​A co-production approach to exploring neurodivergence, climate action and eco-hope

At Nifty we are lucky enough to work with a range of inspiring, passionate, dedicated people who bring diverse views and perspectives and we noticed that many of these people identify as neurodivergent. In fact, we had a hunch that neurodivergent folk might be more likely to work in climate, nature and social justice related areas AND that neurodivergence might heighten the impacts and emotions associated with this work. In this blog we outline how funding from the Co-Production Collective gave us the opportunity to explore this and what we learnt.

Co-production[1] is an approach we are familiar with at Nifty, and we love to work this way. We know that co-production leads to more relevant and appropriate outcomes and offers everyone involved the chance to learn more about each other, as individuals, and as a society. The Co-Production Collective funding supported a team of five of us in Nifty to facilitate the project and we recruited a further five paid individuals who identify as neurodivergent and who work and / or study in climate and nature related areas as our co-production group.

With this group, we coordinated a series of workshops to explore the interactions between neurodivergence, taking climate action and maintaining eco-hope. The first workshop focused on getting to know each other and to discuss how we wanted to work together. We knew the importance of creating a safe space where everyone feels able to contribute their ideas and we also learnt a lot at this stage about the need to provide a structure for these ideas to be framed around. In subsequent workshops, we discussed a range of topics using a variety of formats so that everyone felt comfortable to contribute. For instance, we had whole group discussions and smaller break out rooms, we used an online mural board for individual contributions to chat around, and we held one to one check ins at the halfway point to gather feedback on the approach, what was working and what could be improved.

In the workshops, we made sure to include breaks as a priority and everyone knew they could turn their cameras off at any point. This was all discussed as a group early on when thinking about how to make sure the process was accessible to everyone. Sometimes access needs and preferences conflicted and we worked through these as a group, with compromises made or workarounds implemented.

We knew we wanted to work towards an ‘output’ from the project and we quickly realised that our discussions were covering valuable issues that we wanted to share with a broader audience. So, we decided to organise an online ‘showcase’ to highlight these discussions. The showcase attracted 100+ signups, and we were delighted when Chris Packham joined to talk about his experience of neurodivergence and taking climate action as well. The full recording of the showcase can be found here.

The showcase focused on the key themes we had discussed during the workshops, the first of which was what eco-hope means to us - a future to look forward to, taking positive action and finding joy in small things especially connected to nature.

We then outlined our discussions around the strengths of neurodivergence in the climate space – the enormous sense of justice associated with many neurodivergent folk, the ability to see patterns and linkages, and the dedication and passion we bring to name but a few.

We also explored the challenges of neurodivergence in the climate space – finding it hard to switch off because there is always more to do, finding it hard to prioritise because everything is urgent and the potential for burnout because of this and the big emotions that go along with it.

Throughout all our discussions, the topic of capitalism and how ‘the system’ does not support neurodivergent folk to thrive was central. We talked about being on ‘the edges’ of groups and of society and how fruitful those edges are despite often being challenging places to exist. As we continued, an important theme emerged around how neurodivergent folk could be supported in climate spaces in ways that hear and amplify diverse voices and create space for the kind of unconventional thinking we need in climate debates!

We’re cautiously confident that our initial hunch was correct and that there is an interaction between neurodivergence, taking climate action and maintaining eco-hope, which we learnt a great deal about during the project. We also learnt about creating accessible and safe spaces for individuals and groups to thrive and about the co-production process. We’d like to thank our fabulous co-production group for bringing so much of themselves to the process and making these conversations happen. 

We can’t wait to share this learning more broadly and discover how it applies in different contexts. If you would like to explore co-production, neurodivergence, climate action or eco-hope further, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact us on [email protected].   

[1] Co-production can broadly be understood as an approach to working together in “equal partnership and for equal benefits” (Co-Production Collective, 2021)

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