A Place to Belong: Providing a Safe Community Hub

Aim

Help create a wellbeing-led creative Hub where our neurodiverse community can feel less lonely, build confidence, belong and thrive.

A Place to Belong

We are raising money to help create a safe, welcoming CANDI Café & Wellbeing Hub in Bromley — a wellbeing-led, creative space for our neurodiverse community.

The Hub will be designed around autistic and neurodivergent people, while also welcoming those who may feel anxious, isolated, overwhelmed or excluded, with or without a diagnosis. Many people struggle to access mainstream spaces because of anxiety, sensory overwhelm, communication differences, social difficulties, learning differences, or feeling that they have to mask who they are.

We want to create a place where people can feel accepted, build confidence, reduce loneliness, develop companionship and reach their potential at their own pace.

Within the wider Hub, CANDI will continue to develop dedicated autism-informed support, activities and opportunities. This means autistic and neurodivergent people will remain at the heart of the project, while the wider welcome allows people who are undiagnosed, waiting for assessment, anxious or unsure where they fit to feel able to access support without pressure or judgement.

Our community already comes together through creative, welcoming activities. Now we need a more secure and suitable space to grow this safely.

Why this matters

Through our work and lived experience with neurodivergent people, families, and young people experiencing EBSA — Emotionally Based School Avoidance — we have seen how quickly anxiety can lead to isolation. We have also seen how powerful it can be when people are offered a gentle, accepting space where they are not judged, rushed, or expected to fit into a system that does not work for them.

The formal proposal also frames this as a wellbeing-led, community-based space focused on social connection, creative engagement and consistent, low-pressure support. 

What we want to create

Our staff and core team are neurodivergent and/or have lived experience of anxiety, caring, parenting, education challenges and feeling different in mainstream spaces. This means the hub will be shaped by empathy, understanding and respect, not judgement.

The money we raise will help us secure and set up the space properly. Funds will go towards rent and essential premises costs, furniture, calm and sensory-friendly resources, café and hospitality equipment, creative and enterprise materials, volunteer checks and training, safeguarding resources, accessible signage, and subsidised activities for people who may not otherwise be able to attend.

This image shows the kind of calm, welcoming, sensory-aware café and wellbeing space we are working towards.

Our vision is to create a calm, creative and inclusive Hub where people can come in at their own pace, build confidence, connect with others, take part in creative activities, learn café and enterprise skills, volunteer when ready, or simply feel safe enough to be themselves.

This will not be just a café. It will be a place where people can belong, feel less lonely, build confidence, access autism-informed support, develop skills, and become part of a supportive community.

We want the Hub to be somewhere people can unmask, stim, communicate differently, take breaks, join in gently, or simply be present without pressure. Friendship and connection cannot be forced, but the right environment can make companionship, confidence and belonging much more possible.

What your support will help create

Help us make this real

We already know this kind of space is needed. We see it in the people who come to our groups, in families looking for somewhere understanding, and in those who want connection but find mainstream spaces too overwhelming.

Your support will help us take the next step: creating a welcoming, wellbeing-led Hub where neurodiverse people and those who feel anxious, isolated or excluded can build confidence, reduce loneliness, develop skills and feel they belong.

This will be a community wellbeing and inclusion space. It is not a crisis service, clinical mental health service or addiction service. To keep the space safe and supportive for everyone, we will have clear safeguarding procedures, behaviour expectations and staff/volunteer support in place.

Whether you can donate £5, £10, £25 or more, every contribution will help. If you cannot donate, sharing this page could make a huge difference.

Please help us create a place to belong.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 20th August 2026 at 5:01pm