CUMBERLAND COUNTY, Pa. — The Neurodiverse Network Community Center may just become the home away from home for neurodiverse people in Pennsylvania.
Director and founder Leann Firestone started the nonprofit in 2022 for individuals, like herself, who have invisible disabilities.
One program goal is to bridge the gap between support services and peer groups.
“I rationalize and empathize with what everybody is going through because I am going through it as well. Most of our support groups are peer-led and everything is by people that are actually experiencing what they’re going through,” Firestone said.
Neurodiversity expresses itself in many ways with some of the most well-known being autism, ADHD, intellectual disability, dyslexia, dyscalculia, epilepsy, hyperlexia and dyspraxia.
Firestone and her team of volunteers took inclusion seminars at schools and medical offices across the Commonwealth for over two years.
They’ve since opened a community center in Cumberland County to teach emotional regulation.
The nonprofit offers a variety of activities for neurodiverse people of all ages including tot time, adult yoga and Lego nights.
“We want to just [foster] a local community,” Firestone said.
However, it took a whirlwind of problems to get to where they are now.
Last month, Firestone was one of many vendors whose stock was destroyed after a storm blew through the Enchanted Fair Festival in York County.
“We’ve had pretty much everything replaced," Firestone explained. "We’re still at a little bit of a loss from that weekend, but we’ve been able to recuperate a lot with everybody helping,”
Now, the nonprofit needs community support more than ever to keep providing programs at no cost.
“We are applying for grants and we’re trying to get funding from other sources but it’s really hard as a new nonprofit because we just opened our doors, and these are the first big expenses we have. We don’t have ten years of financial records because we’re so new,” Firestone said.
Interested individuals can help Neurodiverse Network continue to achieve its mission by donating monetarily online, with funds allocated to future additions such as a sensory library.