This page shows what Stimpunks is working on right now — not polished outcomes or perfect plans, but the real, messy process of building tools, care, and ideas that make life more livable.
We track work that aligns with our values: lived experience leads, access is a right, and care is infrastructure. This space is meant to be transparent about what we’re focusing on, where energy is going, and how progress is actually happening — not as a performance metric, but as an honest reflection of labor, choices, and ongoing commitment.
You’ll find current priorities, experiments in progress, and the small steps that matter most to everyday survival, learning, and connection. We update this often because what matters changes with needs — and we expect that change.
The Now page isn’t a scoreboard; it’s a living snapshot of ongoing work, capacity, and real impact. Think of it as what we’re doing, why it matters, and how far along we are — honest, transparent, and humane.
Most websites have a link that says “about”. It goes to a page that tells you something about the background of this person or business. For short, people just call it an “about page”.
Most websites have a link that says “contact”. It goes to a page that tells you how to contact this person or business. For short, people just call it a “contact page”.
So a website with a link that says “now” goes to a page that tells you what this person is focused on at this point in their life. For short, we call it a “now page”.
What We’re Doing Now
This is where we are. Not where we’re headed in theory — where we’re actually putting time, energy, and care right now. It changes because we change, because needs change, because the world keeps moving. What you see here is real.
- Weekly Reflection for Week 34 2026
I spent the week working on Star Stuff with Helen and hanging in Discord with community. It was a nice rhythm. - Stimpunks.org Changelog for Week 34 2026: From the Gate to the Criterion, From the Arrival to the Origin
This week ★ stuff added nine zines and five field guides, and the most interesting thing that happened to it was a change of authorship. Three weeks ago its pieces were written after Helen Edgar. Last Tuesday one was built with her. Yesterday one arrived from her, as a draft, and shipping it took six corrections and a restructure. Meanwhile our own machinery kept reporting good health while broken — a guard that refused the right call, a coverage figure of 93% on a page whose entire argument was unindexed, a front page that lost 87% of its search records without a single error — and the things that actually caught faults were people reading and rules written down. On this site: a sixth broadside that commissioned its own glossary entry, a twentieth entry on the AI alignments page, fifty-three dead citations repaired without burying anyone’s living work, and a new Discord room for the credit that never gets given. A name in astronomy is an arrival record, never an origin record. So is a diagnosis, and so is a citation. - Weekly Reflection for Week 33 2026Helen and I had a great time working on Star Stuff this week. It rewards exploration. I could spend a pleasant afternoon strolling it pages. That’s what I did on Sunday, enjoying what we made. Star Stuff — science and wonder and the beautiful diversity of being. We are all star stuff. This is Ryan’s… Read more: Weekly Reflection for Week 33 2026
- Stimpunks.org Changelog for Week 33 2026: From the Gate to the Looking, From the Claim to the CreditThis week ★ stuff stopped being a pile of zines and became a library. Twenty-three numbered zines, five field guides, seven printable sheets, thirteen collections, and six automated checking gates — built, in most cases, on the same day somebody thought of them. The broadside form came home from that site to this one as a new Broadsides library. And we rewrote our own Impact page and every financial page behind it, because our published numbers had been wrong for months. We had been marking ourselves down by more than twenty points using a framework built for organizations that hold galas and buy advertising. Along the way we built the machines that check our work, found the exact edge where they stop being able to help, and paid three citation debts we had been carrying without noticing. A checker can tell you the label is legible. It cannot tell you the animal is pointed the wrong way.
- Weekly Reflection for Week 32 2026This is Ryan’s weekly reflection log for week 32. It’s a companion to the week 32 changelog. This was an exceptionally busy week. The pace was intense but satisfying. I enjoyed being in flow state — head down in zone work. Next week, though, I hope to take it much easier and enjoy the fruits… Read more: Weekly Reflection for Week 32 2026
- Stimpunks.org Changelog for Week 32 2026: From the Pile to the Garden, From the Claim to the CountThis week we built the thing that remembers for us. The Stimpunks Knowledge System went from nothing to a working system in seven days — a shared, self-maintaining home for our research library and our organizational knowledge, mirrored to two places the whole team can reach. Then we documented it in the IT Field Guide, argued it as curriculum, and gave it away as a template anyone can take. Along the way it learned to index ideas instead of filenames, told us which books we had been arguing from without owning, and caught us being wrong in public more times than we would like. Bus factor 1 is a design failure, and the mechanism is almost never a bus.
- Stimpunks Monthly Newsletter — July 2026
From the tangle to the map. From the door to the whole building. From the warning to the welcome. June was the month the method got a name and found its ancestors. July was the month we made the work walkable. - Stimpunks.org Changelog for Week 31 2026: From the Map to the Directory, From the Warning to the WelcomeThis week we made the building easy to walk. We published a full Site Directory — every section, every page, nothing hidden behind a menu you have to guess at. We broke the House Style Guide out of its accordions so every guide has an address you can link and cite. We gave readers a single reading-preferences panel and eight fonts, so you choose how the words meet your eyes. We traded legal jargon for a Terms of Use that welcomes reuse instead of forbidding it. And we gave the Reframer’s Journey a front door. Default to open, all the way down to linkable.
- Stimpunks.org Changelog for Week 30 2026: From the Weather to the Compass, From the Light to the DarkThis week we read the weather out loud. We published a PESTEL and SWOT of the whole organization — strengths to be useful, weaknesses to be trusted — and set it beside our finances and governance, where anyone can check it. We gathered the nine documents we steer by into one place, so you can see the compass and not just the course. And we gave the site itself a second skin: dark mode, a Solarized palette that holds in light and dark alike, and a home page that finally moves. Read the weather; name what you steer by; choose your own light.
- Stimpunks.org Changelog for Week 29 2026: From the Word to the Card, From the Bone to the StarTwo front doors opened this week, and neither one asks you to say it out loud. Cavendish Cards lets a child point instead of explain. ★ stuff says you were made of stars long before anyone asked you to earn your place. We also gave a common dread a working name, and found an Autistic researcher reaching our refusal from the top of a ladder we usually climb from the bottom.
- Stimpunks.org Changelog for Week 28 2026: From Working to Resting, From the Quiet and the Dark to the OttersA rest week. We let the weekly events carry it and took the recovery in the gaps. Our friends at the Lilypad Library launched their Kickstarter. Helen wrote about otters. Fungi work in the quiet and the dark, and this week, so did we.
- Stimpunks.org Changelog for Week 27 2026: From the Tangle to the Map, From the Machine to the RootThe AI pages got a map this week — a front door, a split, and three new crosswalks. Underneath them, a root: Dinah Murray, whose monotropism-and-computing work is the bloodline of everything we say about machines. And a crosswalk handed us a name we’d been missing — relational opacity, the right not to be fully decoded.
- Stimpunks Monthly Newsletter — June 2026June, in a sentence: we named the method, measured the world by it, refused to consent to the system, and traced our lineage back to the people who taught us how.
- Stimpunks.org Changelog for Week 26 2026: From Convergence to Lineage, From the Bloodline to Brighter DaysThe crosswalks grew a home this week, and the new ones trace bloodlines instead of resemblances — a folk school and the freedom schools it raised. The home page named who we are before what we do. And a foundation reached out with brighter days in its name.
- Stimpunks.org Changelog for Week 25 2026: From the Clinic to the Machine, From the Watch List to the ActionFrom a model of distress to the architecture of a machine, Week 25 gave the method a name — ARLES — and read three bodies of research against it, finding the same shape each time. And the watch list became an action.
- Stimpunks.org Changelog for Week 24 2026: From the Threshold to the Frontline, From Converging Toward to Refusing to ConsentFrom research that arrives near the door and stops at the threshold of systemic action to an editorial that crosses it, Week 24 worked the line between the environmental layer and the systemic one — and named who keeps getting priced out of the room.
- Stimpunks.org Changelog for Week 23 2026: From the Work to the Way In, From Coded Out to Built ForFrom three pages that had everything but an opening to three sources that named the door code slams shut, Week 23 worked the same threshold from both sides — it built the doors we hold open and named the ones coded shut.
- Stimpunks Monthly Newsletter — May 2026: From framework to fabric. From survival to belonging. From the maps we drew to the paths you wear.May was a month with two motions running at once. We built architecture — a series hub, a /space/ design system, an evidence base citable enough to hand to a funder. And then we learned the harder lesson the architecture exists to serve: the test of a map is not how well it’s drawn. It’s whether anyone walks it. So we stopped guessing the route and read the path already worn.
- Stimpunks.org Changelog for Week 22 2026: From the Maps We Drew to the Paths You Wear, From Prescription to Desire LinesFrom a navigation overhaul rebuilt on thirty days of traffic data to Cavendish Space mapped against desire lines and lines of flight, Week 22 did the same thing in two registers — it watched where people actually go, then built for them.
- Stimpunks.org Changelog for Week 21 2026: From Pockets to Pebbles, From Survival Infrastructure to Belonging InfrastructureFrom everyday carry to card games, from glossary philosophy to content pages getting what they were owed, Week 21 built survival infrastructure and connection infrastructure at the same time — because for neurodivergent and disabled people, they are the same project.
Visit the full changelog.
Ongoing
This is the work that doesn’t have a finish line. Some of it is community care, some is infrastructure, some is knowledge-building. All of it is real.
- Building the Stimpunks Pattern Library — a named, growing vocabulary for how neurodivergent attention, energy, and experience work.
- Translating patterns into actionable Design Recipes for classrooms, workplaces, homes, and care spaces.
- Developing From Checklists to Patterns as a core design resource — reframing access as infrastructure, not aftercare.
- Expanding the Stimpunks Design Method with the ARLES ladder: Attention → Relational → Lived Experience → Environments → Systems.
- Building out the AI ethics cluster — an overview hub at AI, a dedicated AI Alignments hub, and the still-growing AI Collaboration guide with its guardrails, MADTech framing, harm reduction, and testimony distinctions.
- Producing crosswalk pages that map external frameworks — academic papers and allied-org work — to ours, using “converges toward / stops short of” for convergence and “lineage, not external critique” for direct intellectual descent.
- Opening two front doors that don’t ask you to say it out loud: ★ stuff (zines and field guides) and Cavendish Cards (point instead of explain) — now working to wire both into site navigation and the footer, with a /zines/ landing page in development.
- Restructuring and building out Cavendish Space — page reorganized, training presentation in development, and paired with the new Cavendish Cards tool.
- Keeping the Strategic Environment analysis — a public PESTEL and SWOT of the whole organization — current alongside our finances and governance in the Accountability hub.
- Maintaining the Framing Documents index — the documents we steer by, gathered in one place so you can see the compass and not just the course.
- Giving the site a second skin — dark mode and a Solarized palette that holds in light and dark alike.
- Collaborating with Human Restoration Project on the DIF Collaborative Grant — centered on neurodivergent design and the ARLES method.
- Fiscally sponsoring the Lilypad Library and cheering on their Kickstarter.
- Working on providing mobile hotspots for volunteers.
- Reading grant submissions in preparation for the next round of mutual aid and creator grants.
- Helping people navigate healthcare and housing.
- Hosting weekly “Solidarity Sessions” in our Discord community.
- Hosting weekly “Campfire Learn Together” sessions in our Discord community — recent sessions include short films on fungi and mycelial networks.
- Hosting weekly “Infodumplings” sessions in our Discord community.
- Adding to our always growing glossary — recent entries include Intensive Interaction, Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, and more.
- Consistently updating our Coping Page with new resources for food assistance, coping tools (such as the A.C.T. Tool), and more listings in our service directory.
- We’re trying to cover all 20 “BBB Standards for Charity Accountability” and hopefully get accredited. It’s a lot of work.
- Check out our Web Store for some awesome Stimpunks swag!
- Publishing our monthly newsletter — what we built, what we learned, what’s next. Subscribe to stay connected.
Last updated: July 28, 2026
What We’re Not Doing Right Now
Naming limits as choices, not failures.
- Not accepting new consulting engagements.
- Not running in-person events.
- Not pursuing rapid growth.
Objectives and Key Results
OKRs are how we make intentions legible — to ourselves and to the people who trust us with their attention and support. They’re not a performance. They’re a commitment to honesty about what we’re trying to do, how we’re measuring it, and whether it’s working. We miss some. We change course. We report back either way.
July – September 2026
A note on Q2: Q2’s OKRs pointed at the Pattern Library, Cavendish Space transmissibility, and printable recipes. We did that work — and the center of gravity moved. What actually carried the quarter, and rolled straight into Q3, was the crosswalk program, the AI ethics and alignments architecture, two new front-door microsites, and a public account of the whole organization. The Q3 OKRs below are drawn from what we’ve already been doing in Weeks 27–30 — not from what we planned in April. We name the real shape of the work and commit to the next stretch of it.
Objective 1 — Mature the AI Ethics and Alignments Architecture
Why this matters: The crosswalk is how we stay honest about where we stand in relation to everyone else doing this work. Convergence names who is arriving at our position from another direction. Lineage names who taught us to stand here in the first place. In Week 27 the AI pages got a map — a front door at /ai/, a split into a dedicated alignments hub at /ethics/ai-alignments/, three new crosswalks, and a root beneath them all in Dinah Murray’s monotropism-and-computing work. A crosswalk even handed us a name we’d been missing — relational opacity, the right not to be fully decoded. Q3 is about deepening that architecture without losing the thread that runs through it.
Key Results
- Publish 6+ crosswalk pages across the quarter — clearly marking each as convergence (“converges toward / stops short of”) or lineage (“lineage, not external critique”)
- Consolidate the /ai/ overview hub and the /ethics/ai-alignments/ alignments hub so the front door and the split hold as new crosswalks land
- Name and publish 2+ new concepts surfaced by the crosswalk work (following relational opacity), each with a home in the glossary or the alignments hub
- Keep the glossary human-authored — the legibility test holds; the glossary stays a soul-preserver, not a machine-screened one
Objective 2 — Open More Front Doors
Why this matters: Not everyone can say it out loud. In Week 29 two front doors opened, and neither one asks you to. Cavendish Cards (cavendish.app) lets a child point instead of explain. ★ stuff (starstuff.earth) says you were made of stars long before anyone asked you to earn your place. The tools exist. Q3 is about making sure people can find them — wiring them into the site, giving the zines a home, and putting the callouts where the people who need them already are.
Key Results
- Integrate starstuff.earth and cavendish.app into site navigation and the footer, so the microsites are reachable from the main site and not just by direct link
- Publish a /zines/ landing page that gathers the ★ stuff zines and field guides into one place on the main site
- Place cavendish.app callouts on 2+ pages where they belong — starting with Cavendish Space and the ARLES material
- Publish 3+ new zines or field guides on starstuff.earth, continuing the “no correct configuration of a human being” thread
Objective 3 — Show the Whole Organization in Public
Why this matters: In Week 30 we read the weather out loud. We published a PESTEL and SWOT of the whole organization and set it beside our finances and governance, where anyone can check it — strengths to be useful, weaknesses to be trusted. We gathered the nine documents we steer by into one place at /framing/, so you can see the compass and not just the course. And we gave the site a second skin — dark mode, a Solarized palette that holds in light and dark alike. Defaulting to open means you don’t just see the finished product; you see the hands that built it. Q3 is about holding that openness steady.
Key Results
- Keep the Strategic Environment analysis, finances, and governance current and public in the Accountability hub as conditions change
- Keep the Framing Documents index current as the compass we steer by, adding or revising documents as the work names new ones
- Complete at least 1 concrete step toward Candid Gold transparency and toward BBB Standards for Charity Accountability accreditation
- Extend the site’s accessibility work beyond dark mode and Solarized — verify the palette and contrast hold across the pages built or rebuilt this quarter
Objective 4 — Sustain the Public Knowledge Cadence
Why this matters: Consistency is how trust is built. Weekly changelogs and monthly newsletters are the backbone of working in public — they document labor, honor transparency, and keep the community connected to the work. And rest is part of that cadence, not a break from it: Week 28 was a rest week, and we let the weekly events carry it. Fungi work in the quiet and the dark, and sometimes so do we. Q3 is about holding the rhythm — including the rests.
Key Results
- Publish weekly changelogs for all 13 weeks of Q3 (Weeks 27–39)
- Publish monthly newsletters in July, August, and September, each built from that month’s changelogs
- Add 8+ new human-authored glossary entries, continuing the vocabulary of neurodivergent and Autistic life
- Honor rest weeks as legitimate cadence, not failure — a light week that keeps us present for what matters counts as the work working
Objective 5 — Build Toward Financial Sustainability and Mutual Aid
Why this matters: Sustainable funding protects the work, honors labor, and makes mutual aid possible. We don’t over-promise on fundraising — but we build the infrastructure and make intentional progress. And we hold the door open for allies: our friends at the Lilypad Library launched their Kickstarter this quarter, and we’re proud to stand beside them.
Key Results
- Distribute mutual aid grants at the 1-every-other-month cadence, keeping the aid grant pipeline moving through the quarter
- Submit or advance 2+ grant applications to community-aligned funders — including the DIF Collaborative Grant with Human Restoration Project, the Disability Frontlines Fund application, and the ASAN mini-grant
- Continue supporting Lilypad Library as fiscal sponsor, including their Kickstarter push
- Keep the 2026 Fundraising Goal Stack current as a public, living document with concrete milestones
Implementation Notes
- OKRs are directional beacons — not scorecards. The goal is honest, care-grounded work, not perfect metric completion.
- Qualitative evidence matters alongside numbers. If something helped someone, that counts.
- Rest is part of the work. Light weeks are not failures. They are how we stay present for what matters.
- These OKRs reflect what we’re actually doing — not what sounds impressive.
Alignment With Past OKRs
Q2 named the Pattern Library and Cavendish Space as its center. The real center turned out to be the crosswalk program, the AI alignments architecture, the two new microsites, and a public account of the whole organization. Rather than treat that as drift, we treat it as data: it told us where the work actually wanted to go. Q3 OKRs are recalibrated to match it — deepening the crosswalks and alignments, wiring the front doors into the site, holding the org open to inspection, keeping the public cadence, and building slow-and-steady toward sustainability.
The through line across all quarters: access as infrastructure, not aftercare.
April – June 2026
A note on Q1: Q1’s OKRs were overly optimistic. What we actually built was different — and better suited to who we are and how we work. Q1 was a foundational quarter: we built the Neurodivergent Design System, launched the Pattern Library, shipped the hub architecture, and earned Candid Silver. None of that was on the Q1 OKR list. The Q2 OKRs below are drawn from what we’ve actually been doing and what we’ve already committed to doing next.
Objective 1 — Deepen the Pattern Language
Why this matters: The Pattern Library is the core vocabulary of the Stimpunks design method. A richer, more connected language enables more people to recognize themselves — and to build environments that work for neurodivergent people. Recognition leads to design, and design leads to livable worlds.
Key Results
- Expand the Pattern Library from 18 to 30+ named patterns (including Environmental Weathering, Bodymind Break, and Bodymind Affirmation)
- Publish 3+ Pattern Clusters connecting related patterns into ecological groups
- Connect the Pattern Library to 5+ real-world environment pages or case studies, so patterns lead to action — not just description
Objective 2 — Build Cavendish Space as a Usable Model
Why this matters: Cavendish Space makes the pattern language concrete. It’s a model for regulation-first, attention-aware learning environments that can be understood and applied by teachers, administrators, and designers. The work is already underway — Q2 is about making it transmissible.
Key Results
- Publish 5+ Cavendish Space Design Patterns connecting the model to the broader Pattern Library
- Publish 1 Cavendish Space case study or workshop reflection grounding the model in real practice
- Connect all Cavendish Space pages to relevant Pattern Library entries and Design Recipes
Objective 3 — Ship Practical, Usable Tools
Why this matters: A pattern language only helps if people can use it. Printable recipes, classroom tools, and navigation aids reduce the distance between Stimpunks’ ideas and practice in real environments. Access as design, not aftercare.
Key Results
- Publish 5+ printable or classroom-ready Pattern Recipes (building on the 8 already published)
- Add 3+ new resources to the Regulation & Coping Hub — practical, not decorative
- Expand Browse by Need to cover at least 5 additional need-based entry points, making it a genuine primary navigation option for new visitors
Objective 4 — Sustain the Public Knowledge Infrastructure
Why this matters: Consistency is how trust is built. Weekly changelogs and monthly newsletters are the backbone of Stimpunks’ commitment to working in public. They document labor, honor transparency, and keep the community connected to the work. We maintained this cadence through Q1 — Q2 is about holding it.
Key Results
- Publish weekly changelogs for all 13 weeks of Q2 (Weeks 14–26)
- Publish monthly newsletters in April, May, and June
- Complete at least 1 step toward Candid Gold transparency certification (building from Silver)
Objective 5 — Build Toward Financial Sustainability
Why this matters: Sustainable funding protects the work, honors labor, and makes mutual aid possible. We don’t over-promise on fundraising — but we can build the infrastructure and make intentional progress.
Key Results
- Distribute 1 mutual aid grant to a community member (at the rate of 1 every other month)
- Submit 2 grant applications to community-aligned funders
- Publish the 2026 Fundraising Goal Stack as a public, living document with concrete milestones
Implementation Notes
- OKRs are directional beacons — not scorecards. The goal is honest, care-grounded work, not perfect metric completion.
- Qualitative evidence matters alongside numbers. If something helped someone, that counts.
- Rest is part of the work. Light weeks are not failures. They are how we stay present for what matters.
- These OKRs reflect what we’re actually doing — not what sounds impressive.
Alignment With Past OKRs
Q1 2026 named ambitious targets that we didn’t meet — not because we didn’t work, but because the work we actually did was different in shape. We built knowledge architecture, not events. We built design infrastructure, not zines. Q2 OKRs are recalibrated to match our real cadence and capacity: deep knowledge work, consistent public documentation, Cavendish Space development, and slow-and-steady financial sustainability.
The through line across all quarters: access as infrastructure, not aftercare.
Objective 1 — Expand Care & Support Infrastructure
Why this matters: Direct support and care systems are core to mission and reduce harm in real lives.
Key Results
- Distribute at least 5 care grants (e.g., aid, tech access, services) to community members
- Launch 2 new coping tools or resources on Coping and Field Guide pages
Objective 2 — Grow and Deepen Learning Pathways
Why this matters: Education grounded in lived experience reframes systems and supports community capacity building.
Key Results
- Finalize and publish 1 new learning module (e.g., Neuroqueer Learning Spaces, Cavendish Space, Ed Design)
- Host 6 Campfire Learn Together sessions focused on these modules
- Gather 10 pieces of user feedback (qualitative) to improve future editions
Objective 3 — Increase Visibility & Outreach
Why this matters: More people reached means more liberation language and more community connected to resources. (Stimpunks Foundation)
Key Results
- Grow newsletter subscription by 15%
- Deliver 8 public events (solidarity sessions, public editorial meetings, or community forums)
- Publish 5 guest articles or collaborative pieces with allied networks (e.g., education or disability justice partners)
Objective 4 — Strengthen Financial Stability
Why this matters: Sustainable funding protects care infrastructure, honors labor, and plans for long-term support.
Key Results
- Apply for 4 community-aligned grants focused on mutual aid, education, or accessibility
- Raise $3,000 in unrestricted support from individual donors
- Secure 1 funding partnership with aligned organization
Objective 5 — Build & Share Knowledge Publicly
Why this matters: Stimpunks prioritizes lived experience and open resources that challenge harmful norms and systems.
Key Results
- Publish 10 new “In Brief” entries (frameworks and models)
- Release 1 visual zine or poster collection summarizing key briefs and manifesto points
- Create a “Take a Walk in Our Shoes” interactive series for deeper engagement
Implementation Notes
- Qualitative feedback (stories, testimonials, user comments) should be collected alongside numbers for true impact reflection.
- OKRs are not about perfection; they are directional beacons to guide work rooted in care and lived reality.
- Emphasize tools that genuinely help the community survive and thrive—not just visibility metrics.
Alignment With Past OKRs
Past efforts in 2025 included fundraising, virtual events, and learning experience development. Q1 2026 builds on those foundations by scaling support infrastructure, advancing educational content, increasing reach, and stabilizing funding.
Raise $1,700 in funds and apply for 3 grants
- Apply for 3 grants
- Raise $1700 in organic and peer-to-peer donations
- Raise $500 with partners
Apply for 3 grants
100%
Raise $1700 in donations
100%
Host 13 virtual events and 24 public meetings
Host 1 conference
100%
Host 12 public operations meetings
100%
Host 12 public editorial meetings
100%
Develop 2 learning experiences
- Develop Neuroqueer Learning Spaces training
- Develop Map of Monotropic Experiences training
Develop Neuroqueer Learning Spaces training
100%
Develop Map of Monotropic Experiences training
100%
Numbers updated on June 28, 2025.
Raise $1,700 in funds and apply for 3 grants
- Apply for 3 grants
- Raise $1700 in organic and peer-to-peer donations
- Raise $500 with partners
Apply for 3 grants
33%
Raise $1700 in donations
100%
Raise $500 with partners
0%
Host 19 virtual events and 24 public meetings
- Host 9 Weekly Solidarity Sessions
- Host 9 Weekly Variety Hours
- Host 1 conference
- Host 12 public operations meetings
- Host 12 public editorial meetings
Host 9 Solidarity Sessions
100%
Host 9 Variety Hours
100%
Host 1 conference
100%
Host 12 public operations meetings
100%
Host 12 public editorial meetings
100%
Develop 2 learning experiences
- Develop Neuroqueer Learning Spaces training
- Develop Map of Monotropic Experiences training
Develop Neuroqueer Learning Spaces training
95%
Develop Map of Monotropic Experiences training
95%
Numbers updated on March 31, 2025.
Transparency Log
We default to open — not because transparency is easy, but because openness is a form of care. This log is where we share what’s happening behind the scenes: decisions, changes, setbacks, and ongoing work that usually stays hidden.
Most organizations hide context, labor, and uncertainty. We don’t. When we document what we tried, what worked, and what didn’t, we make space for collective learning, mutual accountability, and real trust.
This isn’t a polished record of outcomes. It’s a living journal of the choices we’re making, the labor involved, and the reasons behind them. You’re invited to read it, learn from it, and hold it with us — because defaulting to open means you don’t just see the finished product, you see the hands that built it.
This log is updated as events happen, not retrospectively. Entries reflect real dates and real decisions.
| Date | Activity |
|---|---|
| 2026/06/12 | Closed mutual aid grant pipeline. |
| 2026/06/11 | Issued creator grant award for Spring 2026. |
| 2026/06/04 | Closed creator grant pipeline. |
| 2026/06/01 | Opened grant pipelines. |
| 2026/04/30 | Issued mutual aid grant for April. |
| 2026/03/30 | We are now an ASAN affiliate. |
| 2026/03/24 | Spring Board Meeting |
| 2026/03/10 | We are now Candid Silver Transparency certified. |
| 2026/02/28 | Issued mutual aid grant for February. |
| 2026/02/05 | Published Fundraising transparency documents. |
| 2026/02/05 | Working on compliance with BBB Standards for Charity Accountability |
| 2026/01/19 | Closed grant pipelines |
| 2026/01/01 | Opened grant pipelines |
Next Steps for Our Community
Our work doesn’t happen in isolation — it happens alongside a community that’s also figuring things out. Here’s where we’re pointed together.
- Raise funds.
- Raise money to direct into the communities we serve.
- Create ecologies of care.
- Keep people housed, fed, and alive via our aid grants.
- Help people navigate our care systems.
- Provide warm lines and peer respite.
- Support our 4 pillars.
- Engage with Mutual Aid, Creator Grants, Learning Space, and Open Research — the four pillars that hold up everything we do.
- Explore the Pattern Library and Design Method.
- Use the Stimpunks Pattern Library to name and recognize how neurodivergent attention, energy, and experience work.
- Apply Design Recipes in classrooms, workplaces, homes, and care spaces.
- Learn the Stimpunks Design Method and the ARLES ladder: Attention → Relational → Lived Experience → Environments → Systems.
- Defend public education.
- Tell the story: Free, life-changing, and available to everyone.
- Advance progressive education.
- Work with Human Restoration Project, PINE, EALA, Autistic Realms, and others to advance progressive education.
- Continue creating why sheets to assist students, parents, and teachers with their advocacy.
- Advocate for Cavendish Space and Neuroqueer Learning Spaces.
- Tell the story: We’re raising whole children, not Frankenstein children.
- Tell the story: Henry Cavendish, Xerox PARC, and Caves, Campfires, and Watering Holes.
- Support creators.
- Grow our creator grants and bring more creators into our Discord community.
- We will need art and competency networks more than ever.
- Build community.
- Join our Discord community and show up weekly — for Solidarity Sessions, Campfire Learn Together, and Infodumplings.
- Engage in collaborative niche construction at human scale.
- Grow the rhizome by connecting with other cosmo-local bands of marginalized people.
- We will support each other. We will build our own ecologies of care and our own competency networks. We will build communities and network rhizomatically.
- Engage with our AI ethics framework.
- Read and apply the AI Collaboration guide — harm reduction, guardrails, and a neurodivergent frame for working with AI thoughtfully.
- Use and contribute to the glossary.
- The Stimpunks Glossary is a living knowledge infrastructure. Use it to find language, share it to spread it, and help us keep building it.
- Participate in research.
- Participatory research that aligns with community priorities and values gives us advocacy ammunition to fight back against regressive practices. Participate in studies.
- Tell stories.
- Help build a progressive storytelling ecosystem to offer an alternative to the right-wing ecosystem.
- “The pro-democracy movement needs to build its own funnel, now. It cannot and should not be a mirror image of the right’s funnel. It should be grounded in truth, not lies, and generosity, not closedness. But it needs to be a total media ecology that can meet people at any level of annoyance, curiosity, irritation, gripe, doubt, with any question — and move them toward a more humane and magnanimous view of the world.” —Anand Giridharadas
- Name the systems of power.
- Defuse resentment.
- Increase our impact.
- Consult our Impact page. Consider the things we measure. How can we make those numbers go up?
Last updated: 2026/05/03
4 Pathways
Stimpunks exists inside broken systems. We can’t fix them from the outside, and we can’t wait for them to fix themselves. So we move along four pathways at once — protecting people from immediate harm, disrupting what needs disrupting, defending what’s worth defending, and building the alternatives we need to survive and thrive. None of these pathways is optional. All four are always in motion.
These are the four directions that orient our work when systems are under pressure. Not a checklist — a compass.
We Will
This is our commitment. Not a mission statement written for funders — a declaration of what we actually do, in the language of people who live it.
We will…
- catalyse Stimpunks projects,
- coordinate neurodivergent and disabled peer support,
- document neurodivergent and disabled culture,
- conduct neurodivergent and disabled research,
- develop and deliver education based on lived experiences,
- host events that celebrate neurodivergent and disabled culture.
Problems to Keep in Mind
Every organization has questions it can’t stop thinking about. These are ours — not problems to solve and move on from, but problems to keep present, to test new ideas against, to return to. They shape what we build, what we fund, and what we refuse.
You have to keep a dozen of your favorite problems constantly present in your mind, although by and large they will lay in a dormant state. Every time you hear or read a new trick or a new result, test it against each of your twelve problems to see whether it helps. Every once in a while there will be a hit, and people will say, “How did he do it? He must be a genius!”
—Richard Feynman via “Forte, Tiago. Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential (p. 62). Simon Element / Simon Acumen.”
Feynman’s approach encouraged him to follow his interests wherever they might lead. He posed questions and constantly scanned for solutions to long-standing problems in his reading, conversations, and everyday life. When he found one, he could make a connection that looked to others like a flash of unparalleled brilliance.
Ask yourself, “What are the questions I’ve always been interested in?”
In the spirit of Richard Feynman’s 12 problems, here are some questions to keep in mind as we go about our business:
These are ours:
Design and knowledge infrastructure
- How do we make the Pattern Library and Design Method usable by people who aren’t already fluent in the language?
- How do we build tools that work for the people with the least capacity, not just the most?
AI and technology
- How do we use AI without reproducing the harms it encodes?
- How do we stay honest about what tools do and don’t do for neurodivergent people?
Community sustainability
- How do we raise more funds?
- How do we keep our community safe while including more people?
- How do we set boundaries to protect our mental health without being called performative?
- How do we increase community engagement in Discord and on social media?
- How do we support our 4 pillars: Mutual Aid, Creator Grants, Learning Space, Open Research?
- Who should we add to our board?
- How do we prevent burnout in a community where many members are already running on empty?
- How do we honor the labor of volunteers and contributors without exploiting it?
Systems and advocacy
- How do we help people survive the dismantling of healthcare systems and the administrative state?
- How do we resist behaviorism in education and healthcare?
Epistemic and identity
- How do we keep lived experience at the center as the organization grows?
- How do we resist the pressure to translate our work into language that makes funders comfortable but loses what matters?
Care and access
- How do we reach people who need us most but have the least capacity to find us?
- How do we build care infrastructure that doesn’t depend on any one person’s capacity?
What should we add?
Changelog
We publish a weekly changelog. Working in public means you don’t just see the finished product — you see the hands that built it.
Newsletter
We publish a monthly newsletter — what we built, what we learned, what’s next. Subscribe to stay connected to the work.
Glossary
We constantly update our glossary.
Feeds
We’re on pretty much all of the social networks, but we are most active and engaged on our Bluesky.
- Thursday's Infodumplings is a scent night. Norah's favourites, Ryan's subscription vials, and whatever smells good in your house. "An invitation for the community to take a whiff." What scents do […]
- Sunday at Campfire we mourn and celebrate Professor Jason Arday — one of very few people anywhere who talked about race and neurodivergence in the same breath, as one problem. […]
- "You don't need an ocean full of hope, but you do need a ripple, you do need a drop, and that is often enough." — Jason Arday Sunday's Campfire is […]
- Sunday we mourn and celebrate Professor Jason Arday with two of his own talks. He defended late-identified Autistic and ADHD people a year before the backlash peaked. He was precise […]
- Sunday's Campfire: a movement practice, not a lecture. Seated tai chi, somatics, a chair stim dance, flamenco. All seated, by design. Aug 23, 10AM CT / 4PM UK https://stimpunks.org/2026/08/21/campfire-learn-together-seated-tai-chi-transformative-somatic-practices-and-bodily-survival-knowledge/
- Do you still have a favorite dinosaur? And why are we expected to "grow out" of them? Autistic kids infodump about dinosaurs and get ridiculed for it. Thursday's Infodumplings, 7PM […]
- Week 33: we built six machines to check our own work, then found the edge where they stop helping. Almost every fault that changed an argument was caught by a […]
- Star Stuff — science and wonder and the beautiful diversity of being. starstuff.earth https://starstuff.earth/
- Pouring one out for Jason Arday. RIP. So gross, the gleeful bigotry and shitting on DEI — without regard for a life — that precipitated losing him. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10734-020-00636-w
- The Elimination of Waste: on a word that meant one thing in a steam engine and another in a school A fascinating and concise history of “efficiency” in the classroom, […]
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Pebble Board
Our Pebble Board lists the fidgets and media we’re enjoying lately.
