Bolton, Lancashire
Neurodivergent LGBTQ+ voices and participation
We Are Explorers CIC
weareexplorers.org
Supporting neurodivergent LGBTQ+ people to connect, be heard and shape change.
Designing participation around lived experience
We Are Explorers works with neurodivergent LGBTQ+ young people and adults, creating spaces where people feel safe, understood and able to participate on their own terms.
People at the intersection of neurodivergence and LGBTQ+ identity often face multiple barriers to participation, alongside a lack of spaces where their experiences and perspectives are centred.
Working with Humanity Project, We Are Explorers is exploring how assemblies can be adapted and reimagined to be genuinely accessible, neurodivergent-affirming and led by lived experience. In doing so, the organisation is helping to expand who gets to participate in democracy and how participation happens.
Assembly culture in Bolton
Reimagining participation, accessibility and belonging
We Are Explorers works with neurodivergent LGBTQ+ people of all ages, including young people, adults and families who often find themselves excluded from mainstream services, consultation processes and decision-making spaces.
The organisation was founded on a simple belief: people participate best when they feel safe, understood and able to contribute in ways that work for them. Through training, facilitation and peer support, We Are Explorers creates environments where lived experience is recognised as a source of insight, expertise and leadership.
People’s Assemblies are being explored as a way to extend this work into collective dialogue and democratic participation. Rather than expecting people to adapt to traditional models of engagement, We Are Explorers is exploring how assembly methods can be designed around accessibility, consent, pacing and different ways of communicating and processing information.
This work is still in an early phase. Through listening, trust-building and pilot conversations, participants and facilitators are testing approaches that support meaningful participation for neurodivergent LGBTQ+ communities while remaining rooted in the core principles of assembly culture.
At its heart, this work is about more than inclusion. It is about reimagining participation itself. By placing lived experience at the centre of the process, We Are Explorers is helping to explore what democracy can look like when more people are able to participate fully, confidently and on their own terms.
