Having joined Community Catalysts in December 2018, I have loved meeting and working with such inspiring and amazing people setting up their own small enterprises in rural communities. We started our work in Cherwell District of Oxfordshire in September 2020 and with a great outcome where 86 CMEs set up under the project we are now working in the Vale of White Horse (VoWH)

The project is mainly focused in Wantage and surrounding area of the VoWH.

Particularly services that meet peoples wishes and choices for their care and support, enabling them to lead happy, fulfilled, safe and independent lives. We do have more of a focus on the services being set up and providing for people that have learning difficulties and disabilities. These can be group activities or one to one support that can help people to do the activities that they enjoy and want to do more of.

I have a deep passion for all services to be available for everyone – this has underpinned all of my approaches. During the last 20 years of working with children, families and communities, my experience in various settings has included Special Educational Needs, residential, children’s and family centres and young people’s projects. Being mindful of what helps people build their resilience and recognising strengths and challenges, while proactively seeking and achieving sustainable changes, are achieved by connecting people. My desire to advocate for those dealing with challenging issues has led me to design and facilitate workshops such as ‘inclusive best practice’, ‘real life-real tools autism’ and ‘whole family approach’.

Ensuring peoples’ voices are heard is extremely important to me, feeding into my “don’t assume” stance, person-centered focus.

My free time is varied. I love being busy and active from gardening, walking, reading, enjoying live music and social time. Riding my motorbikes is my true passion and I feel most at home when I am out on the road, especially when I have some good waterproofs on!