At Starling, we want to make sure that what we offer works for everyone - so it’s important for you to know what our groups are like and the kinds of young people that attend our sessions.

We offer creative workshops for neurodivergent (ND) young people, aged 10-25, who may or may not have a formal diagnosis. The majority of our young people attend or have attended mainstream school.

Our participants relate to these experiences:

Maybe fitting in feels tricky, perhaps masking might be something that happens quite often. You might find other youth groups are overwhelming or you just need a calmer space to be yourself. 

We love to get creative and spend a lot of time on projects/interests that you find exciting - we love to hear from you about the things you love and we try to use that to make our sessions fun!

If you think we're a match for you, head on over to the sign-up link to register for future sessions!

If we don’t seem like a match for you, there are lots of other amazing organisations we are able to signpost towards.

At Starling, being creative isn’t about being “good at art” — it’s about using your imagination, expressing yourself, and trying things out in your own way. It’s how we make sense of who we are and what’s going on around us.

Everyone is creative — seriously. It’s not something you have to earn or prove. It might look like drawing, acting, writing, dancing, making music, building stuff, or just playing with ideas in your head. It can be chatty or chill, shared with others or kept just for you.

At Starling, creativity helps us connect — with ourselves, with other people, and with new ways of thinking and being in the world. It's a space to explore, feel seen, and just be you.

In order to attend a session you need to sign-up to our newslestter:

Email Newsletter: https://starlingcio.org/sign-up

(Please ensure you tick "Sign up for news and updates")

After you sign up to our newsletter, we will send you an email providing more information about where and when our activities take place. If you see a session you want to attend, just come along, and our friendly staff will welcome you!

If you have a question send us an email to hello@starlingcio.org.uk

We currently run sessions in Trafford, Tameside, and online. You can find exact locations on our venues page https://starlingcio.org/venues

In person sessions:

You can expect up to 12 participants and up to 3 members of staff

Online sessions:

You can expect up to 20 participants and 2 members of staff

Yes of course! You can bring one supporter (age 18+) to each session. That could be a parent, a friend or someone else who makes you feel comfy. If it’s your first time, a parent or carer must stay on site for the whole session.

If you need to leave a little early, access a break-out space, take a break, or, with online sessions, switch your camera off to feel comfortable, you are absolutely welcome to do so.

You are always welcome, even if you just want to sit and chill. You don’t need to take part. You don’t need to make eye contact or even chat. You do whatever works for you.

Many of our facilitators identify as ND and might have had a late diagnosis, or be self-identifying as ND. They understand first-hand how difficult new social situations can be, and are specially trained to help you get the most out of a session.

You don’t need to bring anything to our sessions, but sometimes other people like to bring fidgets, their favourite object, a book, or a craft project they are working on. We will have different activities for you to take part in and will provide all the materials.

At Starling we love to hear about your interests! Come along and tell us what you’re into and we can tailor out sessions to you. In the past we’ve run some great sessions such as T-shirt design, zine making, stop-motion anitmation, character creation, clay modelling, Lego and loads more!