ND23 - a pivotal moment for the ND community to come together as experts to drive positive change!

What is the ND23 Project?

The #ND23 Project is designed to unify the global ND community and its allies in developing a global agenda to improve the lives of our community members.

Who is Umbrella Alliance?

Umbrella Alliance is a not-for-profit organisation addressing economic insecurity of neurodivergent (ND) individuals by taking informed, organised, and focused action toward sustainable change in education, employment, and healthcare practices for people in this community.*

Whether you are an ND individual, an ally, an advocate, or an accomplice, our power lies in the strength and influence that comes when we collectively work towards a similar goal.

Our ND Community

Our community is embedded with layers of intersectionality and diversity. We represent nearly 20% of the population, and our neurology joins with the intersections of skin color, citizenship, ethnicity, nationality, gender identity, sexual identity, age, disability, belief systems, socioeconomic status, education, body size, mental health status, language, and any other individual quality that can be used to gain or be denied power and privilege.

Designing a measurable and achievable action plan to identify our individual and community needs will allow us, within each of these intersections, to move away from broken platforms where others speak for and about us. We will point out the biased and narrowly-focused media representation, uninformed policies, and research based on and promoting a deficit-based medical model of neurodiversity which tags us a problem to be solved rather than a community of self-determined, valuable members of society deserving of understanding, acceptance, and support.

The Umbrella Alliance Values

Staying true to the core values of Umbrella Alliance, the #ND23 project is:

Community-led: ensuring that it is not about who shouts the loudest, but rather that all voices have access to be, and indeed are, heard

Partnership-focused: moving away from silos of outreach and toward a collective global movement of action-taking change-makers

Equity & Inclusion: supporting a spectrum of people with a diversity of life experiences

Sustainability & Growth: developing a global agenda for achievable and measurable action that improves the lives of ND community members

The ND23 Plan

Phase 1 is complete. During this initial Roundtable session with over 100 ND participants, 3 themes emerged as a focus for the #ND23 Agenda. These were: Education, Healthcare, and Employment.

2023 will be packed with events focusing on these themes.

Phase 2 will engage cohorts for each theme. Each cohort will work to come to a consensus to identify the change that needs to happen within its assigned theme.

Phase 3 will engage focused cohorts within each theme to collectively devise action plans for change.

Phase 4 will be a public campaign and call to action in 2024.

UA Open Collective

To facilitate this project and its events, we have created the Umbrella Alliance Collective. Within the UA Collective, we created a space for the #ND23 Project.

This space will be used to build funds to support the project as well as to communicate event happenings and progress to participants, sponsors, and donors. We invite you to join us on this journey in whatever way(s) work for you, including:

• Participate in 1 or more cohorts
• Volunteer your expertise (project management, event coordination, fundraising, etc)
• Sponsor events
• Donate funds to support events (technology, staff, marketing, etc)
• Share and promote the event

Phase 2 is starting in April. Use this form to register and specify your interest. We will, then, get in touch with you in the weeks following your submission. This expression of interest is not a promise to participate, it is just letting us know that you are interested in the project and would like more information.

Register Your Interest

We are very excited about what the new year will bring and have you join us as we create a global call, and real action, for change for our community.