April 2026 newsletter

Hello everyone,

We have some very exciting news to share with you in this newsletter, including the big announcement we alluded to last time. We are also pleased to update you on our ongoing projects, new activities, and ways you can continue to support and engage with our work.

Here are the key updates.

We Have Won Funding from Global's Make Some Noise

We are thrilled to announce that London Autism Group Charity has successfully won funding from Global's Make Some Noise, the official charity of Global, the Media and Entertainment group.

This funding will enable us to continue providing mental health and wellbeing-related support through our community cafés, our community outreach work, and our other programmes related to boosting mental health and wellbeing. It will also support our one-to-one mental health therapy provision for those in need of that level of support.

We are really grateful to Global's Make Some Noise for this wonderful support, which we will use intelligently and in a way that will produce the most impact for our community over the next two years.

"Global's Make Some Noise funds vital life-changing projects across the UK, delivered by small, local charities, with the aim of making sure nobody is left facing life's toughest challenges alone. Projects include those providing shelter and safety, supporting physical and mental health, preventing isolation, and improving life skills. Tackling issues such as bereavement, food poverty, domestic abuse, homelessness, and loneliness.

Additionally, Charity Partners will also be supported by a Learning and Development programme to support their longer-term operations and sustainability. Global's Make Some Noise also raises awareness of the wide range of issues its funding is tackling with over 29 million weekly listeners across Global's radio brands including Capital, Heart, Classic FM, Smooth, LBC, Radio X, Capital XTRA and Gold Radio."

— Suzanne Ryder-Richardson, Director of Global Goodness and Global's Make Some Noise

London Ambulance Service Survey

A big thank you to everybody who has participated either through attending the focus groups or completing the survey for our London Ambulance Service engagement work.

📣 We Still Really Need Your Help!

This is a truly one-off opportunity for our community to provide views and feedback on the London Ambulance Service. The survey closes at the end of April — please do not miss this chance to have your voice heard. Whether you have direct experience of ambulance paramedic support, 999 phone calls, or 111 phone calls, or simply have views on how these services could work better, we want to hear from you.

The survey takes about 10-15 minutes, you can skip any question, and at the end you can choose to enter a prize draw for a chance to win one of six signed copies of Voices of Neurodiversity: An Inclusive Encyclopaedia by Chris Papadopoulos.

Who can take part?

If you are an autistic person, a family member, paid carer, support worker or advocate, or any combination of these, please do take part and share this with your networks. You do not have to be living in London to be eligible.

• Aged 18 or over
• An autistic person (including self-identified)
• A family member of an autistic person
• A paid carer or support worker for an autistic person
• An advocate for autistic people

You do not need to have used the ambulance service before. Whether you have direct experience of 999 or 111 or simply have views on how emergency care could work better, we want to hear from you.

Shareable link: https://tinyurl.com/lagclas

Please share this survey with your networks

British Transport Police Event at Euston Station

We had a lovely event with the British Transport Police at Euston Station on Tuesday 14th April. We had a stall with them to raise public awareness of hate crime, to raise public knowledge of our charity, and to talk about some of the issues that our autistic community experiences — all to raise general understanding and acceptance.

A big thank you to our volunteer supporters on the day.

Remember to upload these images to WIX and update the URLs before sending.

Autistic Workplace Support Sessions Have a New Home

We have successfully secured a new home for our Autistic Workplace Support Sessions (AWSS). They will resume in June on the last Saturday of that month and continue thereafter at this new venue: Kings Square Community Centre in Islington.

As always, the sessions will run from 1pm to 4pm, with three of our employment experts providing one-to-one mini coaching sessions, followed by a speaking circle.

Registration for this and future AWSS sessions will be made live nearer the time. Keep an eye out for updates via the newsletter.

Strolling with Neurokin

Strolling with Neurokin is going very well. We now have regular sessions in central London, Ealing, and our new Greenwich-based stroll, which is ready for sign-up now for its first session on Sunday 10th May. The meeting point is St Alfege's Church — the same church where the Greenwich Community Café is held. This stroll will be led by Eoin Little, who has designed a really nice route.

To find out more about all our strolls and to sign up, visit our dedicated website.

Upcoming strolls

Next Ealing stroll: This Saturday, 18th April at 11:15am, led by Zara Salih.

Next City of London stroll: Sunday 3rd May, 1:30pm to 3:30pm, led by Hazel East.

Next Greenwich stroll: Sunday 10th May, meeting point at St Alfege's Church, led by Eoin Little.

Greenwich Community Café

Our Greenwich Community Café was launched on the 21st March 2026 and it went really well. We had 15 people attend. We are looking forward to the next session this Saturday, 18th April, which as always is the third Saturday of every month, 11am to 1pm.

We are hoping that more people from the Greenwich area and surrounding areas will come along. Anyone is welcome — you do not have to live in or near Greenwich to attend.

There is no registration — you just drop in.

Special feature this month: Our animal conservationist Ryan will be bringing his gecko, which you are welcome to meet, learn about, and have pictures with. It is always a really enjoyable experience.

We will be having other types of activities at each Greenwich Community Café in future sessions, such as tai chi, arts and crafts, music therapy, and more.

New Tooting Community Café

We are delighted to announce that we are launching a new Community Café in Tooting in June. It will likely be on the second Sunday of each month from 1pm to 3pm, starting on 14th June, but this is not yet confirmed. More information will be provided in the next newsletter.

For the moment, we are looking for volunteers to support the Tooting Community Café. If you are interested in joining the volunteer team, please get in touch via email, making it clear that you are interested in supporting the Tooting Community Café.

Why volunteer with us for the community cafés?

We are unable to run community cafés without kind, supportive, reliable volunteers who help set things up, make hot drinks, provide snacks, and contribute to a feeling of psychological safety and comfort for everyone who attends.

Volunteers also do an important job connecting people and helping them to build social capital and relationships. It is a really rewarding role — you will be part of the team, provided with guidance and support, and there will never be any cost to you as a volunteer.

If you are interested and available during that time, please do get in touch.

Film Club Update

We are still looking for a permanent new home for our Film Club. We have been looking at lots of different venues and we are grateful to Viasat, who will be providing a home for our Film Club in May for a one-off session. We are thankful to Robert, who attends the Film Club, for enabling us to connect with Viasat for this particular session.

However, from June onwards we still haven't yet found a permanent new home for our Film Club, which previously took place at Museum Studios from 5pm to 8pm on the second Thursday of every month.

This is a really enjoyable activity for everybody. It is registration only, and we are going to keep going with it. If you know of a welcoming space in Zones 1 or 2 that could accommodate us on the second Thursday evening of each month, we would love to hear from you.

Celebrating Our Amazing Volunteers

We are shining a light on two of our wonderful volunteers who make such a difference to our community. We are deeply grateful for everything they do.

DR ITZIAR BILBAO URRUTIA (SHE/THEY)

My name is Itziar and I have been a volunteer at LAGC since 2025. I am a visual artist and researcher by training. My work, interests and what we could call hobbies, all overlap and feed each other: I make films, live performance and drawing. I was one of those “academically gifted” while “artistic and dreamy” kids, so I ended up at art college, a place that, looking back, was full of neurodivergent people, both students and tutors. Oh, I love clothes too, specially vintage or stuff from earlier decades, both fashions and artifacts. My house is full of tat from charity shops — this is probably a special interest. On this subject, Chris Peckham has said that he became a punk to redirect attention about his “weird” presentation, to his clothes and appearance. I think I did that as a teen, too. When people notice your “odd” clothes, it deflects attention to your peculiarities as an autistic person.

I first discovered LAGC through The Autism Podcast on Spotify. After receiving an ADHD diagnosis in 2023, I was waiting for my autism assessment and looking for podcasts to learn more. And thinking about this — listening to podcasts while going for long urban walks around London is one of my hobbies. I love exploring urban and industrial spaces and social housing architecture. So I found out on the podcast that LAGC organises community cafes and I wanted to meet other autistic people to find community and support. It took me a few months to gather the courage, but now I'm so glad I took the plunge.

While attending the community cafes and strolls, I kept coming up with ideas for other activities that might be of interest: a film club, an autistic book club? Maybe an art club in the future?... I think that it's very important to be exposed to the arts: to encounter new ideas, for self-expression and for pleasure, even if you don't create it. Art is an amazing tool for education and self-awareness. Autistic people learn a lot about the world and how to understand human behaviour, through narratives, films, books and art. I certainly do.

What I like the most about LAGC is that I can be myself, I feel very free to let my guard down — my mask, if you wish — and stop trying to pass as neurotypical. It's also given me a place to put into practice my traits of organisation, leadership and a desire to connect with other autistic people of variable needs. I was only diagnosed as autistic in early 2025, so it's early days for me and I learn so much by observing other autistic people, with its huge variety of needs, gifts and presentations. It's a life long process of stripping myself of layers, like an onion, but one with many centres and cores, like a rhyzome. Although I'll never know 100% who is the real me and who is the mask — and I also think that the mask, the ways we choose to camouflage, also make us who we are — I find that when I am surrounded by other autistic people, I understand myself.

LAGC is a grassroots organisation, where everybody is heard and anyone can contribute. I've found it very encouraging, inclusive and creative. I'm really enjoying organising our monthly film club and I love feeling that I can give something back to this community. The film club is such a simple premises, but so effective: our members select the films and we screen them once a month in a space that is low demand in sensory terms, relaxed and non-judgemental. All we want is acceptance and to feel normal, unnoticed, I guess — not to feel watched or judged by our quirks, but accepted as we are.

Throughout my six decades on this earth I have always gravitated towards those who stick out, those who are different, and often, those marginalised. Knowing I am autistic, and meeting other autistic people, explain this attraction. Chris Papadopoulos, LAGC's CEO and its founder, has coined the term “neurokin”, to define this phenomenon, where neurodivergent people find one another. I don't want to be the armchair psychiatrist, but looking back, so many of my friends through my whole life, showed clear signs of neurodivergence, and some of them are now diagnosed.

If anyone reading this is considering joining LAGC, just come to your nearest community cafe. I was very nervous my first time and I almost turned round and left, I had to force myself a little to walk in and stay. We will greet you and offer you tea or coffee, then leave you alone if so you wish. Nobody will judge you or raise an eyebrow, whatever you decide to do in the space. You can truly be yourself, and meet others on a similar journey.

You can find Itziar's art on Instagram: @itziarbilbaourrutia

ALISHA AZZAHRA (SHE/HER)

I'm Alisha, a 23-year-old postgraduate student here in London. I was born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia. Aside from my studies, I am an aspiring photographer and artist, and I've been volunteering at LAGC since January 2026.

I love dancing, doing photography and videography, drawing, and cooking. My interests also include music — especially hip-hop, jazz, and soul — films, and gender studies.

I grew up alongside my autistic older brother, Rayhan. He was my best friend, but as we grew older, we also somewhat grew apart. I have been finding it harder to connect with him. Furthermore, moving to London also meant being away from him and my family. I felt disconnected and distant, and it was affecting me quite badly. Then I thought connecting with a community of autistic people would allow me to learn and connect better with my brother. And that's how I found LAGC.

LAGC is unlike anything I've ever encountered. I was immediately struck by the level of acceptance and passion to make a change that the charity has. The amount of work and the warmth of the community the LAGC team has built have inspired me to be part of it.

I have met so many wonderful people and made amazing friends through LAGC. Volunteering at the South Woodford community cafe, as well as at Fridays at Farringdon, has allowed me to connect with people with diverse experiences and perspectives. Moreover, I feel like I can always be myself while volunteering at LAGC. I've never had to pretend to act a certain way that's not true to who I am.

Since joining LAGC, I've started playing chess again. Playing against other people in the community (and mostly losing) has been really fun!

If anyone is thinking about getting involved with LAGC, I would say: go for it! I have learned so much and met so many great people over the last couple of months. I think as long as you genuinely respect the community and its guidelines, you'll have a fantastic experience.

We are incredibly grateful to all of our volunteers. We simply could not do any of this work without you. Every newsletter we will be shining a spotlight on two of our fantastic volunteers to celebrate the wonderful contribution they make to our community.

Help Us Grow - Introduce Us to Your Networks

Another way you can help us is by enabling us to meet new businesses and other organisations that we could develop relationships and partnerships with. This is one of the best ways for our charity to continue growing and furthering its impact. If you have connections that could help, please get in touch by emailing contact@londonautismgroupcharity.org.

Become a Patron

We are inviting people to consider becoming a patron of London Autism Group Charity. This would involve a regular monthly contribution and would place you among those who play a particularly crucial role in supporting the long-term viability and growth of the charity through their continued support.

If you have any interest in becoming a patron, please do email us and we can facilitate the next steps in getting that arranged. We would be really grateful for your help with this.

Share Your Thoughts With Us

Your voice matters to us. Whether you have ideas to help us improve or would like to share how our work has made a difference to you, we would love to hear from you.

Other things still running and growing

Alongside the updates above, we are continuing to run and develop a wide range of other support and community activity, including:

• Monthly Activity Days for autistic adults
• Autistic identity support
• Our befriending scheme
• The Autism Podcast
• Training, consultancy and commissioned engagement work
• Fridays at Farringdon
• Our Autistic Adult Women's Group

A Heartfelt Thank You

We are incredibly grateful to our funders, volunteers, supporters, partners and friends. You make everything we do possible.

Our volunteers are the heart of everything we do. Their generosity in giving their time and energy so freely, driven purely by a desire to help others, is what makes our work possible. We are deeply grateful to each and every one of you. Thank you for being part of our community.

Stay connected with us

Thank you for being part of our community and for supporting our work. We will continue using the newsletter more regularly to share new opportunities, key updates, launches and ways to get involved.

If you are interested in anything you have read about in this newsletter and either wish to support us or access our services, please email us at: contact@londonautismgroupcharity.org.