We co-produce autistic-majority spaces and events; specifically for independent 18-30 year olds without intellectual (learning) disability.
We made Youth Hub because there aren’t many spaces made by autistic young people for autistic young people. We aim to create a community that first makes us feel better about ourselves, and then propels us into independent personhood.
We explore and celebrate autistic culture and ways of being, which are diverse and all equally valid. We foster personal growth and respect individual agency and autonomy.
Everyone is free to decide how they want to participate. You can come in as a member and just enjoy the community, try out volunteering if you want to and later step up into a defined role.
We offer accessible opportunities for work experience—somewhere it’s okay to make mistakes—and we devise, plan and run creative and wellbeing projects.
But other than that, we mostly chat about video-games, animals, and mushrooms.
Our online community
We are a digital-first community—meaning our home is online—and we chose to be because in-person events aren’t always accessible for everyone.
We know many autistic people live with limited energy (or spoons!), and we thought: if someone has just commuted back from a long day at work, college or university, they might not have the energy to meet up in-person that same day, or even later in the week. Some of us are chronically ill too, have mobility issues, and IRL meet-ups will never be truly fair for everyone.
We started Youth Hub on Discord back in 2023. During the week, we have online events running in the evening where we play games (from Jackbox to Minecraft), work together on future projects (like improv nights or creative workshops), or just chill and chat (usually debating what counts as a sauce).
Sometimes people say that our server doesn’t look like a regular Discord server. We have a lobby, we don’t have a vent chat, and—worst of all—the slowest-moving counting channel ever.
We want to be a community where everyone feels safe to be themselves—in all their autistic joy, maybe exploring their queer identity. We have mental health first aiders online, elder autists sharing wisdom, and a steering team to advocate for everyone in the space.
In-person meets
We also know that some of us prefer to hang out in-person. We host regular meet-ups, have a presence at local events like Croydon Pride, and sometimes work with others organisations on collaborative projects.
Every two weeks on Sundays, we meet up at The Story Sanctuary—a Creative Health and Wellbeing hub in South Croydon—which is run by A Collective, the organisation behind Youth Hub.
It’s a decommissioned library building so it’s like a big hall; the party happens upstairs, the loos are downstairs. It’s not yet wheelchair accessible, but we hope to change that soon.
In the winter, we stay warm inside, but the grounds include a large garden area to enjoy in the summertime – and there’s a huge beech tree to give some respite from the sun. In the future, we plan to have a community growing garden and outdoor cinema sessions.
If you want to take part in something more active, there’s a regular array of creative workshops, skills development sessions and tons of volunteering experiences helping to run The Story Sanctuary.
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