Complex Strengths

Aim

Celebrate and honour neurodivergence through education, to improve life experience and outcomes for neurodivergent individuals and families.

Hi! My name is Julia, I am a neurodivergent (ADHD+) mum of two neurodivergent/not-so-typical sons. I am an artist, and children's entertainer, and also a neurodiversity mentor, educator and trainer at Complex Strengths and founder of The Painted Umbrella. I have about 30 years experience specialising in ‘behaviours that challenge’ both professionally and personally.

Many people coming to this crowdfunder will already know me through The Painted Umbrella project, the months and hours of work that I and many others have invested, and how our funding campaign finally launched just as Coronavirus hit us.
It has not been our 'moment' and the funds raised were simply not enough to launch the project at this time, but I am not giving up that easily!

If you were previously a backer of TPU please know that if are happy to support Complex Strengths your support here will also enable me to continue working on TPU, continue engaging external partners, and continue to develop training and resources as I grow my own business's library of courses and resources.

Complex Strengths is my personal business. It was launching as The Painted Umbrella was born, which then took up so much of my time.
As well as refocusing my efforts now to growing Complex Strengths and supporting and mentoring families at this time, Complex Strengths will take The Painted Umbrella project back under it's wing:

• As a Sole Trader Social Enterprise, Complex Strengths is perfectly aligned to the same outcomes as TPU and happy to heavily invest both time and profits into the project.
• As a Social Enterprise 50% of Complex Strengths profits will be invested into our aligned aims: Celebrate and honour neurodivergence through education, to improve life experience and outcomes for neurodivergent individuals and families.

The work of Complex Strengths:

* Design, publication and broadcast of neurodiversity focused educational and support resources.

* Mentoring help for parents to look for and understand their children's complex strengths so that they can get back to loving the adventure of parenting by empowering the whole family.

* Affordable training and resources for teachers managing classes with diverse students. Deepening understanding of the ways neurodivergent minds benefit from different motivational tactics to neurotypical minds, so that they can achieve the best from and for their students by providing an inclusive environment.

* Workshops, engaging activities, mentoring and resources for neurodivergent children, their peer groups and schools that provide a helpful insight into neurological differences, strengths and behaviours and boost neurodivergent esteem.

* Mentoring and coach approach support for neurodivergent individuals to help them explore and embrace their neurology, and step into their own power by learning how their physiology works best and playing to their own strengths.

* Consultation, resources and training for businesses/managers to effectively support neuro-not-so-typical and neurodivergent staff. To develop clear understanding of neurodivergence and inclusive practice so that they can make effective reasonable adjustments.

Rewards for pledges

At this very tricky financial time, as a fledgling business founded only in November 2019, I greatly appreciate your support.

As the designer, donator, and producer of the TPU campaign rewards I am able to honour TPU pledges by offering the same resources and services here directly for those happy to support getting Complex Strengths off the ground.

This will help me continue the work to promote and celebrate neurodiversity and make it possible to continue the conversation and awareness raising, ensuring I, and TPU, have resources available to share with schools once they re-open.
*Examples of large poster educational resources.

Educational resource rewards, limited edition mugs, T-shirts and art prints can be found in our Complex Strengths facebook album here
Sorry but ALL physical rewards are UK delivery only.

Images of these rewards, including educational resources, limited edition mugs, T-shirts and art prints can be found in our Complex Strengths facebook album here
Again, ALL physical rewards are UK delivery only.

Information for those wishing to understand more about the importance of the work we are doing:

Neurodiversity is a new term for many people, so:

Neurodiversity:
noun:
the range of differences in individual brain function, neurology, and behavioural traits, regarded as part of essential variation in the human population.

The Neurodiversity Paradigm affirms that all neurological differences/divergence such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, are a healthy and valuable contribution to human cultural and biological diversity.

A bit about the SEN struggles we are currently facing in the UK: Our free downloadable SEN Jargon Buster can be found here

Currently in the UK, it is very clear that our neurodivergent children and young people, their families, their teachers, SENCOs and schools are fighting an incredibly hard battle and they’ve a long way to go before it gets easy.  

A lot of these struggles pivot around behavioural ‘challenges’, as well as effective learning support and making reasonable adjustments.

No words on this page, or in the reports below, can convey the daily stress and heart-break experienced by SEN families. Or the frustration and disquieting sense of horror and hopelessness that teachers and SENCOs feel while trying to do their best in the classroom as a school placement breaks down.

The struggles faced by our SEN provision are strongly due to lack of much needed funding but also, and more simple to fix, very much due to missing knowledge about how neurodivergent, and anxious brains work.

We all understand that children need boundaries and clear guidance to feel safe enough to settle down and learn. However, a lot of our common sense assumptions about how to make a child emotionally safe are mistaken.
Doubly so for neurodivergent children. A lot of the research on neurodivergent brains and anxiety is relatively new; within the last 20 years.

New information takes a long time to filter in to mainstream. Often their are decades between researched insights and regular implementation, but childhoods, families and futures are being affected now.

Powerful, important potential for all our futures is going to waste, or worse being crushed, in a system desperately trying but failing to keep up with the research.

Cultural shifts in perspective are hard to achieve. Political, educational, societal, family and personal motivation is required.

We now have the medical evidence of neurological differences.

We have come to understand that the differences between neurodivergent minds and neurotypical minds often create a misinterpretation of motives during communication.
This is due to the different brains types holding very different, equally valid, processing systems.

Complex Strengths and TPU promote:

• Understanding and celebration of the strengths of children, neurodivergent brain types, families and teachers; including any challenges that come up!
  
  
• Sharing compassionate, accurate information that helps all children and young people feel good about themselves and have a sense of their own power, values, and unquestionable worth. Especially our neurodivergent young ones <3

Historically neurodivergent individuals not fitting so easily into neurotypical systems and lifestyles have simply been labelled as having been raised poorly, or being lazy/naughty/disordered/deficient. Added to that, traditional behaviour management strategies frequently worsen the situation when applied to neurodivergent individuals as their neurological responses differ resulting in physiological stress.

Long term outcomes for someone neurodivergent are also unfairly worse, including impacts on earnings, relationships, health, mental health, higher risk of imprisonment, and shorter life expectancy.

This issue isn't just about a 'happy childhood' . Undiagnosed and poorly supported ADHD results in a reduced life span by an estimated 15 years and has a risk of premature death 1.5 to 8 times greater than neurotypical individuals.

A lot of these negative outcomes begin during school and the breakdown of a child's educational life.

This February 2020 debate in The House of Commons:

https://www.facebook.com/UKHouseofCommons/videos/199681527920830

  revealed that, of our alarmingly rapidly increasing school exclusion rates, 50% of children being excluded have SENeeds, while the percentage of our Young People WITH SENeeds is officially around 14.5% which in itself reveals our SEN children are discriminated against within our current educational paradigm and system.

Vulnerable, disabled children are being restrained and secluded in schools

And this January 2019 report shares family carers’ shocking accounts of their children’s experiences of restrictive intervention:
https://www.challengingbehaviour.org.uk/cbf-articles/restraintseclusionnews.html

I have dedicated my life to researching, bringing and creating tools and resources to meet these challenges. Especially for our neurodivergent children, but for everyone.

I will be happy when we are all part of a Neurodiversity Informed and Positive community.

To get to the stage that every neurodivergent individual, SEN family, struggling teachers and SENCOs, know they are supported by everyone around them.

Hopefully through this campaign

A way can be found to continue to support TPU, Complex Strengths, and my work at this tricky financial time.

 Many thanks for the opportunity and for reading through
Julia:)

This project successfully funded on 1st May 2020