Crystal Higgins: A journey of strength and sisterhood

When Crystal was younger, she and her brother ended up in foster care and got separated, which was traumatic for her. But through this experience, Crystal has always been focussed on helping others, and building strong bonds of community.

Crystal is one of the founding members of the Girls Group, a safe space for women with learning disabilities and autistic women in her area who have similarly struggled with past trauma, abuse, and low self-esteem. The members of the Girls Group meet every Monday, and have a laugh, chat, and play games.

Through this supportive sisterhood, they can connect over their experiences, and speak to the issues important to them. Crystal says members can share as much or as little as they want and will not be judged. As part of this, Crystal organises birthday parties and events and edits their newsletters.

This sense of community is important to Crystal, as during past experiences of abuse she was isolated from family and friends. Crystal is passionate about protecting others from these experiences and has created a ‘Keeping Yourself Safe’ board in her supported living home to help her housemates stay safe, recognise abuse, and know where to get help. Crystal says,

“not everyone knows what abuse is, they don’t know they’re going through it, they don’t understand it.”

Crystal is also training to become a Safeguarding Champion in Achieve Together, where she will train other people with learning disabilities and autistic people about keeping themselves safe from abuse.

Passionate about giving back, Crystal also regularly organises charity events in her community. She organised a sponsored sports day and walk, where they raised £350 for domestic abuse victims, helped collect clothes and books for an orphanage in Africa, raised £189 at a McMillan coffee morning and raised £1,000 for Comic Relief with a bake off.

Crystal also helps to run the Wheel of Engagement podcast, which is run by people with learning disabilities and autistic people from self-advocacy group Campaign 4 Change, Unity and Achieve Together. On the podcast, the hosts get together to discuss a variety of themes, spanning politics, mental health, sexuality, healthy lifestyles, and community engagement.