Our Leadership
Emma Ridgway
Chair Trustee
Emma’s work with children and young people has shown her how important education and personal development is. Working as a trauma informed practitioner has had a profound effect on her professional approaches and she has personally grown from her work experiences. Developmental psychology fascinates her endlessly and she is always open to the views of the young people she is working with. She makes it her mission to make a difference to vulnerable young people by making sure their voices are heard.
Working in different charities and communities has shaped her ambitious nature and motivated her to build ‘My Journey’. Being the founder of a registered charity has required extensive knowledge with the field of fostering, dedication and passion.
“The care and guidance that every child and young person deserves is not new information. However, after Hannah and I began researching the effects of fostering on biological children it was apparent that their journey of fostering lacked support and comprehension. ‘My Journey’ aims to use all of the knowledge and skills from the trustees into ‘My Journey’, making sure that there is a support network available for the biological children. A space for them to receive the care and guidance they deserve and for a community to blossom.”
Hannah Edmunds
Trustee
Hannah has been committed to working with vulnerable children and young people for many years through professional experience and academia; driven by a trauma-informed, advocative and creative approach. Hannah is an experienced Mental Health Practitioner and Youth Worker and holds a Master's Degree in Childhood Development and Wellbeing in Practice - where she specialised in creative interventions, complex-PTSD and developmental trauma, service evaluation and development, child development and clinical skills.
Hannah's work as a Therapeutic Carer propelled her interest in developmental trauma and trauma-informed practice. Hannah is a level 5 qualified Specialist Trauma Practitioner and was the Trauma-Informed Practice Lead for a leading Greater Manchester domestic abuse charity and trauma-informed champion for Rochdale Borough. After developing her own trauma training programme, she regularly delivered it to professionals across the VCSE, education, healthcare and public sectors.
“ Today, I work as a Mental Health Practitioner. I love my role in supporting care-experienced young people who are experiencing a mental health crisis. I am dedicated to creating a safe space for young people to express themselves, build resilience, develop positive family relationships and feel properly heard and understood by those around them. I am excited to work alongside the trustees at ‘My Journey’. I believe the work will have a profound impact on the fostering community.
Our Trustees
Jo Strachen-O’donnell
I have worked with children and young people, and their families, for decades, delivering 1:1 and group support in various settings including nurseries, schools, higher education and through community work, having experience of working with additional needs as well as children and young people who demonstrate behaviours that challenge. Having previously been a Foster Carer, with two children of my own, I have first hand experience of managing the challenges faced by Foster Carers and their biological children. I have experience of working with children and young people who have experienced trauma and I am fully trauma trained, having the appropriate skills and knowledge of trauma and how this impacts on child development and behaviour.
Having to end my career as a Foster Carer due to the lack of support for my family, was a very difficult and heart breaking decision for all of the family. My children struggled with some of the behaviours demonstrated by the foster children as well as with when the placements came to an end, despite us trying our best to prepare and educate them. We would have really benefited from and valued such an educational and support service such as My Journey, maybe our journey could have gone on for a little longer - this is why this charity means a lot to me and why I was absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to be a Trustee on the board.
Kathy Thomas
Kathy has worked for the charity and voluntary sector for nearly 40 years in many different roles and across much of the Northwest and Midlands. As a magistrate for 27 years, a foster carer for 15 years and the CEO of a charity working with children, young people and adults who are finding life difficult in some way, Kathy has gained a lot of insight in the experiences and difficulties that children have of living in complex families.
As a CEO of a charity, Kathy has gained knowledge and experience of governance, funding, compliance, demonstrating impact, managing people, premises, risk and promoting staff wellbeing.
Justin Snell
From a very early age Justin has been ‘in business’. He started buying and selling bicycles in his early teens to make money to fund his canoeing past times. By 15 he was buying fabrics, paying his mother to sew them into garments, which he was then selling to the canoe shop in his local town. Today Justin heads one of Europe’s leading canoe brands and his company is involved in import, export and distribution within the paddle sport industry.
“As a child my keen interest in being out on the water has gifted me a wonderful life, many children do not enjoy such a great pathway and it has always been a key part my business and personal ethos to ‘give back’. My company has always helped charities who focus on the younger generations and making their lives as great as possible. ‘My Journey’ and my ethos have a very strong fit and as such it is a pleasure to be a Trustee and to be able to bring my life experiences to the table in order to help children who really need a hand to hold.”
Fenella Baskerville
I've helped out over the years with various charities, however My Journey stood out for me.
I have two step siblings who were adopted so they were not fostered but we found that there was no support for us or the children so I see the value of My Journeys work and their aims to help biological children within the fostering world. My experience of children comes first hand with being a mother but also being a rather more mature mother and not expecting to have children. I spent many years taking friends' children out and giving them opportunities their parents didn't.
My son was a very happy boy until a traumatic experience at an early age he was diagnosed with ADHD and Asperger's and so was introduced to CAMHS for the first time. Therapy did help Benjamin to move forward but having the time and space to do activities such as climbing and yoga was a real game changer.
Giving children the opportunity to talk in a happy, healthy environment with the support of loving adults is so important and I hope that my skills as a mother and owner of my own business will bring something to the table for this very important charity.
©Copyright. All rights reserved.
We need your consent to load the translations
We use a third-party service to translate the website content that may collect data about your activity. Please review the details in the privacy policy and accept the service to view the translations.