Facilitation.

I love seeing people grow.

Much of my professional life has centred on designing and delivering training, away days, and consultation events for individuals or groups. I have worked with homeless men and women, young people leaving local authority care, learning-disabled adults, and children and young people. Whatever the situation, being part of someone’s journey brings me joy.

Skills

Exploration Listening Communication Inclusivity
Engagement Flexibility Creativity Leadership

ArtfulScribe

November 2023 to present

Assistant facilitator

I freelance for ArtfulScribe, a writer development agency, and provide weekly term-time writing support to children and young people in Southampton's MAST Mayflower Studios. The lead facilitator takes responsibility for the session, and I am their lovely assistant. Think Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee, but with less Lycra and all the magic. I capture the sessions by writing a weekly blog, which is available on the ArtfulScribe website and linked here.

November 2023 to present

Lead facilitator

When called upon to lead sessions for ArtfulScribe, I devise workshops that are engaging and interactive. I taught the 7-10 and 11-14-year-old groups how to create characters and pitched them against each other as protagonists and antagonists. You can read the blog about that session here. We have also explored descriptive writing using the senses, which involved eating a lot of red onion and raisins. You can read what happened here. Working with the 15-18-year-old group, we discussed how to give effective feedback to develop their own and each other's writing. The blog for that session is here.

February 2025

Bournemouth Youth Forum

I devised and ran a consultation workshop with the young people from Bournemouth's Youth Forum, in preparation for the Bournemouth Writing Festival. This included trialling exercises and receiving their feedback on the ones that would appeal to their age range. They shared their ideas and helped steer the content of the drop-in sessions.

April 2025

Bournemouth Writing Festival

I was responsible for the day-long drop-in for children and young people at the Bournemouth Writing Festival 2025. I worked with my ArtfulScribe colleagues and recruited volunteers from Bournemouth University’s Creative Writing and Publishing MA programme to provide additional support. One popular exercise involved participants drawing around a hand, filling it in with what they loved about writing, and hanging it on the washing line. Young people who wanted a longer activity, chose flashcards to determine a character trait, location, and goal, and wrote how they overcame the obstacle. We lost count of how many people joined us during the day!

Life before writing

I worked as a support worker and manager in social care and higher education, with a common thread of facilitation, training, and consultancy throughout these roles.

For twelve years, I worked for Minstead Trust, a learning disability charity, supporting adults to grow plants and maintain the charity’s public heritage garden. During this time, I also took on a project management role. I assisted it to move from a small to a medium-sized organisation by managing multiple projects and setting up two new day services. I consulted the adults with learning disabilities, staff, and volunteers and delivered training on new processes.

I spent three years working at Southampton Solent University, managing two teams in student support. I provided strategic vision and leadership to support students' mental health and well-being so they could thrive in their studies. I chaired meetings, facilitated away days and coordinated World Mental Health Day events.

The mentoring project I set up and managed for nine years required me to recruit, train, and supervise volunteers to support young people leaving local authority care. I ensured care leavers were involved in every stage of the process, acting as experts on who makes a good mentor. I also co-ran a group for care leavers to produce their own newsletter.