Ambassadors

Charlie

In 2012, Charlie persuaded Active Essex to fund and run a Special School Games. Our Special School Games has since grown dramatically, providing the opportunity for thousands of young people to be involved, from the running of the event to taking part as competitors.

See here for more information on her Ambassador Programme.

Brian

Brian used to work for Active Essex at Essex County Council. He helped create Charlie’s Special School Games and introduce Essex County Council to the Multi School Council. 

Toby

Toby came up with the idea of hosting the Multi Schools talent show. He is key to breaking down perceptions around autism and ‘invisible’ disabilities. 

Wendy Smith

Wendy was a Paralympic athlete, representing Great Britain in the 2005 Paralympics in Athens as part of the wheelchair basketball team.

Gary Smith

Gary’s has been the headteacher at Market Field School for over 20 years. 

He was key to helping Kierran set up the Council.

Duncan

Duncan runs the Market Field college site and helps provide links to college groups – a key aspect of breaking down perceptions before children leave the education system.

Connell

Harry

Mason

Justine

Sam

Gen

Kristel

Elsie-Mae

Harrison

Pippa

Jonathan

Kim

Isla-Mae

William

Harry and Grace

Bethan and Rebecca

Jenson

Callum

Matthew

Annalese

Rosie

Rosie shone through lockdown and is starting to raise awareness through the power of media. 

Nicole 

Nicole is a sports star for the future and has made a big impact in our MSC meetings coming up with the idea of our charity walk. 

Lisa

Lisa a parent advacote with her own personal experiences and also experince from her working background on SEND and mental health. 

Alfie 

Alfie is keen to use his own personal experiences to break down perceptions in Secondary schools. 

Caitlin

Caitlin also sibling experience of SEN and is keen to support the ICT side of raising awareness. 

James

James bring so much energy to our group and is very keen to ensure more schools are getting involved in the multi-school’s council after he has been a key person in our North Essex meetings.

Sal

Sal is keen to raise awareness of gender differences and explore how we could engage people from the LGBT+ community and make the multi-schools council even more inclusive.

Lily

Lily joins her brother in becoming an ambassador and is passionate about raising awareness of autism in girls and is helping to ensure people understand how autism effects everyone differently.

Vicky

Vicky is one of our parent ambassadors who has her own with additional needs, Vicky is helping us to build better connections in the community.

Matt

Matt is a teacher at an Essex school and was put forward by our ambassador Jonathan as he is very much committed to making a difference to young people with additional needs.

Amy

Amy is committed to making sure more young people and adults understand visual impairments, challenging these negative perceptions and using her own experiences to build understanding. 

Rose

Very similar to Amy above, Rose is also very keen to break down perceptions towards people with visual impairments through any ways possible.

Annie

Annie was recommended to us by our ambassador Connell as she does some great work with autism Anglia and will help to spread our messages further, especially when this links to autism.

Jessica

Inspired by her sister Rosie, Jessica is one of our youngest ever ambassadors and brings some good early insights as her role as a school ambassador.

Ron

Ron is the dad of our ambassador Jonathan and experienced his own challenges while at school, this will help us to look at how things can be both positive and negative within education.

Casey

Casey does lots of work online to ensure there is more autism awareness and he will help to develop this side of work through the multi-schools council and continue to run his autism page through social media.

Reece

Reece has been involved with work towards ADHD awareness and improving his confidence, he will continue to do more towards ADHD and use his own experiences to inspire others.

Charlie H

Charlie was a great member of our resilience course and is very good at explaining his point of view and expressing his thoughts about people’s differences.

Keaton

Keaton was one of our lockdown stars after getting involved in our wellbeing sessions and will be key to helping raise awareness about both ADHD and autism while also helping with our sports initiatives.

Zakk

Zakk has also been involved in our resilience and confidence courses and has really blossomed throughout, we hope he will now help others to find their voices too.

Elsie F

Elsie has been on our radar for a while as she has been involved at school level with the multi-schools council and has some fantastic ideas on how to grow our work and improve connections between children.

Harrison MK 

Harrison got in contact with a local special needs school as he is really keen to make a difference in the community, especially towards how those with disabilities are seen. Harrison is a brilliant talker and will not only be an asset for public speaking roles but he will also be a good advocate for the many different areas.

Logan

Logan does lot’s of work online to raise awareness of peoples differences. He has a strong passion for music and drama and is able to use this talent to spread awareness. Logan will also help towards our fundraising efforts.

Nigel

Nigel has been involved with us since the very start filming lots of videos for us about a range of differences. Nigel recently volunteered his time to come and lead the climb up Mount Snowdon and since become an ambassador.

Michael

We have now released lots of music via the children of the multi-schools but behind all of that has been Michael and studio 6. Michael has been brilliant when working with a range of children and ensure all the children have felt comfortable when getting involved.

Kaitlin

Kaitlin has been a standout performer for many years in our MID Essex MSC meetings, becoming head girl two years in a row! Kaitlin brings some brilliant views to every meeting and has a great way of getting them across.

Steph

Steph contacted us and made us aware of all the brilliant work she is doing online and in her local community about a range of subjects. Steph has some clear plans on how to challenge negative perceptions and we know she will make a difference.

Bella

We met Bella during one of our resilience group courses and she stood out straight away because of her brilliant engagement. Bella has learnt from her own experiences and we feel she will be a fantastic role model for many young people.

Isobel

Isobel is the sister of one of our other ambassadors who has been heavily involved with us. Isobel wants to share her own experiences but also talk about what it’s like being a sibling of a child with additional needs and she will share some great knowledge here.

Lauren

Lauren once performed via the TV show X-factor and helps to challenge negative perceptions through music. Lauren is keen to spread positive awareness about autism and will do this in several ways.

Dilly

Dilly has joined our team and will be making a difference in her school and within other school projects. Dilly is really keen to help other children and spread awareness about some of the challenges she may have with health and different sensory aspects.

George

George is very passionate about challenging negative perceptions towards people with physical disabilities and creating more opportunities for all. George is playing a key role in our disability sports awareness group and is helping to educate others.

Oscar

We met Oscar as part of our second good practice seekers cohort and he spoke brilliantly about what makes an inclusive school. Oscar joins our ADHD awareness group and will help support the awareness programmes that we have developed in schools. 

Kelsey

Kelsey applied to be an ambassador after seeing some of our work via social media. Kelsey is keen to help with different groups to help young adults find the support they need. Kelsey has helped us to share content and will also join many of our different work groups.

Jo

Jo was an excellent SENCO who worked with us for years and helped two of our key ambassadors get involved in what we do. Jo will be an excellent an ambassador for us with some great knowledge and experience we can use.

Jake

We first met Jake during one of our ADHD awareness sessions at his school. Jake was so good at explaining ADHD from his perspective and has now joined our group focused on this area. Jake is keen to support several our groups and will be a great addition to our team.

Henry

We have known Henry for several years after working closely with his school. Henry has always been brilliant during our sessions and honest about different things. Henry done a good video for us following an ADHD session and we will look to build on this moving forwards.

Sarah

Sarah is a parent and joins our team as an adult with autism and ADHD. Sarah wishes to share her own experiences and help challenge negative perceptions towards people with different abilities.

Amelia-May 

Amelia-May stood out for us during several sessions at her school. Amelia-May gives some great views on different differences and showed lots of enthusiasm during our sessions.

Kate

Kate is another one who stood out during our school visits and has been enthusiastic in all our sessions. We first met Kate during lockdown as she joined our online sessions for resilience and was great during these. Kate will be great at inspiring others through her own experiences.

Ava-Grace

Ava-Grace also stood out during a resilience session held at her school. Ava-Grace was brilliant at talking about her feelings and emotions as part of the session and will be a great addition to our mental health team.

Lois

Lois is again another inspiring young person we met on our travels to different schools across the county. Lois gave a great insight into autism and spoke of different way’s she had learnt about it. Lois is so enthusiastic and will be a great addition to our team.

Mikey

We have known Mikey for some time as he used to attend our old football sessions and was a fantastic leader within those sessions not only playing but also getting involved with the referring side of things. Mikey can articulate things well and is an older role model for others.

Ruben

Ruben is one of our ever-youngest ambassadors and is keen to help us understand ADHD and other learning differences. Ruben always brings energy to our MSC meetings, and we look forward to seeing him develop with us on this journey as he grows into the role.

Hannah

Hannah joined as ambassador after being inspired but a video put up by another young person on our team. Hannah is passionate about challenging perceptions towards mental health and has already stepped forward and produced a tremendous monologue as part of a 2022 talent show.

Anthony

We met Anthony on one of our school visits and he stood out straight away. A very caring personality, Anthony is also very resilient as he has one of the rarest conditions. Anthony is a keen sportsman, and we know he will challenge many perceptions with us.

Sarah N

Sarah is the brilliant mum of two of our ambassadors and a wonderful advocate for what we do. Sarah has put in countless hours to support us and even helped raised money for our CIC too, she is a wonderful human!

Gracie

Gracie was in the same class as another young person we asked to be ambassador and immediately stood out for her knowledge, enthusiasm and understanding. Gracie also has some specific needs that she is keen to challenge perceptions about and we already love her energy!

Charlie F

Charlie was recommended to us by an educational colleague, and we are so glad he was! Charlie brings lots of enthusiasm and energy to our meetings and is keen to tell more people about ADHD and Tourette’s, something we have are yet to cover as part of the MSC work. 

Jacob

Where to start with Jacob? Jacob is a very talented young lad who has a passion for music and dance. Jacob has also helped us setup a deaf awareness group as part of the MSC and we are excited to see what we can do together to challenge perceptions here too.

Hannah L

Hannah is the wonderful sister of Jacob and wanted to become an ambassador at the same time. Hannah speaks so well about different challenges and shares her brother’s passion for challenging perceptions towards the deaf. Hannah has also helped us setup a rare syndromes group.

Ava K

Ava is very passionate about challenging perceptions all of Essex. Ava is all about teamwork and has made us think collaboratively about how we can bring our different ambassadors together. Ava is very thoughtful and cares a lot about supporting others.

Michael A

Recommended to us after he spoke well on an ambassador’s podcast Michael has a passion for music. Making sure we work collectively with people’s talents is important and we hope Michael will add some real value to this.

Tia

We have known Tia for some years after she really stood out in our MSC meetings and played a leading role as a head girl, speaking on our podcast through lockdown. Tia has now become an ambassador and as she moves into secondary school, we hope she can continue to challenge negative perceptions.

Aydin

Aydin is another young man who applied to be an ambassador and has a passion for sport. Aydin is keen to challenge the perceptions towards young people, especially if they have certain differences and has also been willing to put in extra hours towards certain events.

Ryan

Ryan learnt about our services and applied to be an ambassador, showing some real knowledge and understanding in some of his early meetings. Ryan gives great insight into our mental health group but is also a keen fundraiser and is keen to support those who support him. Ryan has massive potential!

Archie

When we first met Archie at his school, we knew he would one day make a great ambassador and here he is! Archie is passionate about physical differences and gives some great views on the challenges faced. Archie is very good at getting his point across and a great advocate for the MSC!

Alfie G

Alfie is another young man who we have known for years, firstly as a great goalkeeper! Archie is very kind and is looking to get on with everyone. He will bring some great understanding to many of our groups but also has a passion for sport and running!

Arthur

Arthur constantly stood out MSC meetings other the years with his enthusiasm and ideas! What stands out the most with Arthur is his ability to care for others and want to try and improve things for the better. Arthur is also very good at getting his ideas out to others through speeches and sharing his thoughts.

Marcus

Marcus and his school have been very active in the MSC and he has always been asking questions and getting involved. Marcus is a clear deep thinker and will add some great knowledge to many of our different groups moving forwards.

Alys

Alys has played a good role in some of our virtual projects and spoke well in several MSC meetings. Aly’s is great at getting her points across to leaders and can think about how others may feel in different situations. Aly’s gives a great perspective to the MSC work.

Tilly

Tilly is keen to challenge perceptions towards autism and is also very interested in supporting the less fortunate. Tilly is also part of the fundraising group and her efforts have already led us to raising a great amount of money for the MSC.

Chris

We asked Chris to be an ambassador after he has attended many events for us taking pictures and supporting with filming. Chris is very talented when it comes to media and is a big reason why we have this website up and running too!

Ruby

We asked Ruby to be an ambassador after we found out about a brilliant book she has written, and we wanted her creativity and imagination as part of our team. We know Ruby will grow with confidence over time and we can’t wait for her to add to our group.

Noah

Noah has recorded one of our best reels about autism and is a great speaker. Noah was also one of the first ever people to be part of our self-esteem programme can talk not only about himself but also about differences within the whole family.

Emilia

Emilia really stood out for us during a school visit where we spoke about ADHD and she told us about all the support she give within her local community. We knew Emilia would make a great ambassador due to her passion for supporting others and she has a very caring nature.

Boe

We met Boe after a mental health session at her school. Boe has since gone on to feature in some of our MSC meetings and is able to speak openly about many different things. Boe is a great advocate for her brothers and can bring some real unique perspectives.

Suzi

Suzi is also another very enthusiastic young person who is part of nearly every group within the MSC. Susie is a young carer and gives some good perspectives on a range of things we talk about which is why we are pleased she is part of so many groups.

Gabi

Gabi is our first every ambassador from Southend as we look to grow things in this area. Gabi joins our journey at a great time and even within her first month has already volunteered towards different projects. We feel Gabi will be a strong voice and a role model for others too.

Chloe

Chloe joins our team after applying to be an ambassador through her school. Chloe has been part of our good practice seekers project as her school was inspected and she played a lead role in helping young people around her school. Chloe is very direct in her opinions and adds great value to our team.

Carmen

Carmen has taken to the life as an ambassador so well, quickly getting her school to sign up to us. Carmen also then took this one step further by getting her school to create an inclusive safe space because she really wants to support her friends and make things more inclusive!

Abbie S

Abbie is the sister of one of our longest serving ambassadors and is keen to also get involved and share awareness. Abbie believes she can bring her own personal experiences, both positive and negative to the group and help others to understand. Abbie will also be another great role model for others.

Grace E

Grace was recommended to us by a family support team, and we are so happy she was! Grace loves animals and was also very interested to find out more about autism. Grace is keen to learn from our other ambassadors but also act as a mentor as so many of our ambassadors have such brilliant talents!

Eva V

Eva is very passionate about creating awareness for her brother to ensure other young people understand those with learning differences. Eva is a very creative thinker and has already demonstrated her ability to think of others and has a real passion for making sure people have a voice with and without words.

Courtney

It is great to have Courtney involved after knowing her from our time spent teaching in special education. Courtney attended the school where this all begun so has been brought through with the idea of inclusion. Courtney is particularly keen to share awareness of mental health differences.

Tj

TJ was first put on our radar after lockdown and his amazing fundraising efforts for a local school earning himself an award from us. TJ is obviously great at fundraising for good causes but also raising awareness of ADHD. We are excited to see how TJ can add some energy and creative thinking to our group!

Alex B

While writing this our group is yet to do much towards dyspraxia – Alex wishes to change that! Alex is keen to use his own experience to help others understand different ways of thinking, the abilities but also the challenges to a brain working in a different way.

Sarah B

Sarah has been encouraged to join us by two other ambassadors who are doing a lot of work to raise awareness of young people who may be deaf. Sarah brings another level of awareness and understanding with her while helping us to understand the needs in another local area. Sarah will add some great ideas to several of our working groups.

Olivia

Olivia has already been doing some extraordinary work by leading her own self awareness campaign through ‘Olivia’s world’ and helping employers to think about inclusive employment and what that should look like. Olivia is connected to many different influencers and is also a very talented singer, bringing together people during lockdown through the power of music.

Jack

Jack is another young person who was recommended to us as he really wanted to raise awareness of ADHD within his local school & community. Jack brings plenty of energy and drive as he wishes others to understand how it can feel to have ADHD. Jack has been honest about his negative experiences and doesn’t want others to feel this way.

Owen

Another ambassador who heard about what we do but one of most pro-active ambassadors and was keen to be involved. Owen brings personal experiences from home and understanding different needs, he is also very keen to get involved in different youth groups and ensure young people of all ages have a voice.

Tommy

Tommy has had quite a journey. Now in employment, Tommy wishes to share his experiences along the way and help some of the other ambassadors get to where they want to. Tommy will help drive forward our preparing for adulthood and our employment focus group.

Nathan

Another ambassador where it has been a pleasure to see him grow and develop overtime, starting at the school where this all begun. As above, Nathan is also now in employment and hopes to use his experience to educate others. Nathan has been a driver in getting other young people in Essex to see what can be achieved.

Sophia

Sophie has been part of our focus on school attendance and after meeting her through the robot she uses to engage in school life, we knew she would make an outstanding advocate. Sophia has and is already battling so many challenges but is a role model of resilience and positivity and will help inspire others to also make a difference.

Aiden

Aiden was part of one of our early self-esteem sessions and was very enthusiastic about making sure young people had their voices heard. Aiden was not only able to talk positively about improving mental health but also helped build good connections in the group.

Ellie

Through our MSC meetings we meet some wonderful young people and Ellie was no different. Ellie spoke with such confidence during the meeting, giving very balanced opinions and demonstrated a keen enthusiasm to improve things for young people of all ages.

Ailia

Our first ever ambassador to transition over from another project into our ambassador team. Ailia is playing a key role in the development of a health focused group named Traverse and is keen to bring some of this learning over to the MSC group!

Camille

Another adult ambassador who is doing some fantastic work in the deaf community which is a real area of focus for some of our deaf awareness ambassadors and beyond. We know Camille will help us to develop this work in the correct way alongside our young ambassador team.

Charlie B

Knowing Charlie’s siblings for a long period of time we knew when Charlie applied to be an ambassador, he would bring lots of passion. Charlie is keen to ensure other young people understand challenges faced by his siblings and will help to directly challenge those negative perceptions.

Logan B

After being involved in some our awareness sessions in his school, Logan was very keen to join the team. Logan has very quickly added some great views to countywide projects and will also play a good role in making sure our work is better understood in secondary schools.

Lenny

Lenny has joined our team after several of our ambassadors wanted us to get Lenny involved! Lenny is a professional actor is breaking down many perceptions on an international stage but is also very keen to see changes locally. We first met Lenny at an inclusion conference while he attended primary school, and we knew then he would be keen to drive forward inclusion!

Shaun

The last of the Newman’s to join our team! Following in the footsteps of his two daughters and wife, Shaun is another adult ambassador who has already done so much to support the development of the MSC and long may that continue! What a family!

Angel

At our United in diversity event Angel approached us and said ‘I just love what you do!’. Angel has now joined our team and already made an impact as part of our long-term planning team. Angel is confident to speak about her own health challenges and is keen to tackle bullying.

Mitchell

Another family we know well, and Mitchell follows in the footsteps of his brother becoming an ambassador. As we have now been going for several years, we are keen to explore how we can better support our older ambassadors and Mitchell will play a key role in this.

Ava AD

Ava instantly stood out for us as we delivered a whole school assembly around SEND needs at her school and she was so enthusiastic, giving answers and answering questions. Ava also joined us for a classroom session where she continued that great engagement! Ava will be another great ambassador!