Neurodiversity SPARK

Neurodiversity SPARK Spark is more than just a community; it’s a movement driven by the voices and experiences of neurodivergent individuals.

We focus on creating meaningful connections and empowering individuals and organisations to embrace neurodiversity.

06/06/2026

Most workplace training is forgotten by Monday.

At Spark, we do things differently.

Our practical neuroinclusive training is built around a simple 30-20-10 rhythm:

✔ 30 minutes learning
✔ 20 minutes applying
✔ 10 minutes reflecting and resetting

Then we repeat.

The result? People stay engaged, retain more information and leave with practical tools they can use immediately.

We've delivered training across universities, health and social care, charities, community organisations, managers, HR teams and business leaders throughout Northern Ireland.

📍 Full-Day Team Training
£1,895 + VAT (up to 15 people)

📍 Individual Workshop Places

Date one 🗓️:
23 June – Health & Social Care, Charities & Community Organisations

Date two 🗓️:
25 June – Managers, HR & Business Leaders

🎟 Enquire by 15 June to secure current pricing.

🌐 www.neurodiversityspark.com/whats-on-at-spark/

Have you completed our Neurodiversity Access & Inclusion Survey yet?We’re still gathering experiences from neurodivergen...
04/06/2026

Have you completed our Neurodiversity Access & Inclusion Survey yet?

We’re still gathering experiences from neurodivergent people and families about what helps, and what makes it harder to attend community events and pop-up activities.

Sometimes it’s not one big barrier.

It’s the small things that add up:
🧠 Sensory environments
📍 Finding your way around
📢 Clear information before the event
🤝 Feeling welcome and included
⏰ Knowing what to expect

Your experiences can help us understand what works and what needs to change.

The survey:
✅ Takes around 10 minutes
✅ Is completely anonymous
✅ Will help create a practical guide for event organisers

This project is being delivered by Neurodiversity SPARK and Diverse Minds Events, with The Institute of Child Education and Psychology - ICEP Europe, supporting as our research partner.

If you’d like to take part, you can complete the survey here:

👇
https://www.neurodiversityspark.com/neurodiversity-accessibility-survey/

Please share with anyone who might be interested. Every response helps build a clearer picture of what truly inclusive community spaces look like.

Yesterday, Neurodiversity Spark was proud to be represented at the “Autism, Menstruation & Mental Health” event hosted b...
29/05/2026

Yesterday, Neurodiversity Spark was proud to be represented at the “Autism, Menstruation & Mental Health” event hosted by Bolster Community.

Our Director of NeuroInclusive Practice, Daria, and our Research and Academic Development Worker, Clare McClure, attended on behalf of Spark. Clare also joined the panel discussion, sharing her knowledge, professional insight, and lived experience on an issue that remains far too overlooked.

Conversations around autism, menstruation, hormones, mental health, and women’s health are often missing from mainstream discussions. Events like this help create the space needed for learning, understanding, and meaningful change.

A huge thank you to Bolster Community for creating and delivering such an important event. Bringing together community members, frontline practitioners, researchers, healthcare professionals, and sector leaders created a powerful opportunity to learn from one another and shine a spotlight on experiences that deserve greater recognition and understanding.

We would also like to thank Bolster Community for inviting Neurodiversity SPARK to be part of the day. We are grateful to contribute to conversations that place lived experience, inclusion, and collaboration at their heart.

Well done to everyone involved in making the event happen, and especially to all those who shared their experiences so openly and honestly.

We had a brilliant time last week delivering our Neuroinclusive Practice in General Practice workshop with Carryduff Sur...
27/05/2026

We had a brilliant time last week delivering our Neuroinclusive Practice in General Practice workshop with Carryduff Surgery 🙌

🩺 Roy and Daria led the session together

📘 The workshop focused on practical tools for communication, access, and inclusive practice in GP settings

💬 We explored Double Empathy, GP pressure points, patient experience, and small realistic changes that can make support clearer and calmer

The feedback was fantastic:
⭐ 4.86/5 average across all scored feedback areas
⭐ 5/5 for good use of time
⭐ 5/5 for recommendation

A few comments we loved:
💭 “Great workshop. Really made us think.”
💭 “It was interesting to have the opportunity to reflect on practise.”
💭 “Interactive approach to the training is good.”
💭 “Shared experience.”

Huge thanks to Carryduff GP Surgery for having us in and for the honesty and engagement in the room 💜

Reminder: Max’s Movie Madness at Spark.......is today 🥳A relaxed, low-pressure movie night designed for connection, comf...
25/05/2026

Reminder: Max’s Movie Madness at Spark.......is today 🥳

A relaxed, low-pressure movie night designed for connection, comfort, and shared interests 🎥🍿

📍 Belfast Hub
💡 Voluntary contribution: £3
🥤 Bring your own drinks and snacks

This is a member-led event inside our private Spark Community on Skool, designed to offer a calmer, more accessible way to connect.

👉 Join the community for full details:
https://www.skool.com/neurodiversity-spark-community-4337/about

This week, we were back at the Queen’s Students’ Union for another workshop, this time delivering the Supporting Neurodi...
21/05/2026

This week, we were back at the Queen’s Students’ Union for another workshop, this time delivering the Supporting Neurodivergent Students workshop for student-facing staff.

💥 We were oversubscribed
📘 We printed 25 booklets
🙌 30 staff came along

This session focused on inclusive best practice, practical communication tools, and how Queen's University Belfast's student-facing teams can make support clearer, calmer, and more accessible for neurodivergent students.

🎓 Cain Barriskill led the educational elements of the session and brought a strong Universal Design for Learning lens, alongside practical inclusion insight rooted in higher education environments

🧠 Gary Gates led the informational side of the session with Spark’s lived-experience-led, practical approach to neuroinclusion

💬 Together, the session explored communication, Double Empathy, student experience mapping, and realistic changes staff can make in day-to-day practice

The feedback was strong:
⭐ 4.59/5 average for “this workshop was a good use of my time”
⭐ 4.56/5 average across all scored feedback areas
⭐ 4.85/5 average for recommending the workshop to others

Some of the feedback that really stayed with us:
💭 “Really appreciated the content being tailored to our organisation and the kind of work we do.”
💭 “Relaxed atmosphere, engaging, informative and impactful to have real life experiences shared.”
💭 “Very valuable to have lived experience form part of the delivery of the session.”
💭 “Excellent workshop from a neurodiverse student perspective.”

We’re really grateful to Queen’s Students’ Union for having us back, and for the openness, engagement, and honesty in the room.

📸 A few photos from the day below.

🎬🍿 MAX’S MOVIE MADNESS IS COMING TO SPARK 🍿🎬Sometimes community doesn’t need to be complicated.Sometimes it’s just comfy...
20/05/2026

🎬🍿 MAX’S MOVIE MADNESS IS COMING TO SPARK 🍿🎬

Sometimes community doesn’t need to be complicated.
Sometimes it’s just comfy seating, good people, snacks, laughter, and a film chosen together.

At Spark, we know that psychologically safe spaces matter. That’s why more and more of our member events, peer support opportunities, resources, research updates, and community activities now live inside our private Skool community platform — a calmer, more safeguarded space built around trust, connection, and choice.

Max’s Movie Madness is one of the newest community-led events landing inside the group 🎥

Inside Skool, members can:
✨ vote on the movie
✨ see event details first
✨ connect with trusted community members
✨ access resources, clubs, discussions & opportunities
✨ engage at their own pace - quietly or socially

We’re building something slower, safer, and more human. 💚

If you’d like to join the Spark community space and see what’s happening behind the scenes, come and explore our Skool community here:

👉 https://www.skool.com/neurodiversity-spark-community-4337/about

Because community should feel supportive - not overwhelming. 💚



Grounded in Spark’s lived-experience-led approach to peer support and accessibility.

Looking for a calm space in Belfast that actually works for how people think?We’ve started opening our Neurodiversity Sp...
16/05/2026

Looking for a calm space in Belfast that actually works for how people think?

We’ve started opening our Neurodiversity Spark space for small group hire.

Most meeting rooms feel either too corporate or too distracting.

Ours was designed differently 🧠

It’s a calm, practical environment that helps people focus, connect, and get through meaningful work without the usual noise.

💡 Ideal for planning sessions, workshops, and team conversations
👥 Works best for small groups (5 to 15 people)
🖥️ Includes screen with HDMI, whiteboard, and flexible setup
🌙 Daytime and evening bookings available

The aim is simple. Make it easy to run a session where the environment supports people, rather than working against them.

If that sounds like what you need, get in touch.

📩 [email protected]
📲 www.neurodiversityspark.com/venue-hire-belfast/

Most workplace training starts in the wrong place.Today we delivered the first stage of a Rapid Insights Workshop, a res...
14/05/2026

Most workplace training starts in the wrong place.

Today we delivered the first stage of a Rapid Insights Workshop, a research-led, mixed-method approach designed to identify real organisational needs before any training begins.

This is a deliberate alternative to standard workshop delivery.

Instead of leading with generic content, we start by gathering structured insight from within the organisation itself. This session focused on understanding how neuroinclusion is currently experienced across teams, where confidence sits at management level, the practical barriers people are navigating, and what meaningful support would look like in a corporate environment.

The aim is simple: replace assumption-led training with evidence-led action.

From this first phase, we now move into a targeted staff survey, followed by a tailored workshop, a co-developed practical toolkit, and a final insights and recommendations report, all built from real organisational data.

💡 Why this matters
Most training is delivered to organisations. This model is built with them, ensuring relevance, accuracy, and real impact.

🔍 What this leads to
Clearer insight, more confident leadership, and targeted interventions that reflect actual workforce needs.

⚡ Why organisations are shifting to this approach
Because one-size-fits-all training no longer works in complex, modern workplaces.

At Spark, we combine lived experience, research methods, and corporate insight to deliver outcomes that are practical, measurable, and organisation-specific.

If you’re rethinking how training should work in your organisation, this is a strong place to start.

If your organisation wants insights to drive your business forward, send us a message to explore how this could work for your team.

www.neurodiversityspark.com

Mental Health Awareness Week 2026 at work isn’t about posters and performative “awareness”, it’s about building safer, p...
14/05/2026

Mental Health Awareness Week 2026 at work isn’t about posters and performative “awareness”, it’s about building safer, practical support systems that stand up to real-world pressures.

In this piece, we unpack what organisations in GB and Northern Ireland can do to strengthen confidence, reduce escalation risk, and support neurodivergent staff earlier, using frameworks that fit how teams actually operate.

You’ll get a grounded approach that treats wellbeing as a safeguarding and culture issue, not a one-week campaign.

www.neurodiversityspark.com/mental-health-awareness-week-2026/

Address

89 University Street
Belfast
BT71HP

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+447923400472

Website

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