Koala provides opportunities for autistic and neurodivergent (ND) members of our community to meet their peers and access support and training in a sensory-safe environment, supported by volunteers who understand their barriers to engagement. 75% of our volunteers are autistic and we are autistic-led. The very nature of our work means that 80% of our groups support young people and children. A diagnosis is not needed to access any of our services.

Lack of physical resources for autistic/ND young people leads to isolation and poor mental health/wellbeing. For example, the local waiting list for an ADHD assessment for a 16-year-old is 2 years. This leads to many young people being in limbo without support. For this reason, individuals will not need a diagnosis to access our services.

The funds raised will be used to support our first 4 years of operating and expanding our groups at the Koala Community Hub. We are not resource-heavy and the majority of our grants will be spent on overheads and 2 members of staff to run the groups.

The very nature of the people we work with means that they HAVE to be in control of their environment and the group structure to allow engagement. A fundamental part of our work, over the past few months of initial opening, has been to gain the trust of our community. We are now introducing 'ideas walls' to our groups so that our community can have their say on who they would like to invite to the group (ie local artists). Many of our community are extremely anxious and cannot access groups normally, so we are very clear that there are no expectations on what they engage with once they are in the room.

We are currently operating the following groups on a bi-weekly basis:

Toddlers (monthly midweek and weekend group)

Kids (Primary aged every two weeks and monthly weekend group)

Teens (Secondary aged every two weeks and monthly weekend group)

Young People Not in School (bi-weekly)

Adults (monthly evening and bi-weekly day time group)

Parents (monthly evening and monthly daytime group)

Adult monthly boardgames group

Weekly drama group (for 7 to 12 year olds)

We also plan to create the following:

An online gaming community (fully safeguarded) so that those who are too anxious to access groups can start to build connections with others.

Adults and teens mentoring groups

Coding club

Young adults group

Teens LGBT group

Koala choir

Day trips and excursions for all groups

An adult 'buddies' programme run between other charities in the area

There is also much, much more in the pipeline!

We are currently fully run by volunteers and do not have the capacity to expand the hub to include these groups. This is why we need to secure funding so that staff can develop the offering. We are also aware that it is not sustainable for autistic volunteers to support so many groups and not impact their own mental health (some of whom work full time but are extremely passionate about the cause).

Due to the lack of funding currently for charities, we are passionate about making our hub self-sustaining. A tutoring hub will open at Koala in April 2022. This will be run through the Koala Academy project and financed separately. However, a surplus from the tutoring project will support the hub. By Year 4, it is projected that the Koala Community Hub will be fully financially sustained by the Tutoring Hub and full-time academy that will be operated by the charity (More Education) that runs Koala.

This will make us the first autistic led community hub and special school in the UK. We hope to then work with other communities to achieve the same offering in their local area. Empowering neurodivergent communities to nurture neurodivergence in their area.

Koala's three focus areas respond to the key issues for ND people, living independently in society:

SOCIAL CONNECTION: Research shows that authentic social connections can decrease the risk of mental health problems in individuals and increases the longevity of life by up to 50%*. However, many Autistic people/NDs report that there are often too many barriers to accessing social support (often communication and sensory based).

PHYSICAL HEALTH: ND people often struggle with their mental health which, in turn, affects executive functioning (EF) and can lead to burnout. EF impacts our ability to carry out simple tasks like eating healthily and exercising. 83% of ND individuals report issues with EF. The ability to create social connections, and accessing training on ND friendly strategies, increases effective EF.

ENABLING: Autistic and neurodivergent people, and their families, are often not enabled to become more independent within their community. There remains a vast lack of coproduction to enable ND people to truly find their place in the world and navigate relationships, work and other societal expectations that others take for granted.

Koala tackle these 3 focus areas by:

SOCIAL CONNECTION: Ensuring that our groups and training are consistently sensory-safe, demand free and nurturing. This means that ND people are more likely to be able to engage with us. We work with people individually so that they can access our groups, many of whom are severely anxious. This may be as simple as meeting them at the front door or sending them a video explaining the small steps they can take to access a group.

PHYSICAL HEALTH: ND people accessing have a safe and nurturing place that they can access will help to boost their mental health - this will then positively impact on physical health. We have many new projects planned to include, navigating safe relationships, health and wellbeing, parent training, self-advocacy and engaging with other support (including medical and authorities).

ENABLING: Autistic and ND people are encouraged to build the hub the way THEY want it. We run regular polls and surveys regarding new resources and are also due to start an ideas wall where people can leave anonymous post-it notes with suggestions for the groups. We also promote and facilitate our community to also become volunteers. A key aspect of Koala is allowing ND people to engage with other professionals in a space where they feel safe and supported.

We know that Koala is already having an impact in these areas, and this is evidenced through our impact statement. This documents our achievements during the first 6 months of operations:

https://www.koalacommunityhub.co.uk/_files/ugd/73ecc3_a3ce46b5d99c42e6a194fabe0c4d7963.pdf

* Holt-Lunstad J, Smith TB, Layton JB (2010) Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review. PLOS Medicine 7(7): e1000316.