Neurodivergents for Equity & Self-Determination NESD

ASAN Urges Congress to Pass the Keeping All Students Safe Act ASAN commends Congress for its reintroduction of the Keeping All Students Safe Act (KASSA). KASSA would ban almost all kinds of restraint and all kinds of seclusion across all 50 states, and would require school districts to collect data to prevent further use of these harmful practices. We urge Con

Please support the "Transformation to Competitive Integrated Employment Act" (TCIEA)!

With just a few quick clicks, you can send a prepared or custom message to your represenatives in solidarity with Neurodivergents, Autistics, The Disabled, and all those excluded from the minimum wage protections of the "Fair Labor Standards Act".

Informative Quote:
"For almost a century, it has been legal to pay people with disabilities less than non-disabled people for doing the same job. People with disabilities, particularly people with intellectual disabilities, have been paid literally pennies on the dollar for our labor. We have been forced to work in sheltered workshops, which isolate and segregate us from our communities. These practices compound the already lower employment rates and significantly higher poverty rates of our community."

Tell Congress to support real work for real pay! People with disabilities live better lives when we are included in our local communities. That’s just as true when it comes to work as it is for education and housing. With the right supports, people with all kinds of disabilities and support needs can have good jobs that pay us well — but too m...

Mission Draft:

Everything starts somewhere, right?

Well, this is just the beginning but we hope you'll join in this endeavor to launch this Neurodivergent Leadership Project!

Our Mission:

1. To create community, opportunity, real change, and an ever-evolving network of empowerment.

2. To serve our fellow Neurodivergents while supporting all other impacted demographics, communities, and movements facing inequity and bias.

3. To foster inclusivity, diversity, and acceptance both for our communities and within our communities.

4. To prioritize creating our organization's success through amplifying the success of similar ND-Led organizations or projects, rather than joining and competing with our fellows for what little space or attention society has yet afforded to us.

Our values:

While we prefer to speak with action in a world where anyone can drop a set of popular keywords. We do want you to know our highest virtues are equity, inclusivity, diversity, empowerment, education, opportunity, unity, community, service, harmony, validation, honor, and love.

As an organization centered in the field of Neurodiversity & the Neurdivergent movement. We foster the values one might expect around community-based services, language, and types of advocacy.

1. That said, out of recognition that Neurdivergent Communities and the greater Neurodiverse Community itself are not monoliths. While we strive away from dated concepts, labels, language, symbols, and associations. We do not do so through shame nor including those among us who hold different values, preferences, or positions on these topics.

A safe, inclusive, loving space of empowerment will be made for all Neurodivergents regardless of such differences in opinion.

2. We endorse education over "call-out culture". This is not to say that we don't call anything out, but that we strive to make compassionately teachable moments out when issues that must be addressed surface. We are willing fighters in the battle for equity, but we are creators first whenever possible.

3. Above all, we do not endorse shaming mentalities or behaviors, especially over differences between our fellow Neurodivergent Advocates.

This most especially includes shaming of self-diagnosis. Within our community, we are well aware of the barriers obstructing people from accessing accurate diagnostic assessments, services, or early interventions.

If you made it through a world of people telling you that your differences aren't acceptable, we applaud you for even making it past the conditioning to ask the right questions and find out about all this.

Our first steps:

1. Recruiting founding Neurodivgent leadership with interest or experience in advocacy, community organizing, networking, program coordinating, and/or policy change. ( )

2. Developing an organizational structure. Such exploring options like filing as a 501(3)(c) social welfare non-profit. Or developing/refining our mission statements and goals.

3. Getting into the flow of our operations, structure, positions, roles, and working out what issues or projects we'd like to take on first.

In conclusion:

None of this is set in stone and is all largely a blank canvas!
Let's talk!

Location Note: We are a California-Based organization with national and global focuses. Members from near and far are warmly welcomed, dearly valued, and their individual needs are important to our work.

Welcome friends!

My name is Coop!

~ I'm ND - AA / TS / OCD / ADHD / +



~ I'm &

~ I dropped out of school after failing 8th grade twice and ending up in Juvi a few dozen times caught up in the .

~ Now I'm an honor roll Student pursuing a double Major In Sociology & Child Development / ECE, in hopes of transferring to a University that specializes in Neurodiversity, Cognitive Diversity, or Autism studies.

~ I serve as Student Body President at Merritt College (ASMC), home of the Black Panther Party. Where equity, diversity, and inclusion are at the heart of all our focuses.

~ I serve as a founding member of the Oakland College Student Advisory Board ( ) through the Mayor's office. Where we are stepping above and beyond to create a new future of greater access to education.

~ And now I'm here with you on this page, hoping we can get some good work going for our sorely underserved local Neurdivergent communities.

We are just getting started and the first step is putting together a fantastic team of Neurdivergent Self-Advocates!

So please reach out, or share this with folks who might be interested!

Our hope is to register as a 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) Non-Profit. So we'll be putting together a board and getting our leadership and officers trained in:
•Parliamentary Process
•Brown Act
•Community Organizing, •Fundraising
•Writing Resolutions

As well as many other forms of advocacy, activism, project management, & policy work!

This is an incredible learning opportunity for you to develop your skills, your experience, as well as your ability to serve yourself and your communities!

I hope to hear from you all soon!

In service to our communities,
Your friend Coop