Yash Charitable Trust

Yash Charitable Trust (YCT) was founded in 2014 by Dr. Sushama Nagarkar with the aim of enhancing the quality of lives for neurodivergent adults - particularly those with autism, intellectual disabilities, ADHD, specific learning disabilities and so on.

The vision of YCT is to provide opportunities for neurodivergent adults to live and work in the community of their choice with dignity and self-respect.

Our mission, therefore, is two-fold:

To provide training and development of skills and competencies required for employment through the Employability Skills Development Program (ESDP).

To provide all other wrap-around services, including counselling, consultation, ancillary therapies, and support for different models of employment (supported employment, customized employment, self-employment, and competitive integrated employment or open employment) through the Adult Support Kendra (ASK). We also regularly conduct seminars, workshops, and sensitization sessions both online as well as offline. Our neurodivergent team, consisting of self-advocates, is an important part of the sensitization sessions.

YCT has grown organically and we continue to see a deep impact in the lives of each of our team members.

The genesis of ESDP goes back twelve years. In late 2014, we started with a small kitchen that was equipped to run a tiffin service and at the time employed five neurodivergent adults as a part of an inclusive team. It was an innovative venture and one that generated a lot of positive media publicity. We also realized through the whole endeavour that the neurodivergent adults that we worked with were very eager to contribute their unique talents and wanted to work alongside neurotypical colleagues. But as more and more adults requested to join our team, we ran out of space.

In 2018, we expanded to launch Café Arpan, Mumbai’s first café to be operated by neurodivergent adults. The café has since become a symbol of what neurodivergent adults can achieve if provided with the right opportunities. In its current avatar, the café is almost entirely manned by neurodivergent staff who are provided support as and when needed.

Between 2015 (when our first tiffin was delivered) and 2019, we continued to train on the job at both the kitchen and Café Arpan. We soon realized, however, that with our burgeoning numbers, we needed to have a structured training curriculum focusing on F&B and employability skills development. In 2019, we found a suitable space for a Skill Development Centre and began to lay the foundation for a sustainable skill development that could lead to employment opportunities. Till date, our journey has included collaborations with partners such as Accenture, where we established a café in 2019, and newer ventures such as Arpan Bakery and our café counter at 360 ONE in 2024. These initiatives showcase our ongoing commitment to creating inclusive employment opportunities for neurodivergent adults.

More recently we have added life skills training in areas such as cooking, and digital literacy, training in housekeeping and urban farming using hydroponics technology.

The ASK vertical was formalized in 2017. ASK provides wraparound services that our adults need to live fulfilling adult lives. For example, we provide counselling and other mental health support services. We provide consultation services including person-centred planning and futures planning for families who are struggling with answering questions and planning for the kind of life their adult would lead. We offer workshops and seminars on important topics such as financial planning, developing meaningful relationships, preparing adults to live independently and so on. Our adults learn self-advocacy skills and present at the frequent sensitization and awareness sessions that we conduct for various entities such as schools, colleges and businesses.

Everything we do at YCT is geared to help adults assume valued roles and lead fulfilling lives within their communities.

Our core values of Acceptance, Inclusion and Empowerment are the fundamental beliefs that underlie our work, how we interact with each other and what strategies we employ to fulfil our mission.

The value of acceptance allows us to accept reality, ourselves, and others as the way each of us truly is. Acceptance is not something that can be forced. It just is. And being accepted for oneself, as diverse as each of us is, has shown to positively affect self-esteem and well-being. By accepting diversity, we find ourselves growing both intellectually and spiritually. Acceptance is a gift that gives back. It helps us to treat another with the same degree of respect that we would like to be treated.

And while to accept someone is to acknowledge differences and say it is okay; to include someone is to intentionally pursue ways to make them feel welcomed, heard, and valued. Inclusion creates a supportive energy and commitment from others. There is a sense of belonging. Every person is respected and feels essential to the success of the organization. By adopting a core value of empowerment, we are helping our team members, our beneficiaries, find their voice and express themselves. We believe in everyone’s capabilities to be independent, to make decisions in a way that helps them do their work to the best of their ability as well as create an enriched life for themselves.

We work hard. Nevertheless, over the years, we have had some challenges in meeting needs and fostering learning and development for some of our adults. These challenges have occurred for various reasons: at times there has been a gap between family expectations and what we are able to provide through our programs and activities. Challenges with the individual’s ability to self-regulate in a group setting have impacted their learning and the learning of others. Irregular attendance is another challenge that we have faced. With consistent expectations, policies and procedures in place, these challenges are now few and far between.