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.
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.
- Actively developing the AI Collaboration guide — adding guardrails, MADTech framing, harm reduction, and testimony distinctions.
- Working toward submitting the DIF Collaborative Grant with Human Restoration Project — centered on neurodivergent design and the ARLES method.
- Publishing the April 2026 Newsletter — what we built, what we learned, what’s next.
- Working on providing mobile hotspots for volunteers.
- Restructuring and building out Cavendish Space — page reorganized and training presentation in development.
- 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 a keynote by Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang on whole-child learning.
- 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 new A.C.T. Tool), and more listings in our service directory.
- We’re trying to cover all of the 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!
- Stay tuned by subscribing to our monthly newsletter!
Last updated: May 3, 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.
Objectives and Key Results for Q2 2026
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.
Objectives and Key Results for Q1 2026
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.
Objectives and Key Results for Q2 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
Host 13 virtual events and 24 public meetings
Develop 2 learning experiences
- Develop Neuroqueer Learning Spaces training
- Develop Map of Monotropic Experiences training
Numbers updated on June 28, 2025.
Objectives and Key Results for Q1 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
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
Develop 2 learning experiences
- Develop Neuroqueer Learning Spaces training
- Develop Map of Monotropic Experiences training
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 |
|---|---|
| 2026/04/30 | 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.
Latest Terms in the Stimpunks Glossary for March 2025
As we go about our work, we expand our glossary, which is currently at 400 terms in English and 449…
Latest Terms in the Stimpunks Glossary for February 2025
As we go about our work, we expand our glossary, which is currently at 396 terms in English and 431…
Latest Terms in the Stimpunks Glossary for January 2025
As we go about our work, we expand our glossary, which is currently at 388 terms in English and 423…
Feeds
We’re on pretty much all of the social networks, but we are most active and engaged on our Bluesky.
- Disabled people are the original life hackers. We EDC to survive. This Thursday: Infodumplings pocket dump & bag dump show-and-tell. Share what you carry to cope, survive, and thrive. 🎒 […]
- Segregation is the architecture. Behaviorism is the operating system. The right to learn differently shouldn't be mediated by a diagnosis. Five parts. One argument. Building Anti-Ableist Learning Space. https://stimpunks.org/learning/building/
- Neurodivergent and disabled learners don't need fixing. They need environments designed around human diversity. Building Anti-Ableist Learning Space is a five-part series on what that actually looks like. https://stimpunks.org/learning/building/
- It's not a non sequitur. It's not rudeness. It's not impatience. It's a monotropic mind tunneling deep and coming up for air somewhere unexpected. Dolphining. The term that finally named […]
- We just updated our five-part series: Building Anti-Ableist Learning Space. The Need. The Answer. The Feeling. The Learning. The Gift. Start here: https://stimpunks.org/learning/building/
- From framework synthesis to glossary depth, Week 20 built the /space/ ecosystem into a citable, interconnected design system — and kept expanding the vocabulary of neurodivergent life. https://stimpunks.org/2026/05/17/stimpunks-org-changelog-for-week-20-2026-from-crosswalk-to-cosmos-from-framework-to-fabric/
- From the outside: a non sequitur. From the inside: a logical chain you traveled in seconds. Dolphining is when the ADHD brain dives deep mid-conversation & surfaces somewhere the other […]
- Mid-conversation, the ADHD brain dives deep & surfaces somewhere else entirely. From the outside: non sequitur. From the inside: perfectly logical. This is dolphining. If you've had another dolphiner finish […]
- No agenda. No presenter. No right way to be there. Just lived experience, warm lines, and people who actually get it. Solidarity Sesh is today at 10 AM Central — […]
- The myth of neutrality doesn't just harm in the therapy room. It harms in every room — the classroom, the healthcare consultation, the workplace, the community space. Our Co-Creative Director […]
You can find the latest feeds for our social networks on our Feeds page.
Pebble Board
Our Pebble Board lists the fidgets and media we’re enjoying lately.
