ADHD Parent Support Group
The summer break has flown by and the new school year has started. Whether you’ve had a great summer or it’s been a difficult few weeks, if you’re parenting a child with ADHD, you are very welcome to join us at the Dog and Partridge on Tuesday 9th September between 7.00 pm and 9.00 pm.
Address:
The Dog and Partridge
272 Buxton Road (The A6)
Great Moor
Stockport
SK2 7AN
The dates for the rest of our 2025 parent and carer meet ups are available so that you can add them to your diary.
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.
October is ADHD Awareness Month. Our team do our best to raise awareness and celebrate the strengths of ADHD all year round, but in October we get a little bit louder.
There are those who would question the point of having an awareness month, when of course our children have ADHD all year round, but the point of an awareness month is to amplify the message. As a small charity our voice can only go so far, but when lots of small charities and other organisations all shout together at the same time we get a lot louder and manage to reach a lot more people.
As a small charity, we don’t have the resource to create lots of content, so throughout this month in addition to any new material we’ll also be resharing some videos and other content from the last few years.
We will be holding our usual monthly meet up for parents and carers on Tuesday 10th October at The Dog and Partridge from 7.00 pm until 9.00 pm. We meet every month on the second Tuesday of the Month from 7.00 pm until 9.00 pm. Unfortunately there are still a couple of places online suggesting that we meet on Wednesdays, which are doing our best to get updated. A full list of our meet ups for the rest of the year are available on this website. We also have a parent and carer email list where we send a monthly reminder along with any other news we have.
Our monthly meet ups are for parents and carers and provide an opportunity to meet other parents who share the same challenges.
Over the next year we’re planning to create some more resources for those who work with people who have ADHD in a professional capacity. Our focus will always be on families but we know that there are lots of teachers, sports coaches and other professionals who’d love to know more about ADHD, so that they can support the children they work with.
Our focus for this year is to keep reminding people of the facts about ADHD and make sure that local parents and carers know that we exist.
October is officially ADHD Awareness Month.
Here at S.P.A.C.E. we like to celebrate ADHD Awareness all year round, but in October everybody else joins in and the message gets a lot louder.
Unfortunately ADHD, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, to use its official name, is a condition surrounded in myths, misinformation and stigma. ADHD Awareness Month helps people learn new things, establish new contacts and generally improve the lives of those with ADHD.
During October we will be sharing more content than usual on our social media channels, including material from other organisations we trust. October is a great time to find new sources of information and support.
We’ll be holding our usual monthly meet up for parents and carers of children with ADHD. This month’s meet up falls on Wednesday 12th October. We will be at The Dog and Partridge pub on the A6 between 7.00 pm and 9.00 pm. We are based in Stockport, Greater Manchester but regularly chat to parents from other places. Sadly not all areas have a local group that parents can go to, so we’re happy to welcome people from further afield.
A few months ago we were approached by a television production company and asked to be involved in a documentary starring the amazing Tanya Bardsley. Tanya, best known for being a star of TV show Real Housewives of Cheshire, was diagnosed with ADHD just before her 40th birthday. Tanya’s son Rocco also has a recent ADHD diagnosis and she wanted to use her celebrity to improve the situation for families with ADHD.
The documentary airs at 9.00 pm on Thursday 6th October on ITV Be.
We have recently updated our Spotify playlist to include a number of new artists. Let us know if we’ve missed anyone.
As always the SPACE Team are available in our private Facebook group. If you have a Facebook account and would like to join the group, please request entry to the group. Please note that this group is strictly for parents and carers of children with ADHD only.
Have a brilliant ADHD Awareness Month and keep an eye on our social media platforms.
Claire and the S.P.A.C.E. Team
October is ADHD Awareness Month. Here at S.P.A.C.E. we celebrate ADHD and raise awareness all year round, as do our families and lots of other organisations working to support those with ADHD.
There is a long way to go before ADHD is properly understood and more importantly that those with ADHD are consistently supported in all areas of their lives. Having ADHD isn’t automatically a bad thing, but you certainly wouldn’t know it sometimes!
The myths and stereotypes associated with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder are pervasive and fuel not only ignorance and stigma about it, but also plays a huge part in denying early diagnosis and treatment to those who start to question whether the challenges that they or their children experience, are actually down to a neurodevelopmental disorder, rather than Anxiety, stress, laziness or good old fashioned bad behaviour.
Lots of people question why we have an Awareness Month, especially when despite it happening every year, there is still a staggering amount of ignorance and stigma associated with the condition. Here in the UK it is also Black History month and Breast Cancer Awareness month, in addition to several other worthy causes. The annual awareness calendar can make it feel as though there are so many things happening in October, that it’s just one more thing that most people won’t even notice.
The answer to the question of why do we celebrate ADHD Awareness month every year, is that October is an opportunity for lots of different organisations and individuals to shout at the same time and amplify the voices of those with ADHD. This is one of the ways that we are working towards lasting change.
SPACE may not be big, but we know the impact we’ve had on local families over the years. We’re proud of the fact that we’ve managed to educate lots of parents about ADHD, We’re proud of the fact that we’ve helped families learn about the strong hereditary factor associated with the condition. We’re proud of the fact that we are able to use our lived experience to reassure mums and dads that there is light at the end of the tunnel during those difficult days. We are proud that we have walked those difficult paths and we are extremely proud of the people our ADHD children grew into and we love to give that hope to those that are still walking that same difficult path. We proudly show off our adult children (who still have their ADHD, in case you were wondering) We’re proud of the fact that we are able to empower parents to support their children. We are small, but the work that we do is powerful.
We celebrate the ADHD community all year round. We raise awareness every single month and we are here to support local families every day of the year. The work we do is a 7 days a week, 52 weeks of the year commitment. Although we do our bit to raise awareness, fight stigma, correct misinformation and signpost to local services, we are a small charity ran by volunteers. This is too big a job for us to do on our own. We don’t have the resources to change the world on our own. Rather than have lots of organisations shouting now and again, we use ADHD Awareness Month as an opportunity to shout louder than ever. We share information from organisations that we trust. We tell people about events that we couldn’t afford to hold ourselves and we use this month as a time to focus on the task ahead of us.
Access to early diagnosis and support is crucial and can make a huge difference to families, educational achievement, romantic relationships and so much more.
Imagine how it feels for an adult to finally learn that their struggles are due to a lack of strategies for the way their brain works, rather than because of flaws in their character.
Imagine how different it would be for all children to grow up, knowing that they are still clever, even if they learn some subjects differently to their classmates.
We have been imagining for years – it’s time to make it a reality. ADHD Awareness Month is a great time to refocus and start another 12 months of fighting.
Who’s with us?
