Neurodiverse Friends Bournemouth
Just a group of good friends from neurodiverse backgrounds. We reach out to others from similar backgrounds regardless of student status or employment status. We have no office (unless you include Starbucks!). No expenses. No fundraising. Just volunteers and this shockingly poor website! There is no distinction between the befrienders and the befriended. It's time to love again!
Practice speaking English - 学英文口语
Our partner group, Practice speaking English, is open to all students who would like to improve their English speaking skills.
Homestay Accommodation
If you are an international student looking for homestay accommodation, please email andi@bournemouth.life for more info. Our hosts are autism aware and are DBS checked.
Raising Autism Awareness and Community Protection
Our supporters spend a lot of time in the community raising awareness and looking out for people who may need support. We engage those working in the public service sector that we meet in the community and discuss topics such as neurodiversity, suicide and bullying. It is hoped that creating a better awareness will protect the most vulnerable in the community.
We've flushed the blog!
We have decided to reduce and eventually remove the blog. After much discussion we felt that the WhatDoTheyKnow platform would help us ask targeted questions that were in the public interest. We felt that WhatDoTheyKnow would maintain the context of the questions and annotations far better than we could. By far the best benefit though is that it engages organisations and the community through the concise enquiry approach of the FOI requests.
3rd May 2023 - Suicide Prevention
The recent suicide of a student at Aberystwyth univeristy prompted an initial survey of students in Bournemouth and Southampton. Previously, there had been a dispute at a university where an autistic man was banned from accessing peer support meetings on campus after he had visited their Faith and Reflection Centre. Leading to his ban, the man had enquired about wellbeing support for an international student who had disclosed suicidal thoughts. There is a need to complement campus provided wellbeing services with other forms of support off campus and accessible to international students.
Two students from Hong Kong and one from PRC have been asked who they would turn to first if they were experiencing a mental health crisis or having suicidal thoughts. All three said they would go to a friend or family member first. Two (the third was not specifically asked) would be unlikely to access wellbeing services. All three confirmed they were made aware of wellbeing services provided by their respective unis. These are very preliminary findings and there is need to conduct a more thorough survey to establish what form off campus support should take.
Prior to conducting the survey we would like you to email us your thoughts and suggestions for survey questions.
Links to resources on other sites.
Ofsted reports for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.