AN award-winning charity has been forced to close down its centre for children and young adults with autism as the impact of Covid hits.

The groundbreaking Reach for Autism centre in Ratho Street opened eight years ago as a haven for local families.

But the organisation has been unable to use the space since the outbreak of the pandemic and the building recently suffered flood damage.

With huge uncertainty over the future, the charity has now decided to shut the building for good.

Founder Vicki McCarthy MBE established the charity to break down barriers and encourage Inverclyde to be more autism-friendly.

The group won the admiration of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who invited young people from it to Holyrood.

Mum of two Vicki - who set up the charity to help her daughter Kira, who was diagnosed with Asperger's - today vowed that Reach will carry on by finding new ways to support young adults and children.

She said: "It's with sadness that we close the Reach for Autism centre.

"It has been such a huge part of the charity but we haven't opened since March last year and have no idea when we will open again.

"We came in when restrictions lifted to find a way to have people in safely but we just couldn't do it.

"The centre is so big and it can't stay closed indefinitely.

"We came in to discover it had flooded and we took the decision to let it go."

The centre was the base for support groups and training courses and featured a soft play space for children, plus a toddlers group and a cafe.

They organised community events and worked closely with neighbouring projects and schools.

Teens from Reach, including Vicki's daughter Kira, launched their own group, going out into the community to talk to schools, the police and other key services.

They staged a play, In Our World: A Day on the Spectrum, which they performed to sell-out crowds at the Beacon.

It attracted national attention, awards followed and the young people were invited to Holyrood to give the First Minister and her cabinet training in autism.

Since then the group, called Reach for Change, has gone from strength to strength, evolving into a social enterprise called Atlas which was awarded £20,000 in funding.

Now the charity will look at supporting people using existing community facilities when they are allowed to do so.

Vicki added: "What we’ve come to realise over the years is that Reach for Autism isn’t the building, it’s the people and community that make it - and we’ll always have that.

"We have had to find new ways to support people throughout the pandemic.

"But it is hard with children and we can't wait for a time when we can get back and find ways to reconnect.

"We will look at facilities in the community."