About the Gloucestershire Youth Neurodiversity Project Grant Programme

The Gloucestershire Youth Neurodiversity Project was established in 2024 by Jane Roberts with the vision for Gloucestershire to become the best place in the country to grow up neurodiverse.

Jane became a campaigner for neurodiversity, especially ADHD following the death by suicide of her adult ADHD son Ben in December 2020.  Since Ben died, Jane has sponsored several activities including Stroud Neurodiversity Project in 2021, Gloucestershire Neurodiversity Project in 2022 (part sponsored) and teacher training in Gloucestershire secondary schools in 2023.

The aim of the Gloucestershire Youth Neurodiversity Project is to transfer skills into Gloucestershire to leave a lasting legacy of understanding and skills to support young people who are neurodiverse.

The Gloucestershire Youth Neurodiversity Project are now working with Gloucestershire Community Foundation to identify a suitable partner organisation/s to be awarded grant funding to deliver key activities of the project.

Funding Available

One grant of £30,000 will be made from Gloucestershire Youth Neurodiversity Fund to fund work to support neurodiverse young people living in Gloucestershire.

Applications may be as partnerships between more than one organisation but must have a lead applicant for the application who will be responsible for receipt of the grant.

Who can Apply?

This programme is for voluntary and community groups with charitable aims, registered charities or Community Interest Companies with more than three unrelated Trustees or Board Members and a bank account in the name of the organisation with at least two signatories.

Applicants must be based and working in Gloucestershire and have experience of working with neurodiverse young people as well as the capacity and expertise to deliver the below activities, either independently or in partnership with another organisation.  Any partnership working would need to be agreed as part of a joint application with  lead applicant.

What will the Grant Fund?

The activities of the grant shall include (but may not cover all) the following:

• Work with youth organisations, clubs and charities and also schools/colleges across Gloucestershire to increase support for young neurodiverse people aged 11-24.
• Co-facilitate and encourage formation of Neurodiverse Support Groups and neurodiverse-friendly activities for young people across Gloucestershire, passing on the skills and knowledge for other organisations to also provide these sessions. The aim is to enable the other organisations to sustain these independently.
• Promote and market the project via social media and a project website. A project logo and branding has been designed already and an agency is currently creating a project website which can be used to promote events and campaigns and to seek donations for additional opportunities during the year.
• Provide collateral and assistance to help youth organisations and schools to promote their activities and events to neurodiverse young people, aiding them in maximising attendance.
• Form, co-ordinate and support the Gloucestershire Neurodiversity Youth Council. The Youth Council currently has one founder member.  It needs to deliver a regular programme of meet-ups, events and displays to raise awareness about neurodiversity around the county.  It is envisaged that the Youth Council will run small fundraising activities to support the events that it wants to hold.
• Organise and promote delivery of ADHD Foundation’s Life Skills Workshop for young people in schools, colleges, health settings and youth organisations / clubs. There are already some local organisations whose staff who have been trained to deliver this and they can be hired for further deliveries.  Further, the workshop delivery is intended to be used in a “train-the trainer” model so that organisations can continue to deliver it independently afterwards.
• Gather feedback from young people and organisations as to what they would like to see provided in future years.

There is some flexibility in how the above objectives may be delivered by applicant organisations.

The grant is awarded as a one year pilot project with the ambition of reviewing progress at 8 months to decide upon a further two years of funding.  From the second year, there is an aspiration to set up and hold a Gloucestershire Youth Neurodiversity Project Annual Awards event to include a celebration of youth neurodiversity.

It is understood that one organisation may not be able to deliver all of the above but the strongest applications will be those that are able to support most of the above activities or can demonstrate other methods of delivering similar impacts with regards to improving understanding of neurodiversity amongst young people’s service providers and improving the support available for neurodiverse young people in Gloucestershire.