S.P.A.C.E. ADHD Group

ADHD Parent Support Group

General

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Why We Don’t Want To Be Kim Kardashian

What does the world famous reality star Kim Kardashian have to do with a small Stockport based ADHD childrens’ charity? The answer to that is very little (as far as we know) other than the fact that we are both harnessing the power of social media to let people know that we exist.

Just like Kim, SPACE Stockport are on Instagram, but if you happen to follow us both, you’ll notice that she has a lot more followers than us and we’re totally OK with that. We are 100% fine with the fact that Kim has over 360 million Instagram followers whilst we only have 848, because Kim’s marketing goals are different to ours.

SPACE Stockport is run by parents of children with ADHD for parents of children with ADHD and as such we won’t be getting any celebrity endorsement deals. We don’t have our own cosmetic products, skincare range or clothing line. We don’t even have our own fragrance, but despite the lack of branded products we are on a mission. We’re on a mission to make sure that Stockport parents of children with ADHD know that we’re here. We are looking for what marketing professionals would call a niche market. If you live in Stockport and have a child with ADHD, then we are looking for you because we want you to know that we exist.

Our marketing goals are quite straight forward. We’re a non-profit organisation so the number of people that attend our monthly meetings and engage with us on social media doesn’t generate us any income. The committee is made up of volunteers, so nobody gets a new BMW if more people join us for a coffee and getting a 100,000 likes on Facebook or a million followers on TikTok won’t get any of us a bonus, but we’re still on a mission. If you are from Stockport and your child, or a child that you care for, has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder then we want you to know that we exist, that’s it. That’s our mission.

Parents of children with ADHD are regularly told what they should be doing. We’re told that we are parenting our children incorrectly. We’re told that our children will grow out of it. We’re told that our children are eating the wrong foods. We’re told that our children just need a firm hand. We’re told that ADHD doesn’t exist and that our children are just badly behaved. Parents of children with ADHD are told lots of things. We’re not here to tell you anything. We’re here to provide information. We’re here to share our experiences. We’re here to signpost agencies that we have found useful. We’re here to make sure that you know you are not the only family going through some of the day to day challenges that you face. Even if local parents of children with ADHD never contact us, our marketing mission is that they know we exist, because if they know that we are here, then they know that they can get in touch if they want to.

Using Instagram and Facebook to spread the word about our existence may be relatively new, but we’ve been on a mission to support other parents for almost two decades. The venue has changed over time, as have the volunteers and the parents joining us every month, but the mission has always been the same, to make sure that people know that we exist. Stockport has less than 300,000 residents so if we manage to get a million followers then the chances are that most of them aren’t really interested in us and vice versa. We love having our Facebook posts shared and being retweeted on Twitter because somewhere amongst those extra readers will be more of the people we’re looking for.

If local parents know that we exist, then that means that they know they’re not the only parents going through the challenge of raising a child with ADHD. It means that if they have a bad day, they know that they can vent to us privately on Facebook. It means that they know that there is a network of other parents they can talk to. It means that they can find out about local conferences. It means that we can provide a source of information. It means that they are able to attend our specialist presentations. It means that once a month they can join us for a drink and a chat if they want to.

The bigger picture is that we want to fight the ongoing stream of ignorance about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. We want to dispel the myths and ensure that our children are not penalised by schools for things that they cannot control, but our priority is to support families. If you have a child with challenging behaviour, the playground can be a lonely place. We can’t do anything about that, but when you’ve had one of those days we can be there to reassure you that you are not alone. We can’t do anything about the fact that raising a child with ADHD can lead to family disagreements on the best way forward, but we can be there to let you know that you are not the only family with those problems.

The reason our mission is to let people know that we exist is because if local parents know that we exist, then it means that they know that we’re here if they want us. It means that they know that they are not the only one and some days that’s enough. SPACE Stockport may officially only be three people on paper but we’re part of a much bigger community. A community of other parents who want the best for their children. Kim can keep her 360 million followers because we’ve got each other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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What Do You Need? SPACE Website Update

Over the summer we’re going to be updating our website so we wanted to ask you what you need.

Whilst we’ve been reviewing our current site, we’ve noticed that there is a lot of information sitting on our website, which is quite difficult to get to, including copies of presentations from our last conference. One of the biggest problems for families is that there is a lot of information on the internet about ADHD, but a lot of it isn’t very good. We want to make sure that our website is helpful and contains content that is useful to local families and those working with their children.

We’re hoping to start making changes soon, but before we get stuck in we’d like to ask for your input. Is there information that you’d expect to find on our website that’s missing? Do you have any specific problems when you visit this site? If you do, then we’d love to hear from you.

As a charity that primarily supports families, we’ve always tried to share information that is useful to parents and carers, but recently we’ve noticed that we also have a lot of professionals visiting our website and social media accounts for information, so if you visit our website but don’t have a child with ADHD, then we’d like to hear from you too.

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Allow Us To Reintroduce Ourselves

As it is ADHD Awareness Month, it seemed like a good time to reintroduce ourselves.

Hi We are Donna, Michelle and Claire and we’re SPACE Stockport, an ADHD parent support group based in Stockport, Greater Manchester. We offer support to parents and carers of children and young people in the Stockport area with ADHD. We’re all parents of children with ADHD so we’ve all been there and we’ve all had that day. 

SPACE was started over a decade ago by a small team of local parents who recognised that living with children who have ADHD could be particularly challenging and that sometimes parents needed a friendly space where they express their thoughts, feelings and frustrations who understood how it feels to raise a child / children with ADHD.

ADHD is a condition which is frequently misunderstood and unfortunately there is a lot of misinformation which can be confusing and unhelpful, especially if you have a recent diagnosis for your child.

Our children spend their lives surrounded by people who don’t understand them or many of the things they do and the results of this can be damaging. Lots of children with ADHD find their time at school difficult and a bad day at school often becomes a bad day at home and vice versa.

We don’t have all the answers but we’re here to share useful information and signpost to local services, so that when parents are presented with the usual ADHD myths, that they feel better prepared to respond to them.

Its hard to parent what you don’t understand  and the more we understand the more we can support our children.

We have friendly informal meetings on a monthly basis. We have a webpage, a facebook page, a private facebook group, a twitter account, an Instagram account and a blog. So if you are raising a child with ADHD, why not come over and say hello.  

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The SPACE Guide to ADHD

For many years we have felt that local families needed some written information about ADHD, that centred themselves and their families. A few months ago we applied for some funding from the Keep Stockport Caring Fund ran by Sector 3 and were lucky enough to be awarded enough money to make this a reality.

We’re really excited about this opportunity and will let you know when it goes to print.