Our team

Rowan worked in drug and alcohol services for 18 years as a practitioner and manager in both young people and adult services. She has continued to develop as a manager & leader in a number of roles including Deputy Regional Alcohol Manager for the Southwest, Development Manager for The Training Exchange and CEO of Somerset and Avon Rape and Sexual Abuse Support (SARSAS).

For 3 years, Rowan was the Head of Funding across the Southwest region for the National Lottery Community Fund. She also took the lead for the England funding response to the women and girls sector collaborating with other funders to share learning and improve outcomes for the sector. Rowan is now delivering training and consultancy; alongside project managing the national Up Front Survivors partnership, funded by the Home Office, creating communities of survivors of childhood sexual abuse to lead on narrative and cultural change.

She is a qualified coach and has completed the leadership and facilitation course with Schumacher College “Co-creating the emerging future”.

Clare’s background is in homelessness, housing advice and working with young people. Since 2002 she has been delivering training in a range of settings to service providers and local authorities covering professional boundaries, lone working and since 2014 adult safeguarding. Her courses are practical using real and relevant examples and attempt to cut through the sometimes complex and confusing legal frameworks and jargon that can beset effective work.

Beth has been working front-line in the charity sector for around a decade, supporting adults exiting prison, women affected by the street sex industry, people in recovery, and young people facing multiple disadvantage. She’s worked with individuals and groups in various capacities, including life coach, support worker, trainer, and facilitator.

Beth holds a Masters degree in Core Process Psychotherapy and a postgraduate diploma in integrative arts psychotherapy, and sees clients 1:1 in private practice. Alongside this she facilitates Reflective Practice, and works with organisations to help them embed this structure, and to gain a deeper understanding of how trauma affects us, and how we can work in ways that are sustainable, nourishing, and trauma-informed.

Maggie is a volunteer with Samaritans with over 12 years’ experience holding various senior roles. She also volunteers for the SHOUT Crisis Texting service. She is an independent trainer delivering training around suicide prevention, intervention and listening skills.

A Master Trainer in ASIST, safeTALK and Suicide First Aid. In 2020 Maggie was awarded an MBE for services to Samaritans & Suicide Prevention.

Justin has worked in drug services for 25 years as a practitioner and service manager. He has extensive experience of delivering training including Drug & alcohol awareness, Psychosocial interventions, Harm reduction, Safer injecting and Working with steroid users. He has a background in work with children and young people.

Sarah has over fifteen years’ experience working in frontline services. In the last five years these have been based within healthcare settings. Previously Sarah worked as an IDSVA working with high-risk clients and has experience of the MARAC, criminal justice and civil law systems. She also has experience of working with people with drug and alcohol problems. Sarah has worked directly with patients who have experienced domestic abuse and has trained clinicians and health practitioners to recognise and respond to domestic abuse. She has an MSc in 'health promotion, research and policy change' and a postgraduate certificate in the 'dynamics of domestic abuse'. Sarah also has a background in domestic abuse research.

Becky has 10 years of experience working with people who use drugs including alcohol and has developed a special interest in reducing the harms associated with substance use amongst young adults, this interest has enabled her to spend time volunteering for The Loop at their festival drug checking facility and now works as Specialist Drug and Alcohol Practitioner for University West of England, delivering a pioneering service as well as leading on campaigns for students who use drugs including alcohol.

Over the past 6 years Becky has delivered drug and alcohol awareness training in a variety of setting to range of audiences.

Ruth Hallett loves turning ideas into reality. Ruth has over 20 years of project and programme management delivery experience. She trained at KPMG and since then has worked on a vast range of IT and change projects for commercial, voluntary and public sector clients, including Virgin Atlantic, Barclays Bank, Marks and Spencer, a number of Local Authorities, The Welsh Assembly, Gwent Police, and Local and National NHS Organisations. High performing teams exist when everyone has equal time to speak, Ruth believes in using techniques which increase participation and make work more fun.

Mandy has a degree in Dramatics Arts, a post graduate teaching certificate in Social Studies and a diploma in MSc Women’s Studies. She has over 15 years’ experience of teaching and training with disaffected young people, in Sure Start centres, in sexual health settings and for local authority Social Care; where she had special responsibility for developing and delivering training in Child Protection. She has considerable practical experience of working with children and families. Mandy’s training benefits from an extensive knowledge of Child Protection practice in a variety of different agencies and age groups.

Justine is our Finance Worker. She has worked with The Training Exchange for over 10 years.

Mike has extensive experience as a drug worker and trainer. As founder and chief executive officer of The Southmead Project, he developed specific services working with adult survivors of child abuse who had turned to drugs in order to suppress the emotions that follow such trauma. In 2000 he accepted an MBE for ‘services to Bristol and for the welfare of drug users’. More recently Mike has accepted an honorary doctorate from the University of Bristol for his work with adult survivors of child abuse. He continues to help pioneer and encourage further research and training into the topic.

Amy has extensive experience as an HR & OD practitioner, including her role as HR Director for One Care Ltd. She has had numerous roles at senior manager and board level for the NHS and was responsible for designing and delivering development solutions for clients working in the health and social care sector. More recently, Amy has been delivering an 18-month leadership development programme in the NHS that links leadership and organisational change, and has led to an improving Care Quality Commission (CQC) outcome for the organisation.

For the last ten years Amy has been running her own organisational development and HR consultancy business and in 2017 cofounded Hart Ridge Consulting Ltd. Amy holds an MSc in People and Organisational Development, is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and a licensed FCIPD qualified professional. She is accredited to deliver MBTI tools 1&2, Clarity 4d and Belbin and is an NLP practitioner.

Liisa our Training Programme Administrator takes responsibility for the day to day co-ordination of The Training Exchange courses. Liisa ensures the smooth running of all our training through communicating with participants, organisations and trainers and producing delegate and trainer materials. She has over 10 years of experience of working in administration in varied roles, including the V&A Museum in London, and Bristol Drugs Project.

Jehan takes a lead on the marketing and promotion of The Training Exchange services which include, developing and managing the website, email newsletters, social media and other marketing materials. Jehan has previously worked in administrative roles for over 15 years, most recently with the Blue Badge Company as the Online Merchandising & Customer Services Manager. She also works as a professional musician and teacher of the saxophone.