Foundations for Divergent Minds

04/03/2026

As you can see by the picture below, we have been planning physical infrastructure. We are far enough along in the process to show people what we're doing. But I (Oswin) want to talk about something personal that has come up for me.

I often am introduced with my positionality statement. I think people think it is to show I'm "the most marginalized." I've never read it that way. Each of these identities shape how I come to this work, including my Choctaw identity. A number of years ago, I found that some of my early writing had been analyzed for a paper on BIPOC Autistic (and maybe autism) parents. It found I didn't really talk about my culture in my writing.

This is not surprising. My culture is extremely personal to me. I had proximity to the revitalization of the Choctaw Nation through my cousins. I was a child and never really understood the discussions that were happening in my home and that of my cousins and aunts. As an adult, I've slowly understood more and more. Not only through deep learning but through embodiment. I recognize what they did more fully now that I am building our community's independent research hub.

This center will be a home for neurodivergent researchers and clinicians. It is a place where we as a community can steer the direction of research and practice standards. We will continue to focus on the same three areas - Education, Health, and Safety and will continue to be based here in Texas where we can have the most impact on every day lives.

I hope I'm making my cousins proud in the great beyond. I hope this is seen as continuing the project of using our cultural knowledge to protect the thriving of our community.

Image description: A slide from a presentation shows on the left a picture with a yellow background, white circle and black lines around and down with a hand touching the bottom lines. It is meant to look like turning on a light bulb. To the right it is a red quarter circle. Below that is the picture of a sensory room. To the left is a purple quarter circle. The text states:

Our Vision
1. Therapy incubator for neurodiversity-affirming practitioners
2. Research labs - naturalistic research labs for research partners
3. Community Center - sensory rooms, gaming lounge, and lending library for members

With the FDM logo in the top right corner.

04/03/2026

8 years ago this month, we started offering our very first courses for parents and professionals. These were small groups of 5-10 people attending webinars where we taught the Divergent Minds framework. In the years since, we have further developed the framework and partnered with wonderful therapists and behavior analysts to tailor those courses for specific professional groups.

As this World Autism Acceptance Day comes to a close, we are pleased to announce we have completed the development of our course for Texas educators. It is now available to take for free on our website. We want to thank Rebecca Engle for developing the materials, Alex Kronstein for editing the videos, and the generous support from The Jalonick Family Memorial Fund of The Dallas Foundation.

This course is different from our previous courses. It includes 15 case studies - 6 teaching the 6 foundations of the Divergent Minds framework with 5~ minute video explanations, 6 more combining those foundations, and 3 as a final assessment. Each of the lessons includes example goals, accommodations, and classroom modification recommendations for the case studies. We hope this design allows people to learn how to provide classroom support without the time bottleneck of traditional courses.

This course provides classroom case studies applying the Foundations for Divergent Minds Framework. It offers 12 real-world scenarios with Neurodiversity-affirming interpretations, TEKS alignment, IEP goals, and accommodations across the six core areas. By the end of this course, you'll understand h...

01/30/2026

Foundations for Divergent Minds is a Neurodiversity based organization changing how neurodivergent people are supported in their local communities. We make every effort to understand the current state of the Neurodiversity movement to ensure we are making choices to help neurodivergent people. We not only observe this within the Neurodiversity movement but also within larger society.

We have seen many concerning developments that we believe Neurodiversity advocates, activists, and allies need to know. In this webinar, we will spend 45 minutes discussing the trends we are seeing, what we are doing as an organization, and how we see supporting the community. The last 45 minutes we will open the webinar up for questions, both for specific issues we discuss and for any specific recommendations you need for your local organizing activities.

The first 45 minutes will be recorded and shared with anyone who registers regardless if they can attend in person. We will not record the last 45 minutes to ensure people feel safe sharing their local community needs.

Image Description: At the top is purple text that says "State of the Neurodiversity Movement" then "February 6, 2026" and "2:00 pm ET/1:00 pm CT/11:00 am PT". Under the text is a light blue blob with a black clipart of a person looking at a laptop with another person waving. On the back of the person's chair is the FDM logo with a brain broken up into 12 rainbow colored squares.

01/13/2026

FDM Services at Risk - Update Inside

What happened?
On December 23, we found out that the fundraising and webmaster service company we were using filed for bankruptcy on December 19 with several thousand dollars of donation.

Where are we now?
To date, we have raised 20% of our $5000 goal, and one recurring donor has restarted monthly donations.

On December 23, we found out the fundraising and webmaster service company we were using filed for bankruptcy on December 19 with several thousand dollars of donations.

01/02/2026

We need your help.

2025 was an amazing year of growth for FDM as you can see by these images. This is all due to your donations and your support. Whether you gave monthly donations, recommended us to colleagues, told other parents about us, or wrote about us in academic journals or resource lists, we have seen the impact this last year more than any before. Unfortunately, circumstances out of our control have put us in a bind that requires a rapid response.

On December 19, 2025, our fundraising platform filed for bankruptcy following a cease and desist order from the state of California. FDM is a party to the bankruptcy due to several thousand dollars of unprocessed donations from August to December. We had been communicating with the company several times a month throughout the year due to their slow processing.

This is not just how we process payments though. They were an all in one service offering webmaster and hosting services. We have moved donations off their platform and updated the website to a new service. But now we need to raise funds to replace what has been lost and prevent our website from going dark.

If you can help, visit https://divergentminds.org/donate.html

Carousel description: 7 images in rainbow order with a curved dashed line running across each image. Text on each image says: "We need your help" "But first... Let's see what $5,000 in donations accomplished in 2025" "Your donations provided a digital platform for companies, conferences, and community partners to engage FDM for presentations in 2025. 6 presentations" "Your donations allowed therapists, parents, and neurodivergent people to find the help they required. 16 consultations" "3 University partnerships. Your donations enabled university teams to partner with FDM on community-based research studies." "Your donations gave free access to Neurodiversity-aligned continuing education. 102 course sign ups" "Help us Bridge the Gap" with a red "Donate" button.

12/26/2025

Urgent Need: Fundraising Platform Files Bankruptcy - https://mailchi.mp/9434c7d37065/urgent-need-fundraising-platform-files-bankruptcy

The fundraising platform that Foundations for Divergent Minds has used for the past two years filed for bankruptcy on December 19, 2025. We are greatly impacted by this development and need urgent funds to ensure our “digital lights stay on.”

The fundraising platform that Foundations for Divergent Minds has used for the past two years filed for bankruptcy on December 19, 2025. We are greatly impacted by this development and need urgent funds to ensure our “digital lights stay on.”

12/24/2025

End of Year Donation Need

We received notification yesterday that our fundraising platform filed for bankruptcy. We have been attempting since August to have our funds released. While we were able to recover some of the funds last month, we still have several thousand that have not been transferred. With their bankruptcy, we are unlikely to recover these funds.

FDM relies on our monthly donations to pay for our website, e-learning portal, and miscellaneous other expenses. We are seeking end of year donations to help cover the shortfall of not receiving these funds.

Donations can be made through our website at www.divergentminds.org/donate.html

Image description: Bright red background with dark red and pink thick slanted lines across the bottom. In the middle is a white speech bubble with the words "IMPORTANT We need donations to cover immediate expenses." with a large red and white bullhorn at the bottom of the speech bubble.

10/30/2025

Our podcast, Herding Cats, preserves the voices that started it all, the early advocates of the Neurodiversity Movement.

Through storytelling and conversation, we’re documenting the history that shaped today’s Neurodiversity community, creating a living archive for the next generation of activists and community builders.

Supported by AbleNet, this project ensures that our stories told.

Listen wherever you get your podcast or at https://feeds.captivate.fm/herding-cats-by-fdm/

10/18/2025

Hello everyone!

We wanted to update you all on what we're doing over here since we've been pretty silent this year. Then we also have a request from all of you so we can access a new Facebook feature. This will be super long.

First, the request: Facebook has started allowing broadcast channels like there are on TikTok. This is a way to get direct messages with updates from the page. We would like to be able to use this for anyone interested in our education services, presentations we're doing, and podcast announcements. However, we are a little less than 200 followers shy of having this feature available. We'd love help hitting 10,000 followers so we can let you know about these things. We will not use the broadcast feature for fundraising activities.

Next, the university partnerships we've established over the past few years have had the research approved and funded. We have been attending meetings to get the work started. We are so incredibly excited about how these both will shift practice to be Neurodiversity affirming.

Third, we are 2/3 of the way complete on our e-learning course for Texas educators. We had several delays and are adjusting to get this completed by the end of the year.

As well, next week, we will be recording the last 3 episodes of Herding Cats. We are using a service to help us get more grants so we are hopeful we will be able to continue the series next year. If you've been enjoying it, and are in the position to have your business donate, we are happy to give you a shout out. We will need to raise $5000 to do another 12 episodes next year, including paying other elder Autistic activist to come talk about their experiences from the early days. We have interested people already both here in the States as well as from Europe.

We were also invited to go on a business talk radio show to talk about FDM, what we do, and funding struggles in this time for nonprofits. Oswin recorded with them last week, and we will share the interview once it airs.

Last, we have been networking locally in the disability business community. We have some BIG goals that benefit not only the local community but can create a proof of concept that can be duplicated anywhere. It'll be several years down the line.

If you read this far, thank you. We understand that this is a lot.

04/17/2025

This week, we have heard pretty troubling rhetoric coming out about autistic people from the federal government. We spoke about the fact that this was going to happen in our March 7th episode of Herding Cats. You can hear what we already had to say starting at the 16 minute mark. While this all comes as no surprise, the effects on our community will continue to get worse. It is a pattern we've seen before, and we know where it leads.

You can listen wherever you get your podcasts or at the RSS feed below:

https://feeds.captivate.fm/herding-cats-by-fdm/

Quickly and easily listen and subscribe to Herding Cats by FDM for free in your podcast app of choice.

02/04/2025

Are you a teacher in Texas looking to contribute to putting Neurodiversity into practice?

FDM is seeking to contract with a Texas educator to ensure our project embeds classroom experience. The educator will be working with our team to create scenarios and ensure measurable progress in learning the course material. Preference for Dallas- or Plano-based educators with an understanding of Neurodiversity-aligned and Neurodiversity-affirming practices.

Contract for 9 months for $5000. Full details at:

Advancing Equality for Neurodivergent People