Friends Action North East (FANE) is a Newcastle based registered charity that was set up in 2005 by and for adults with a learning disability to explore inclusive ways to support and champion independent friendships. We support adults with learning disabilities, autistic spectrum disorder and/or mental health problems to combat social isolation by gaining the skills, knowledge and experience needed to build and maintain meaningful and lasting friendships.

By working closely with people and their supporters we help people to overcome the barriers they face and support them to achieve personalised goals around building long lasting friendships and community connections.

We deliver a series of workshops to tackle current issues and barriers to friendship such as: Social interaction, barriers to friendships, staying safe on social media, online safety and using a mobile phone.

Alongside the workshops we offer lots of social groups to practice the skills gained on the workshops, we do all sorts of groups such as: Art, walking, yoga, dance, photography and social nights and we also do 1:1 mentoring where we can match an individual up with a volunteer to work on their specific friendships skills and breaking down barriers in small realistic steps.

We do offer most of our groups face to face, however we also run a few zoom on-line socials for those who prefer this platform.