Tees Valley Buddies

What Is Social Prescribing??

Some of our members find us through social prescribing 💜💚
(It can also be called different things depending on your area)

It’s when a health or social care professional connects you with community support. Usually, you’ll speak to a link worker who helps find what suits you.

How to access it:
Ask your GP surgery, they usually have a social prescriber or link worker attached and can arrange an appointment. It’s free, and you don’t need to be in crisis.

Have you heard of it before or used it?

⬇️ Let us know or ask any questions

What a beaut of a week! The turtles are back out sunning themselves so of course, our thursday walk means more deliberations on how many turtles there are, are they even real if no one has seen one actually move or is it in fact the same turtle that someones friend lost that perhaps got released into the pond.
Plus lots of sharing of those random pieces of knowledge, us autistic and adhd-ers like to hold onto for these exact moments.

Note shorts guy (our fascilitator Dan) hiding out of shot because cameras.

If youre not quite sure if we're the right fit for you, pop along and experience our community and you'll find we're all welcomed and embraced here.

**Dont worry, not embraced literally, most of us hate hugs!

See you next Thursday folks for more shenanigans!

Do you need a formal diagnosis to come to TVB?

Absolutely not.

You don’t need a diagnosis, referral, or anything official to attend our groups.

We know the process of getting diagnosed can be long, inaccessible, or just not something everyone wants to go through. Some people in our community are diagnosed, some are self-identified, and some are still figuring things out.

If you feel like you’d benefit from the space, we’d love for you to join us.

Who are TVB groups for? 🧠🌈

This might sound weird, but a lot of the people who end up coming to TVB are the ones who almost didn’t. The ones who sat and thought about it for ages, assuming they wouldn’t fit in.

I think it’s safe to say almost everyone attending one of our groups for the first time people feel a bit (or a lot) anxious and unsure of themselves. Some are really quiet at first, some are masking their way through it, some don’t know what to say or where to stand. That’s all very normal here.

We’ve got a mix of members and volunteers. Some have diagnoses, some are figuring things out, some just know they’ve never really fit in typical social spaces. We have a range of ages from 18+ (the majority of us sit between 25-45 but there is certainly no upper limit) and many of our members are part of the q***r community so we are a strictly judgement free zone.

It’s also a very… quietly geeky group. Shared interests come up a lot, but no one’s expected to be into anything specific.

I think the easiest way to explain TVB is that it feels like that friend who notices you if you say something in a group and it gets missed, and they circle back to you so you feel heard. You don’t get talked over or brushed past in the same way a lot of people are used to.

If you’re reading this and thinking
‘I don’t know if I’d fit in there’ then you probably have more in common with the group than you realise. 💜💚

Middlesbrough Lottery📌📌

Did you know you can support our charity and enter a draw to win up to £25k?? 💰💰

£1 per ticket, as often or as little as you like.

Every penny helps keep our charity running and allows us to continue supporting neurodivergent people in the Tees Valley area

See link below if you want to be in with the chance to win 👇👇 please gamble responsibly

https://www.middlesbroughlottery.co.uk/support/tees-valley-buddies