Was Head of History and Head of Year with a responsibility for PSHE in a large comprehensive in Cricklewood, London. She was a governor of Bryanston School and was High Sheriff of Dorset in 2009/10.
Retired as the Chief Executive of The Benevolent charity (now named The Drinks Trust) at the end of 2018, a role he took up in April 2013. The Drinks Trust supports current and past employees of the UK drinks trade with practical, emotional and financial help when faced with a variety of difficult circumstances, including serious illness, disability, issues with stress or depression, with debt or any family crisis such as a seriously ill partner or child. David has built a deep understanding of issues concerning alcohol and the importance of early intervention and alcohol education. David is a Liveryman of three City Livery Companies and brings a wealth of skills to The Talk About Trust in governance, fund raising and management.
Recently retired from the Royal Navy after 35 years as an officer in the Fleet Air Arm flying and instructing on the Lynx helicopter and simulators before transferring into Programme/Project/Requirements Management in 2004. He brings a range of skills to the Talk About Trust including project development and management, an understanding of evaluation, training, support and infrastructure, plus time, budget and cost management skills. Andy continues to work part-time as a Reservist in the field of procurement and programme management for the Wildcat helicopter. Having served in the RN and as a father of two, he has an excellent understanding of the need for life skills education to ensure young people are able to make more informed responsible choices about alcohol.
A recently retired Deputy Head teacher from a large Primary Federation in Weymouth. Her responsibilities included staff recruitment and training, curriculum design and implementation and safeguarding. As the Designated Safeguarding lead Jackie has witnessed the devastating impact on children and their families where there is misuse of alcohol and other substances, and worked with a range of professionals from Health, Social Care and other agencies to provide considered and effective early intervention. In previous roles in 2 other Dorset schools Jackie has gained additional expertise in PSHE and Early Years education. As such she has observed the effects of adult role models and peer pressure on even the youngest children in school and understands the need for high quality education in all aspects of PSHE from the start. Since retiring in 2021 Jackie has sought to maintain links with education and become involved in her local community. To this end she has become a volunteer at a local Dorchester school and at the Pips holiday club for local children. She has recently become a school governor with link responsibilities for safeguarding.
Lives in Dorset but spent most of his professional life in London where he is a Freeman of the City. He practised for over 40 years as a Chartered Loss Adjuster, dealing with a variety of insurance losses including fine art, movie production, advertising and contingency. He is a Fellow and Past President of the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters.
In parallel with this, he sat on the Westminster Bench (then located at Bow Street & Horseferry Road) latterly becoming Bench Chair for 4 years. He is a past Trustee of the Inner London Magistrates’ Courts Poor Box Charity which assists offenders with rehabilitation. On leaving London, he sat on the Guildford Bench and then, upon moving to Shropshire, on the Telford Bench.
He is currently a member of the Dorset PCC’s Panel monitoring out of court disposals by Dorset Police. In this latter capacity and during his time on the Bench he has been all too well aware of the part played by alcohol in offending, particularly among young people, and the need for rehabilitating outcomes.
is Head of the Divorce and Family partner team at Stewarts Law. In the Legal 500 2016, Stephen is recommended for his “pragmatism and gravitas” and his reputation as “a strong leader who can manage any situation or individual and steer things to a successful outcome”. Chambers describes him as “a great lateral thinker” and Stephen is named as one of the top 10 high asset family lawyers in Spear’s Family Law Index.
Trained at Imperial College London including a BSc in Physiology, qualifying in 2007. Lara moved on to hospital rotations at Frimley Park, Surrey and Brighton, Sussex. She lectured in Anatomy at Brighton Medical School before moving to Cape Town where she specialised in Paediatrics and gained the Diploma in Child Health in 2011. Lara decided to pursue her career in General Practice from this point and enrolled in the Wessex GP training programme which brought her to Dorchester, Dorset in 2012. She completed her GP specialist training in 2015 and has been working as a GP in Dorset since this time, becoming a GP Partner at The Prince of Wales Surgery, Poundbury in 2019.
Has strong experience of delivering PSE, previously as Head of PSE and Citizenship at the Sir John Colfox School and currently as Head of Citizenship and Head of Sixth Form at the Isle of Portland Aldridge Community Academy.
Alison has worked with an abundance of outside agencies such as AA, SSCT, Safer partnerships, healthcare professionals, Ansbury and other local stakeholders. She is currently Designated Safeguarding Lead for the 6th form and part of the Academy’s Safeguarding Team. She has 3 young children.
A member of the Australian Institute of Chartered Accountants. In a career of 33 years at Accenture he worked as a global management consultant specialising in strategic and technology consulting for large scale private and public sector organisations working in Sydney, Chicago, Seoul and Hong Kong. He is a company director, an investor, and advisor to a number of UK and international businesses and charities. He is currently Chairman of the West Country Branch of the Britain-Australia Society (BAS); a Director of the National Britain-Australia Society; a trustee of the BAS Education Trust – BASET; and an advisor to the board of an English public school having previously served as a Member of the Board and Chairmen of the Finance and General Purpose committee. He serves as a charity trustee with a specialty in finance.
Helena Conibear is CEO and Founder of The TALK ABOUT Trust, formerly The Alcohol Education Trust, which works across the UK to keep young people safe around alcohol ,vaping, cannabis and other substances. The early intervention charity, operating since 2009, enables young people age 11- 25 to make more informed, safer life choices through the provision of interactive evidenced resources and workshops for young people, training and cpd for professionals and parental support.
Helena is a member of The Institute for Health Promotion and Education, and of the European Society for Prevention Research and a Trustee of KDUK. She is also an accredited RSHE practitioner and lead author of the Talk About Alcohol programme, selected by The Early Intervention Foundation as one of the top 80 most effective early intervention programmes globally and awarded 3/3 for impact and 5/6 for quality of evaluation by the DfE appointed CAYT (Nat Cen and Institute for Fiscal Studies) . She is a Fellow of the School for Social Entrepreneurs and Royal Society of Arts and a Deputy Lieutenant for Dorset. You can contact Helena via helena@talkabouttrust.org
Kathryn is a university graduate and qualified teacher, having studied BA (Hons) Social Care (Children & Families) at the University of Manchester and the Professional Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) from Bolton University. She also has a wealth of practice experience working predominantly with young people, spanning over 20 years. She has 10 years service with Manchester Youth Offending Service, where she was a qualified Youth Offending Team Officer and Referral Order Coordinator, working with young people who were at risk of offending, or first time offenders. She also set up and project managed the Appropriate Adult Scheme, Restorative Justice and Mentoring projects. Kathryn continues to lecture on a part time basis, delivering short courses in Mental Health, Substance Misuse and Wellbeing in the community to students in recovery from addiction and to volunteers and staff working with the recovering community. Kathryn has been with the Talk About Trust (formerly the Alcohol Education Trust) since October 2014 and during this time has built up partnerships across the North West of England. “It’s a pleasure to work for the Trust, and I feel proud to deliver sessions to schools using the excellent resources that we have produced and to offer practical advice to parents on talking to their children about alcohol.”
Kathryn can be contacted on kathryn@talkabouttrust.org
Karen was a secondary school teacher, but since 2004 she has worked for children’s health education charities delivering workshops and training on Physical and Emotional Health and Wellbeing, drugs and alcohol. Since 2019 she has led the Talk About Trust work across the Midlands South and West, providing workshops and training, engaging young people in interactive sessions on complex issues around choices and risk taking in an age appropriate way. She also hosts sessions for parents and carers.
Karen comments, “I feel honoured to be entrusted with this wonderful role. The Talk About Trust provides engaging, interactive, evidence based resources and sessions for young people and their teachers. Empowering young people to ensure harm minimisation around alcohol is an extremely important thing to do and the Talk About Trust does it superbly. As it’s known that parents and carers have a huge influence on young people, the sessions that have been developed for them are invaluable”.
Karen can be contacted on karen@talkabouttrust.org
Soraya Williams was previously a police officer for many years, setting up the first Domestic Violence Unit in Belgravia and then serving as a Safer Schools Officer, working with Secondary and Special Needs schools, tasked to create positive lines of communication with young people, the school community and local police. Soraya is trained and experienced in Restorative Justice and Community Resolution. She has also worked in a multi-agency safeguarding capacity in Public Protection, Troubled Families, Youth Offending and Multi-agency Safeguarding Hub (Mash). Bringing a wealth of skills to the Talk About Trust, Soraya can be contacted via soraya@talkabouttrust.org
Ailsa is a General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) registered teacher, working in Secondary Schools for over 22 years, 17 years within Additional Support Needs and 8 years in middle leadership leading a specialist provision within a large mainstream Secondary School for young people with social & communication intersecting needs, largely Autism, ADHD and the impact of trauma and loss. She led a team of support staff to ensure inclusive practice, plan and review individual education packages and achieve sustainable positive destinations for all young people. She’s passionate about supporting people to make informed choices and believes in the power of potential and unconditional positive regard for all. Ailsa’s had a lifelong interest in continual professional development, including designing, delivering/facilitating training within her own organisation and a local authority level.
Donald joined the Talk About Trust team in September 2024 and brings with him over 20 years experience of organising, co-ordinating and delivering innovative educational sessions, modules and resources with a clear focus on community development, community education and health promotion.
Donald derives massive satisfaction and pride from working in partnership with employability services, youth clubs, young parents groups, special educational schools, secure units, and mainstream schools. In doing so, he consistently delivers workshop sessions and develops new resources that are specifically designed to complement and enhance the work that project partners are expected to deliver upon.
In his most recent role with one of Scotland’s most well established youth work charities, Donald worked partnership with over 70 different organisations from across Scotland to design and deliver over 1000 workshop sessions and a range of peer inspired resources that support young people to make healthy and informed choices about risk-taking behaviours including:
Away from the world of youth work, schools and risk taking behaviours, Donald is a qualified scuba diving instructor and ‘enjoys’ immersing himself in long distance cycling challenges.
Kate is the Schools Coordinator for the Talk About Trust and has been with us since 2014. She enjoys being in touch with schools and organisations and oversees resource distribution.
Kate has previously taught in a secondary school for 7 years and has 10 years’ experience of working within the charity sector.
Kerry is our Community Relations Manager and is based at Pavillion in the Park, Dorchester. She had previously trained as a Teaching Assistant and progressed to teaching French and PSHE at Primary School level. Kerry has also been a member of the Governors team at her local school and enjoys working with local community groups and educational establishments. In her spare time Kerry is a committed sports Mum, supporting her 2 energetic children and can be mostly found cheering on their teams at either cricket or football!
Lucy has recently returned to work with the Talk About Trust after a career break with her two children. Having previously had a successful 15 year career in management, she set up and ran her own recording studio and music school in Southampton, and was the director of En Masse Performance Choir. Lucy has kept herself busy during her career break as the chair of governors for her local school, and continues to gig as a singer with a function band and acoustic duo.
Julie joined the charity in 2016 and is responsible for the day-to-day accounting, financial management and governance of the charity, including budgeting and reporting on the financial performance to management and the Trustees of the charity and Directors of the trading subsidiary. She is a qualified accountant with over 30 years of experience in financial services and project management.
Alison has worked for the Talk About Trust (formerly the Alcohol Education Trust) since its inception and creates and maintains all the resources and the websites. After graduation, Alison trained as a programmer and then worked as a business analyst within the utilities sector for over 15 years. She has also worked in schools as a peripatetic music teacher and has served on the committee of a number of charities.