Neurodiverging is looking for collaborators who would like to offer opportunities for neurodivergent people to find friends, form peer support networks, engage in coalition-building, or learn together. Some ideas might be:
- Affinity groups: formed based in identities and interests – eg. our neurodivergent parents affinity group, queer groups, BIPOC groups, a book club, a game night, New Jersey autistics, etc.
- Adult educational programming: formed for a learning opportunity – eg. a movie night around a particular issue/theme; a forum or discussion around a specific topic; a book study; a personal development course; a consciousness-raising group; etc.
We welcome your creative ideas too!
How It Works
This is a pilot program and we expect there to be some bumps, but generally:
- You are a neurodivergent person (ideally with a bit of educational/ leadership/ coalition-building experience) and you have a great idea for a group you need support to get off the ground.
- You pitch your idea to us on our pitch form. If it seems like there’s an audience for it and it falls within our mission and values, we’ll work with you to get your program off the ground under Neurodiverging’s umbrella.
Here are some ideas about what’s happening in Neurodiverging already that you could supplement with a program you create:
- Our neurodivergent parents affinity group runs monthly, and our CONNECTED parenting program runs 1-2 times a year.
- Our body doubling and accountability group runs 3 times a week.
- We offer educational webinars on disability education and disability justice topics ~6 times a year for the general public.
- We are concerned with the following justice issues (among others), especially as they relate to and intersect with neurodiversity:
- Disability Justice
- Racial Justice
- LGBTQIA education and advocacy
- Immigration Justice
- Mental Health
- Climate Justice
- Childrens’ rights
Getting Started
Fill out our pitch form here to tell us about your idea!
- You may find that something like your idea is already being offered, or someone else is also interested.
- We can also let you know if your idea falls outside of our values or mission.
We can all get a sense of other people’s interest by:
- putting a question in our weekly mailer
- talking it up on our Facebook group or the Patron Discord
- inviting friends outside of the Neurodiverging community to participate
Planning for Your Event
Once we have a few people to join you, we’ll work to crystallize your visions about what you want. These are the sorts of questions we will discuss:
- Is this a one-time event or multiple times? How often will you meet? When will you meet?
- What’s the structure of your meeting time?
- Who will lead/facilitate the group?
- Who will be responsible for communications to get folks involved and remind folks/follow-up as needed?
- What are the goals for the group?
- What is your needed budget?
- What kind of support or training will you need to succeed?
Finalize and Publicize the Event
- Decide on an event title, goal, a brief description, and the time/day you’re meeting. Send it to contact@neurodiverging.com so we can add it to our weekly newsletter, our calendar, and to the Events page on Neurodiverging.com for you.
- Request a Neurodiverging zoom link for your event via contact@neurodiverging.com. Include your name; the program name and brief description; the date, time, and time zone; any invitee info you need to collect for planning purposes.
- Make a post on the Neurodiverging Facebook group, make an event on the Facebook and Discord groups, and post to the Patron Discord.
- Invite friends outside of those groups to participate. Perhaps you belong to other neurodivergent-affirming spaces online where you might post an invitation, for example.
- Once your program is complete, we will ask folks to provide feedback through a short survey. We will share anonymized feedback with the program coordinators to improve future programming.
Support
We have many resources and trainings available to support group leadership, and are willing to create more as needed.
- We can help with challenging conversations around marginalized communities.
- We can help if there is a conflict that can not be resolved through interpersonal conversation.
- We can support emotional intelligence or active listening training for leaders and support personnel.
- We can offer technical and administrative support as needed.
Interested? Fill out our pitch form here to start the conversation. We can’t wait to work with you!