I was born and grew up in a quiet Cambridgeshire village on a small housing estate with little or no accesses to services or activities. As a young person I participated in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and volunteered in our local newly established youth club… the rest as they say is history.

I have worked for Cambridgeshire County Council (CCC) for 27 years (30 years including prior voluntary work with Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and an amazing Youth Theatre group Enigma) and have grown through youth work from a volunteer to Principal Youth Officer. I currently work as Communities Service Manager as part of the Strategy and Partnership Service within CCC. Our service offer supports communities to develop their own Youth Offer with support for governance, funding and professional youth work development. We support many other workstreams that contribute to RPA, NEET Reduction, Employability and Skills, Young Carers, SEND young people and their Preparation for Adulthood and National Citizens Service. We enable the development of detached, community and building based community development that is strengths based and asset focused. We champion youth voice and participation and are proud of the work of our Youth Engagement Partnership (YEP). I am passionate about championing and achieving more for our vulnerable and marginalised groups especially our wonderful SEND young people, with whom I am blessed to work with through the Castle School locally. Although most of my time is behind a screen I work hard to get out and about and stay connected to young people, their communities and to understand the issues and challenges that are most important to them.

Despite the changes to Youth Services and the challenges faced over the last 25 years I am incredibly proud that my organisation seeks to retain a focus on the value of youth work and support its development and delivery wherever it can. I am surrounded by amazing colleagues many of whom are professionally rooted in Youth Work as JNC qualified practitioners.
I now live in a larger Cambridgeshire village with my two girls and our Spaniels. We benefit from some vibrant community organisations and can be heard as part of our amazing Community Choir Tyrannochorus and seen in the annual Pantomime with Cottenham Theatre Workshop.

I am a founding member of the Regional Youth Work Unit and value the peer support and energy working with so many amazing colleagues across both the voluntary and statutory sector brings.