What The Nest offers, how participation works, who it is for, how support links to real-life outcomes, and how to get started.
The Nest provides neuroaffirming counselling, Specialist Behaviour Support, participation supports and navigation for Autistic, neurodivergent and LGBTIQA+ children, teens and adults.
Every person's support is shaped around their goals, communication, sensory needs, strengths and the life they want to build. Shared interests create the pathway into participation - but your support remains individual.
Every person's support is individual. These four streams are simply a way of understanding the kinds of support we provide. You do not need to know which one is right - we work that out together.
Rights-based, neuroaffirming Positive Behaviour Support that begins with access and understanding, not compliance.
Learn more →Counselling with a registered counsellor who works within scope, at a pace and in a style that fits you.
Interest-led participation, connection, confidence and everyday skills, built around what you genuinely care about.
Support to understand your options, make your own choices, and find your way through systems and community.
The Nest is not just about attending an activity. Supports are designed to help participants build the foundations for everyday life: feeling safe, communicating needs, joining in, building relationships, practising self-advocacy, developing confidence, managing transitions, increasing independence where appropriate, and participating more fully in community life.
We document what changes over time through participant voice, facilitator observations, family feedback and support team collaboration. This helps families, support coordinators, plan managers and review teams understand how support is contributing to participation, capacity building, independence and quality of life.
Meaningful interests create accessible opportunities for communication, participation, confidence and practical skill development.
These programmes are built around what people genuinely care about. Gaming, art, Dungeons and Dragons, Pokemon, music, movement, making things, being together. When participation is shaped around real interest, connection, confidence, communication and skill development are more accessible and sustainable. Shared interests are used as an accessible pathway into communication, participation, confidence, relationship-building and functional skill development.
Sessions are held at The Nest, our purpose-built space at Caloundra Rumba Resort on the Sunshine Coast. The Nest is sensory-aware and designed to feel welcoming, low-demand and human rather than clinical. It is a place where people can settle, connect, participate and build confidence in ways that make sense for them.
These outcomes may support NDIS goals relating to social participation, daily living skills, feeling safe, communication, self-management, community access and independence.
Caloundra Rumba Resort, Sunshine Coast QLD
The Nest is our home base. It has been built with sensory comfort, flexibility and low-demand access in mind. Sessions are small, shaped around what people actually love, and never run to a script.
Lighting, layout and noise levels are designed for a range of sensory profiles. You can arrive in whatever state you arrive in. Loud, quiet, talkative, non-speaking, settled, frayed - all of it is welcome.
You bring your interests. We bring the environment, pacing, support structure and skilled observation that help participation become possible.
The environment, pacing, support structure and participation pathways are intentionally designed around access needs and sustainable engagement.
The team in the room. The matching of people who share something in common. The setup that makes the space feel okay. The planning, matching, pacing, observation and support structures that help participation actually work and show what is changing over time.
If you are using NDIS funding, what is covered depends on your plan, goals and the disability-related support needs being addressed. We are happy to walk through this with you before you start - or your plan manager, support coordinator or trusted person can help you work it out.
Where NDIS funding is used, the claim relates to the individual disability-related support required to access and participate. The interest, friendship or ordinary activity is not itself the funded support.
Sessions run Monday to Saturday at The Nest in Caloundra, 52 weeks per year. We only close on public holidays. Use the filters to find sessions for a specific age range.
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Want more detailed session information?
The Session Information Tool explains participant experience, functional-capacity focus areas, likely support needs, and NE-delivered support descriptions across different age groups and support pathways.
The tool is informational only. Final support pathways and service alignment are reviewed by NE during follow-up.
Explore the Session Information Tool →Tell us what lights you up. When three or more people share the same interest, we build a session around it. New sessions are developed around shared interests, participant access needs, sustainable participation pathways and likely capacity-building outcomes.
Tell us about interests or environments that may make participation more accessible. This helps us understand possible session contexts; it does not guarantee a particular group, friendship or funded service.
The visible activity can be shared. The support is not. In the same room, one participant may be building communication and self-advocacy, another may be supported to enter and stay in a shared environment, and another may be implementing strategies from a Behaviour Support Plan. Each person's support is designed, delivered and evidenced individually. What always stays individual:
Sessions at The Nest happen alongside others who share similar interests. That is why you may see several team members working together in the space at the same time. People come with different access needs, and the environment is shaped so connection and participation can happen more naturally between people who actually share something in common.
The Nest supports communication, participation, confidence, self-management, feeling safe, self-advocacy, connection, independence and sustainable engagement through neuroaffirming, interest-led and identity-safe support environments.
The level and type of support are tailored to the individual and the way each session is designed.
Fees are confirmed for each participant in their service agreement and Schedule of Supports. For a quote confirmed for your situation, please contact us.
If you are using NDIS funding, your plan manager, support coordinator or trusted person can help you work out how the cost fits with your plan.
The Nest is a neuroaffirming, LGBTIQA+ affirming and identity-safe space. It is not a general community program that accommodates difference on paper. It is a place built around neurodivergent access needs, sensory safety, sustainable participation, identity-safe participation and meaningful disability-related outcomes - by people who understand those experiences from the inside.
If you are a parent, carer, partner, sibling, or someone who walks alongside a person who comes to The Nest - you are welcome here too.
Many of the people who come to The Nest do not come on their own. Family looks different for everyone, and so does the role you play in someone's day-to-day life. Some families want to be closely involved in what happens at sessions. Others prefer to drop off and pick up. Some want to talk through what is working and what is not, and others want a quiet space to themselves while their person is here.
We work with you in whatever way fits your family. Where the person you love wants you involved, we welcome that. Where they want their time at The Nest to be just theirs, we hold that too.
People come to The Nest in different ways. Some use NDIS funding where their goals and plan allow it. Some come privately. You do not need a diagnosis, an NDIS plan, or anything else worked out in advance to start a conversation with us.
If you are using NDIS funding, we can help you think through how The Nest may relate to your goals, disability-related support needs, participation, capacity building and functional outcomes. Final funding decisions remain the responsibility of the participant, nominee, plan manager, support coordinator and/or NDIA, depending on the plan.
Tell us a little about yourself and what you are looking for. We will respond within two business days.
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