unemployment among adults with learning disabilities in England, with just 11 adults in any form of paid employment, in a County with over 500,000 population.

Bridge Creative was founded by Ben Tinkler after organising a music festival in County Durham, and supporting a young guy with a learning disability (who attended the day service he worked at) to work at the festival. Seeing the impact it had on that person’s life, and realising that there were so few employment opportunities for people with learning disabilities in the area, Ben decided to set up Bridge Creative.

5 years on, Bridge Creative have supported over 200 people with learning disabilities and autistic adults across County Durham and Darlington, working with them to improve confidence, gain real work experience and skills, be more connected with their communities, and ultimately improve their lives in general and move closer to finding a paid job.