I've raised £2500 to help to launch our Autistic Youth Hub - online & IRL - in South London, for autistic young adults without intellectual disability
Organised by Jill Finch
Story
Right now, I have no idea where to start
Autistic Community Hub CIC is a new non-profit organisation based in Croydon
We are a group of autistic and similarly neurodivergent people in South London who believe that we need much better work and social opportunities that are designed, built and run by us for us.
Our aim is to collaborate on, curate and create local, tailored work, training and social opportunities; all underpinned by peer mentorship and group support.
When I left school, everything just ended
Our first priority is our Youth Hub
There are no safe, funded and facilitated spaces - online and IRL - for autistic young adults in our area to build trusted relationships to then take into the real world.
We are going to build that space. We are going to employ autistic young people to help us and give them valuable work experience in a supportive, nurturing autistic-led environment.
Only 22% of autistic adults are in any kind of employment
Why does this matter?
Autistic adults without intellectual disability have poorer life outcomes than the rest of us, for no good reason.
Autistic adults without intellectual disability are nine times more likely to die by suicide than the general population; for autistic women, this rises to thirteen times more than for non-autistic women.
There are a significant number of autism-related charities and non-profits in the UK, but very few are autistic-led. Many of these charities spend a large amounts of money on “awareness” yet the statistics on employment and suicide have not changed in over a decade, if anything, they have got worse.
We believe we can start to change that.
It's hard to find accessible and inclusive workplaces
Action not awareness
We are ambitious and aim to lead long-term societal change by demonstrating models of tangible, replicable success not by promoting yet more ‘awareness’.
We specifically chose to incorporate as a CIC not a charity as we believe we can become revenue-positive and self-sustaining. We’re autistic and neurodivergent-led. We’re creating an intrapreneurial culture with a “service user as service designer” ethos.
I want to build a community of quiet activists!
Why donate?
Our Autistic Youth Hub is scheduled to launch autumn 2023. We are personally funding as much of our initial phase as we can but with additional launch funding, we can do more and we can do it faster.
Your donations will be used to create a resilient and safe online presence, to recruit our youth advisory group members, to fund our first paid work opportunities and to ensure we treat our volunteers well with proper training and development.
We will also be able to begin our outreach programme into colleges, universities and other youth spaces in South London much sooner.
It's really hard to meet people who accept me
Other ways to support us
Times are tough and we appreciate that not everyone can give money. If you'd like to help us in other ways, you could:
>> Sign up for our email newsletter
Autistic and want to get involved?
If you are aged 16-30 and identify as autistic, with or without formal diagnosis, we’d love you to get involved. We currently need help to get our scope and priorities right.
>> Join our 'open debate' Discord server
Thank you!
