Where lived experience is the expertise. We share life and stories, led by us, for us — every Saturday morning.

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About Solidarity Sesh

Solidarity Sesh is a weekly peer support gathering for neurodivergent and disabled people — peer-run, community-centered, and grounded in the radical roots of mutual aid. Every Saturday morning, we come together to share life and stories. No credentials required. Just your lived experience.

This is not a clinical service. It is not a program with intake forms and outcomes targets. It is a space where neurodivergent and disabled people show up for each other the way we have always shown up for each other: as peers, as witnesses, as people who actually get it.

Peer support is not a new concept, but its roots are radical. It emerged from self-advocacy and activist movements rooted in resistance, mutual aid, and liberatory politics — the belief that we are the experts on our own experience, and that support is most meaningful when it comes from someone who has walked a similar path.

Solidarity Sesh lives in that tradition. We build networks of care outside of systems that were not designed with us in mind.

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Details

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What to Expect

Solidarity Sesh is unstructured in the best way. There is no agenda, no presenter, no right way to participate. We gather, we check in, we share what’s on our minds. Some weeks that means a rich conversation about neurodivergent life. Some weeks it means sitting in comfortable parallel presence with people who understand.

• Show up as you are — masked, unmasked, stimming, low-energy, high-energy, camera off
• Share as much or as little as you like
• Infodump your special interest or your hard week — both welcome
• Listen without fixing, witness without judgment
• Step away when you need to — no explanations required
• AAC, text chat, voice, or silence — all valid ways to be present

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Why Peer Support

Neurodivergent people find it helpful to have support from neurodivergent peers, because we are the experts on our own experience. When individuals with shared experiences support each other, something different becomes possible — something that clinical support, however well-intentioned, cannot replicate.

Peer support is a radical movement towards self-determination and creating networks of care outside of incarceration, coercion, and expectations of compliance.

— from Tapping the Radical Roots of Peer Support

Peer support at its core is a non-clinical, mutuality-based relationship between people who share lived experience. The roots of peer support come from self-advocacy and activist movements — always rooted in resistance, mutual aid, and the refusal to accept a world divided into helpers and helped, experts and subjects.

Peer-run warm lines — spaces staffed by people with lived mental health and disability experience — have been shown to reduce loneliness and reduce participants’ use of crisis services. When we show up for each other, it counts. It matters. It helps people stay housed, connected, and alive.

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Autistic-Led, Community-Centered

Research consistently shows that autistic adults prefer autistic-led peer support. And the reasons make sense: an autistic facilitator is felt to be more understanding, more tolerant of different ways of being, and a positive role model for people who have recently been diagnosed or who are still finding their community.

Three themes identified in participant experience: ‘appreciation of the autistic-led nature of the programme’, ‘unity in diversity’, and ‘developing a positive, practical outlook on autism’.

— Norris, Harvey & Hull, 2024, “Post-diagnostic support for adults diagnosed with autism in adulthood in the UK”

Solidarity Sesh is shaped by the same values. We are led by and for neurodivergent and disabled people. We do not ask participants to perform neurotypicality, explain themselves, or justify their needs. We offer unity in diversity and the simple, profound experience of being understood by someone who lives a similar life.

• Autistic-led and neurodivergent-informed facilitation
• No compliance expected — no masking required
• Positive framing of neurodivergent identity and experience
• Space for recently diagnosed folks and longtime community members alike

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The Warm Line Spirit

A warm line is different from a crisis line. A crisis line is for emergencies. A warm line is for the rest of it — the loneliness, the hard week, the moment when you just need another human being who gets it to pick up the phone (or join the call).

Solidarity Sesh carries the warm line spirit: peer-run, lived-experience-informed, and oriented toward connection rather than intervention. We are not here to assess your risk or route you to services. We are here because the shadows only last ’til sunrise, and we would rather face them together.

Peer-run warm lines have been shown to reduce loneliness and participants’ use of mental health crisis services.

— NC Health News, “Warm line gives peer mental health support”

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“Not a crisis line. Just a warm one.”

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Interaction Badges

At our events, we use interaction badges. Interaction badges were first developed in Autistic spaces and conferences. They help people communicate their preferences around social interaction — so you can participate in the way that works best for you, and so others know how to best respect your needs.

For online events, participants can indicate their preference in their display name or in the chat. If you see someone communicating a yellow or red preference, please respect their wishes. The default is green if no preference is displayed. For background on the history and use of interaction badges, visit this piece.

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Covenant

Our Stimpunks Covenants apply at all our events, including Solidarity Sesh. We hold each other with care, respect communication preferences, and build toward a community where diverse minds and bodies are welcomed without conditions.

• Respect interaction preferences and communication access needs
• No unsolicited advice — witness first, fix never (unless asked)
• Affirm neurodivergent and disabled identity without trying to cure or correct
• Protect the privacy and stories shared in the space
• Center the voices of those with the most at stake

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Further Reading

These resources from the Stimpunks library ground Solidarity Sesh in community knowledge and research.

• Peer Support — Stimpunks Glossary
• Warm Line — Stimpunks Glossary
• Participant preference was for autistic-led peer support
• Tapping the Radical Roots of Peer Support
• Mutual Aid — Stimpunks Glossary
• Stimpunks Events Field Guide

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Donate

Solidarity Sesh is free and always will be. If you want to help neurodivergent and disabled people stay housed, fed, connected, and alive — donate to Stimpunks Foundation.