Raising neurodivergent + disabled kids in an ableist world is hard. 

Don’t do it alone.

Care Lab Collective is an online refuge for parents of neurodivergent and disabled kids seeking the supportive community and affirming resources they need to feel less alone, stressed out, and overwhelmed.

Care Lab Collective makes it dramatically easier for parents like us to find each other, access peer-curated resources, attend affirming worships and build lasting networks of mutual support.

  • Connect with a vibrant community of fellow parents who “get it.”

    No matter your child’s age or stage - we know firsthand that having a strong network of mutual support is crucial.

  • Community gatherings, live and pre-recorded workshops, and, increasingly over time, in-person special events — all guided by a range of parent-advocates, researchers, and service providers committed to showing up in neurodiversity and disability-affirming ways.

  • A treasure trove of trustworthy and disability-affirming resources, recommended/created by fellow members, providing you with the information you need to parent and advocate with more confidence.

  • Find other parents living in your area, connect directly, and share local resources.

This unique member community is a national scale-up of a proven prototype — a local peer support group created by CLC’s co-founder in 2021 — that’s become a trusted online home base for 450+ parents.

Co-Founders Rachel Henes & Jessica Mingus

Care Lab Collective was created by two moms of neurodivergent kids with decades of experience building supportive spaces for young people, families, and front-line staff inside New York City schools, agencies and organizations.

The internet is full of “expert-led” parenting sites. But what caregivers yearn for — and struggle to find — is community.

Care Lab Collective is here to change that.

  • “Before I found this community, I felt super isolated. That all changed with an invite to the group. I found my people, heard stories of parents who had kids just like mine, got connected with resources, and renewed my confidence enough to trust my gut and advocate for my child.”

    —D.T.

  • "The most helpful thing has been learning from and finding community with other parents. It's from other parents that I learned how to request an evaluation - and what to do when we were at first denied an IEP. It's through other parents that I learned to ask for certain services, how to conduct an effective IEP meeting, and how to make sure accommodations in the IEP were being followed."

    —M.H.

  • "What Care Lab Collective does, is allow us to feel like we have resources. We have supports within an experience that can be very, very isolating. These are our lifeline to know that there are other people that are facing the same things as you, to know that there are resources that are specific to your experience. It can be absolutely life changing in terms of improving a child and a family's quality of life."

    —M.B.

  • "Care Lab Collective is something that I couldn't have even dreamed up knowing that I needed. But knowing that it's on the precipice of existing is it gives me just so much hope and joy, truly that parents like me, parents who haven't even started this journey yet, parents who have been doing it for a long time, will have these resources."

    —M.N.