Fascism is rising. Mental health is plummeting. Systems are strained. It doesn't have to be this way.

Help us build autonomous, abolitionist, and accessible mental health care for and by the neurodivergent+ community.

Who we are 🧠

NEUROMANCERS is a peer-led, grassroots organisation providing autonomous, abolitionist, and accessible mental health care for and by the neurodivergent+ community.

'To NEUROMANCE' is to fall in love with divergence - and that's why we embrace all those diverging from neuro-normativity.

Our term 'neurodivergent+' includes all those under and adjacent to the neurodivergent umbrella, including the mad, mentally ill, disabled, and chronically ill. Lived experience of trauma, addiction, disordered eating, sensory and social difficulty, psychosis and altered states, plurality and dissociation, crisis, psychiatric incarceration, self-injury, and suicidality are all welcome.

We are not problems to be fixed. Our traits are not curses or superpowers. We are people surviving a society built to oppress and exclude us.

We use the framework of Peer Solidarity, an elevated form of peer support combining community healing with political education, recognising both our shared and distinct lived experiences.

NEUROMANCERS exists to support and empower neurodivergent+ people to build the care - and world - we deserve. Free from psychiatric violence. Protected from pathologisation. Safe to experience and express our innate ways of being.

Our story ❤️‍🩹

NEUROMANCERS was created as a radical site of care for those disillusioned by mainstream mental healthcare systems we know are rooted in white supremacy, misogyny, ableism, and many other systems of oppression.

Our founder Aiyana experienced mental distress throughout their teen years, and accessed a mix of private and NHS mental health services, most of which made things worse. Instead of being listened to and affirmed, they were told their experiences were "wrong" - and even had the police called on them. A time they needed help became a time they were afraid to ask for it.

So, at just fifteen years old, they dreamt up and launched NEUROMANCERS. 🥳

With nothing but conviction, a laptop, and a vision, Aiyana created a space grounded in politicised peer support, somewhere they could bring their whole neurodivergent, queer, Black, young self – a place to ‘NEUROMANCE’ or fall in love with (neuro)divergence.

The organisation has grown over the last five years to support neurodivergents in need across the UK and beyond, providing a a lifeline that has delivered hundreds of hours of affirming group and 1:1 peer support, directed mini-grants to homeless and migrant neurodivergents, initiated exploratory research projects, and so much more.

Now with a small and mighty team, we are getting closer to making that vision a more sustainable reality. But we need your help.

What's the problem? 🔥

Fascist violence against marginalised people is ramping up. PIP assessments are getting harder to pass. The state is stripping away support. This is a hard time to be neurodivergent+ in the UK, and that's not by accident.

One in four 16–24 year olds now has a mental health condition - an increase from one in six in 2007. Half of those those who want clinical treatment are shoved onto NHS waiting lists for years, only to be dismissed, gaslit, forced onto medication, or experience further distress at the hands of culturally incompetent, transphobic, racist psychiatric practices grounded in colonial-era eugenics. Our collective mental health is plummeting within a system that was never built for us.

Peer-led alternatives for neurodivergent+ people remain woefully under-resourced, leaving our needs unmet. That's the gap NEUROMANCERS exists to fill: care that doesn't wait for a diagnosis, a review, or a system's permission.

What are we doing? ✊🏾✊🏼✊🏽

NEUROMANCERS exists to provide much-needed neurodivergent-affirming, person-centred, and peer-led support.

We are an organisation of almost entirely LGBTQ+ people, most of whom are Black or brown. We're intentionally small and grassroots, grounded in lived experience, and led by a team unflinchingly holding this work whilst navigating their own crises - as marginalised communities have been for decades.

In just five short years, we've proven that care grounded in community healing and political education can not only make an incredible, life-affirming difference for neurodivergent+ people. Not just building hope, meaning, and purpose - but providing a reliable and robust form of care that truly serves all of us.

But we face challenging times: the needs of the community require us to stretch our limited resources as far as they can go. We need your support to keep meeting this need.

If you've been denied the support you need. If the system has failed you. We are in solidarity with you. We won't stop fighting for you, or for the future we all deserve.

But we urgently need funds to keep going.

We're raising £150,000 to keep peer-led, abolitionist mental healthcare alive and thriving through 2027.

As organisers, as activists, as young people, as oppressed people, as Black people, as queer people, as neurodivergent individuals: we need to pool our resources to bring about the world we actually deserve.

You've come across this plea for a reason: you needed a reminder that new ways are possible. NEUROMANCERS is your reminder.

Why we need your support 🤗

Your solidarity will enable us to continue our work through 2027, sustaining a team of disabled, largely Black and brown workers, and supporting us to provide the wide range of peer support programmes outlined below.

We want and need to offer these programmes for free. Your donations will help make sure we can.

Return to Solidarity ❤️‍🩹

Return to Solidarity is a ten week resourcing group for those simultaneously identifying as neurodivergent+, LGBTQ+, and Black or brown.

We are meeting our communities' needs in response to the current rise of fascism and far-right rhetoric by providing an empowering space where participants are invited to explore their relationships to solidarity. Whether as an emotion, practice, and context for survival under racial capitalism.

💬 “Co-facilitating and being a part of Return to Solidarity was a much needed reminder of how intentional we need to be in order to show up for one another. Under racist capitalism being able to support our communities sustainably takes a lot of work and reflection. I found it helpful to have a weekly space where we engaged with the different aspects how we relate to solidarity, what barriers to connection there are and the political education and tools that help us find our way back to being moved to show up for our people.” – Return to Solidarity facilitator

It costs £5000 to run each group. This covers three lived experience facilitators alongside training, supervision, support costs and communications. Participants leave with somatic, spiritual, and herbalist tools – as well as a deeper connection to self, kin, and community.

Peer Solidarity Certificate Programme 🎓

We need £60,000 to fund our 2027-2028 cohort.

Our Peer Solidarity Certificate Programme is the UK’s first-of-its-kind training and practice programme for politicised peer support – for and by neurodivergent+ people. This about democratising mental healthcare and empowering neurodivergents across the UK with the skills and knowledge to better support themselves, their peers, and local communities.

💬 "It amazed me to hear crisis and suicidal ideation spoken about in a way which I have experienced and which people supporting me rarely seemed to understand. The idea of people being supported in an autonomous way, that I would have found helpful but didn't get to experience, is incredible." - Programme Trainee

Your generous support will help us to run the next improved iteration, but also expand the programme to include additional placement pathways, enabling people to develop the capacity to offer both rapid-response and longer-term support - all of which is freely offered to our community in these difficult times.

Our inaugural cohort of more than twenty individuals across the UK are staffing our incredible Peer Helpchat. Therefore, the funding of our Peer Solidarity Certificate Programme also means we can fund:

Peer Support Helpchat 💻

In June this year, we launched the UK’s only peer support warmline/helpchat for neurodivergent+ people. 📲

Catered to those aged 18-25, this an online, anonymous, and confidential rapid response for neurodivergent+ people in need of mental health support.

💬 “They came with wisdom and such thoughtful responses as if they knew me and how to speak to me. On reflection, it was such a special exchange. I'm left feeling grateful and also wiser, clearer, and confident in how I can manage myself and situations. They shared some vulnerability about themselves and also shared gratitude with me so it felt like a real exchange and I didn’t feel judged or burdening. Thank you.” - Helpchat user feedback

In just three short months of our pilot run, open only 4-6 hours per week, we’ve had well over 200+ conversations with neurodivergent+ young people seeking support for mental distress and loneliness across a range of lived experiences and challenges.

Our Peer Helpchat is fundamentally consent-led: our safeguarding approach is deeply informed by our abolitionist principles, recognising the harm caused by the state and services uncritical of the ways in which we can be punished for experiencing mental distress. We seek preserve self-determination and utilise community-first responses, always.

1:1 Peer Counselling Clinic 🤝

We offer 1:1 Peer Counselling Clinic offers neurodivergent+ people in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales free or low cost support 🫂

This offers an affirming space to explore struggles with mental health or relationships, challenging or traumatising experiences, negative impacts from mainstream mental health systems, and more.

In just eight months, we have committed over 100 hours of free counselling…and counting! 100% of peers felt well supported, had a positive experience, would recommend to a friend, and would seek support from NEUROMANCERS in future. Overall, we have a 4.9 ⭐️ rating from peers.

Imagine what we could achieve in another eight months!

Student Placements 📝

Self-determination for neurodivergent+ people is at the heart of our mission at NEUROMANCERS. While we favour non-clinical mental health care options, we recognise the importance and value of therapeutic spaces and we know that mainstream clinical health care does not always value care work. That's why we provide placement opportunities for neurodivergent+ students across the UK.

Our student placements aim to help root the next generation of therapists and other mental health support workers in radical community-led principles. In the eight months since beginning this programme, we have worked with eight students and counting – way above the norm of small and under-resourced organisations like ours.

The time to fund a future for and by neurodivergent+ people is now!

If you've been watching NEUROMANCERS do this work, this is the moment to support us. If you have a neurodivergent+ family member or loved one who is struggling to access, or has been failed by, mainstream mental healthcare, we are here to support them. Every penny we raise goes straight towards our support programmes and towards building better care for all of us.

The future of mental health is community-led, access-forward, and, because of organisations like NEUROMANCERS, full of hope. Donate today and help us make this future a reality.

🫱🏾‍🫲🏼 Are you a funder or person with wealth to (re-)distribute? Get in touch directly at hello@neuromancers.org.uk.

🤗 NEUROMANCERS needs consistent income to survive. Become a member to access extra benefits and support us today!

💸 Want to donate by bank transfer? Find our details here. Be sure to label your donations with 'fundraiser' and we'll manually add them here to show everyone how much closer your generosity got us to the total.

NEUROMANCERS CIC

Protect NEUROMANCERS: Fund abolitionist mental health care for neurodivergent+ people

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