Support Black Women & Non-binary folk with ADHD
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Hey Babes!
My name is Vivienne and I am the Founder of ADHD Babes, an international support group for Black Women and Black Non-binary folk with ADHD. For the first time since going public three years ago, we are raising money to cover our core costs and outreach services throughout 2024.
Who are we?
ADHD Babes is a community group for Black Women and Non-Binary people of African & Caribbean descent with ADHD. We create safer spaces for us to flourish and live our lives to their greatest potential.
ADHD Babes is run by us and for us, with all members of our team being from our community. We aim to empower and encourage all members to build peer support networks, share lived experiences and embrace their neurodivergence as a community.
We aim to inspire and empower people with community, tools, learning and healing spaces to redefine and understand ADHD, allowing us to tackle its difficulties and utilise its strengths.
We aim to create an accessible platform and safer spaces for us to connect, learn and break down the barriers that restrict our community from gaining and understanding a diagnosis of ADHD.
We aim to create a society that embraces neurodiversity. We aim to raise awareness and educate people on the truth and reality of how ADHD affects neurodiverse people, and how best to support them.
Why we started
Our group was born out of necessity due to the lack of support and resources in Adult ADHD services, especially when considering the marginalisation of groups and the lack of representation for Black Women and Non-Binary people. Starting as a Facebook group in 2018 with 3 people from London, we have grown to a community of over 170 registered members and over 1000 on our mailing list.
We have put on over 300 events both online and in person since going public 3 years ago and have engaged over 1000 babes in the community worldwide!
The intersectional impact of being a Black woman or Non-binary person with ADHD has unique disadvantages our organisation aims to address through specialist support, tailored workshops and community-centred outreach.
There are 1.5 million adults in the UK with ADHD with just 120,000 adults formally diagnosed. ADHD services in the UK are overwhelmed with most boroughs having an average wait time of 18-24 months.
Research shows that Black women are routinely underdiagnosed and official figures in 2014 showed that we made up the highest percentage of people aged over 16 to screen positive for ADHD. Late diagnosis also increases the prevalence of other comorbid mental health issues, including depression and anxiety disorders.
Why we need your donation!
We believe we deserve support, care and community that is for us and by us. Through our organisation's work, this overlooked and marginalised group will continue to have safer space to improve our wellbeing, self-understanding and life prospects.
We have planned a year of outreach services, 1-1 support and community building sessions based on the feedback from the babes and we need your support to do it!
Studies have shown people with ADHD have poorer life prospects in comparison to neurotypical folks including being at risk of addiction, incarceration, dying by road accident, higher risk of divorce, common mental health conditions such as depression/anxiety and likelihood to die by suicide. A recent study also found if ADHD is severe, it can see a woman’s life expectancy reduced by up to 12.7 years, mainly due to ‘unnatural causes’.
We want this to change and we believe we are deserving of a chance to a successful life based on our values and personal goals, outside of societal standards.
ADHD Babes is a movement towards creating a society inclusive of difference, neurodivergence and gender. We practise the Ubuntu philosophy where we value going far together over going fast alone. All our sessions, events and workshops are solely based on the needs expressed by the community and run by specialists or those of lived experience.
Your donation will allow us to provide bespoke care and specialised support for Black Women and Non-binary folk internationally to improve the quality of life for our community, on our terms. Beyond that, it will allow us to create spaces for Black joy and community which we believe is the starting point for sustainable change and saving lives!
Organizer
ADHD Babes
Organizer
England