Where is The Neurotopia Project Going?
NEUROTOPIA
Alexandra Chambers
7/14/20262 min read
The Neurotopia Project has always worked at the point where individual lives meet wider systems.
It began as a locally based project hosted by a charity, created in response to gaps that I had noticed through my own experiences and observations. Much of that early work happened at a very human, individual level: creating community, offering one-to-one support, and helping neurodivergent and disabled people understand, access and navigate systems that were rarely designed with them in mind.
When The Neurotopia Project evolved into an independent Community Interest Company, the scope of the work began to expand, resulting in Divergent Genomics.
Over the past year, much of our work has operated at a macro level through research, education, advocacy and activism. We have examined the structures surrounding neurodivergent and disabled people, challenged narrow or deficit-based narratives, and asked deeper questions about why so many people are expected to continually adapt themselves to environments, institutions and services that exclude them.
The original work was about helping people navigate systems.
The question that now sits at the heart of The Neurotopia Project is:
What if, instead of continually supporting and helping people navigate unsuitable systems, we changed the systems to suit the people?
That question represents Neurotopia’s evolution from the micro to the macro, but it does not mean leaving the micro behind.
Systemic change must remain connected to real people, real communities and the realities of everyday life. Equally, community support should not exist only to help people survive systems that remain fundamentally unchanged.
Our future lies in bringing these two levels of work together.
We are currently seeking funding to establish an appropriate community space in Lincoln: somewhere neurodivergent people can experience meaningful community, access adaptable sensory-enjoyable environments, take part in parallel presence and creative activities, and contribute to the development of new ideas and approaches.
We want to create a space in which people do not have to perform, mask or justify their needs in order to belong.
The space would also become a base for learning, research, collaboration and systems-change work. It would allow us to explore new ways of designing education, services, workplaces and communities around the people who actually use them.
This is not a retreat from Divergent Genomics' wider advocacy and research - it is in parallel to it.
Our local work will continue to inform our systemic work, while our research and advocacy will help us challenge the conditions affecting people locally.
The Neurotopia Project will continue to operate across both the micro and the macro:
Supporting individuals while challenging the systems surrounding them.
Building community while driving wider cultural and institutional change.
Creating practical spaces of belonging while developing ideas that can influence education, healthcare, employment and public life.
We are currently bidding for funding and building the partnerships needed to make this next stage possible. Community collaboration will be central to that process.
We are working towards environments and systems that recognise neurobiological human difference from the beginning - and communities in which people are able to participate without first having to become someone else.