Welcome to CAIM Empowers, thank you for stopping by :)

CAIM Empowers is a Social Change and Inclusion Consultancy that is based in Ireland, we set up on February 29th 2024 as we wanted to make that extra day count. I Faye Hayden, Director of Services and MD of CAIM Empowers, have always been very social justice oriented with human rights and equality being central to my definition of personal success, I was a little bit sick and tired of going to presentations about Neurodiversity that failed to actually teach me anything meaningful about how to support my Neurodivergent children and my Neurodivergent self (diagnosed with ADHD at age 47 - no surprise to anyone!)  As an ADHDer I am not great at keeping quiet, so 'contributing' to courses and programs I attended  and using my own knowledge of Neurodiversity that I acquired through over 10 years of research, both as a determined parent to better understand the very complex needs of my children and the many Neurodivergent people in my life, and also as an academic researcher following the completion of my MA in Social Justice and Public Policy in 2022. I wanted to do something myself to try and better support the people in my life and the many families that I encountered in a similar position to us. 

So, I decided that I would set up my own organisation and do my best to improve the life experiences of Neurodivergent young people and their families. They deserve better and I was determined to deliver better, I wanted CAIM Empowers to be the service, the information, the support that I needed when I was at my darkest hour.  What I needed many years ago, to make me realise that I needed to focus on what was wrong for my son, not what was wrong with him. That I needed to be the 'what' in our lives that changed.

That is how CAIM Empowers came to exist. A dear friend of mine gave me the pearl of wisdom 'make it exist first and then make it great', that is what we are trying to do with CAIM Empowers, as I soon realised that I could use my skill set, experience, knowledge and voracious drive to achieve positive change. to support many groups of people and most especially young people, who I have worked with for over 35 years (I designed my first summer camp when I was 14 for the children I used to babysit for). So CAIM Empowers quickly evolved into an Organisation whose key focus is on young people, particularly young people with fewer opportunities, this very much includes Neurodiverent young people, but is not limited to solely AND youth, we work with lots of young people and the people in their lives.. 

CAIM Empowers believe that every young person needs two things in life to thrive, and all of our work is focused on creating those two things: Safety and Value. Achieving this improves self respect and empowers young people to be whoever they want to be - whatever that looks like. Collaboration is at the core of everything that we do, and our wide network of partners, facilitators and contributors from around the EU and associated countries helps us to deliver many exciting, impactful projects and opportunities for young people - there is no better feeling in the world than seeing a young person thrive and that is CAIM Empowers; core goal.

At CAIM Empowers, young people take the lead and we collaborate with them to transform their future, all of our futures.

Book a free consultation to discuss how you can get involved with what we do. 

Reflections

As Neurodiversity Celebration Week draws to a close, I think it is really important to discuss the challenges of Neurodivergence and remember that we ALL can help ND people to navigate those challenges of we approach situations with respect and compassion - which is about so much more than just the buzz words de jour and tone.

Through our attitudes and actions every one of us has the power to reduce and even eliminate those challenges for ND people. It is like putting in a ramp where stairs are a barrier to wheelchair users. Equality!

RSD - Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria is very common in ADHD. People With ADHD often receive constant negative messages, microaggression and criticism from a very early age, which has a very harmful impact on self esteem. We are almost always seen as 'too much' in various formats.

It is feedback that I'm willing to accept and work on, I simply ask that it is given in a way that helps my understanding and I hope everyone reading this is open to learning and growing in the way ND people are asked/expected to. So please:

- Put context around feedback. Why are you giving the feedback - Is it a personal irritation? Is it something many people are bothered by? If so, give specific examples or explore it together as a group, so it feels less isolating.

- Create time and space for discussion. For example book a room, a space, give time to answer questions, because ADHDers ask a lot of questions, we are highly detail oriented and NEED to ask a lot of questions. for it to make sense. It is not OK to grab 5 minutes in a public space and just vomit out the feedback, they may be us easier for you but it isn't easier for ADHDers - we need time, answers, and respect.

- Do not make suggestions to help us 'fit in' with neurotypical standards, we aren't neurotypical - we are different but not less, we don't want to have to become someone else to fit it, we want to belong as we are and we don't want you to tolerate or accept us as if you have the right/superiority to do so. We are your equals, there is not a binary right and wrong to communication.

- Check in to see that we're OK after you've given the feedback. If you can't find us, we're probably hiding in the toilet crying - yes we do take it very personally!

Negative feedback is a normal part of life, and we can all grow from it, but when you have ADHD it's no joke! However, just like a joke it's all about the way you tell it and ADHDers are not 'snowflakes' trust me we are highly resilient, we have to be to navigate this world set up for Neurotypical brains, but respect is everything and respect is multi dimensional.

So try to be compassionate, no matter what words you use, the intention is never as important as the impact! So please remember you can very easily invalidate, exclude and harm the mental health and self esteem of a person with ADHD. So before feeding back,check your bias and be sure it's absolutely necessary.