Anyone had success organising there own community centre???

What I mean by this is setting up some sort of social centre for people who are neuro divergent. I know I am not alone in that me and my son( who is diagnosed with autism ) are isolated and also the depression that comes with autism the loneliness that is felt and the frustration because the desire to be social and have the joy it can bring a human being but the difficulty and stress that's felt in trying to be social etc etc..am sure there are many others out there who are isolated alone and longing to have something to be part of....

The truth is however there are few if any places to go and the economy being what it is means not for profit endeavours can't sustain themselves as that's where funds get cut..where we live they've cut bus services and various amenities and activities due to lack of money etc. Am I being unrealistic in hoping it would be possible to get something going in order for people to meet social and be human beings instead of being ignored and cut off by society. God sorry am just I don't know anymore what to do.

  • my thoughts were that some trained staff would be needed who are fully able to deal with anything

    If you can start to make a community out of the local autists (well I think neurodivergents would be a better catch all term) informally at first then you may find there are some individuals or carers who would be willing to train up more on dealing with the issues that can arise.

    I would hope that some charities like NAS can provide advice and pointers on this and it may be this is a good model for them to create a How To guide for others to setup something similar.

    There will always be a lot of work for the organisers so it is probably why it hasn't happened yet - and fewer and fewer people are willing to go out their way to help others in these times in case they get falsely accused of something.

    Maybe speak to the church and they may consider doing something once a month with staff to help and you could come up with guidance notes (with input from here) on how to deal with any issues. This way you can focus on getting the word out and planning activities.

  • I'll just keep buying those lottery tickets and hope 1. That god exitst and 2. That god answers My prayers.

  • Yes th points you mention I was thinking about last night actually as I already am aware if thus as I have had fortunately for me many friends with either adhd autism etc etc so am fully aware of how things can go down plus with my son I am painfully aware of hiw hard autism is first hand....my thoughts were that some trained staff would be needed who are fully able to deal with anything..however that's not going to happen being realistic  as I tried in the past to get funding and couldn't get Jack it was like trying to get blood out of a stone sorry to coin a phrase but that only way I can describe it.  The only other option would be to have training for parents and carers and that it would be run by parents for there own children .I think I'm just dreaming...there has to be a way around it.

  • Am I being unrealistic in hoping it would be possible to get something going in order for people to meet social and be human beings instead of being ignored and cut off by society.

    It is a great thing to try to organise and one a lot of neurodivergent people would be glad of.

    I think most of these meetings / groups died out after the pandemic hit and never got going again so there will be an absence of them.

    Are you prepared for the type of people who will attend? We tend to be a socially awkward (often at best) bunch with a few more extreme cases mixed in - having people there who know how to meet and greet the newcomers, leave them alone if they want it and be able to introduce them to one another would be ideal.

    There is the omnipresent risk of someone having a breakdown / meltdown / tantrum so being able to deal with this without causing a scene will be useful. This is not a common event but a well known risk in neurodivergent meets.

    The biggest day to day challenge will be to keep these people to talk to one another for long enough to make it a social situation. If you have a social butterfly who can flit around the group and get people talking, sharing special interests, sharing info on things like this website, changes to PIP, other social groups, a film night etc etc will go a long way to making it successful.

    As for a venue, one of your local churches seems a good option - these tend to be cheap, often can have some people willing to help get it off the ground with advertising and can give pointers on how it all works (eg opening up, cleaning up at the end and closing up) and also on how to advertise locally.