I’m passionate about lifelong learning & helping people and organisations reach their ambitions. I work at Samaritans as Head of Learning & Development, where I get to combine my passions for L&D, mental wellbeing and the potential of the voluntary sector to make a lasting impact on society. But this is my personal blog and does not in any way represent the views of my organisation.
My career has spanned social research, network building and designing agile learning & development that helps people achieve their goals. I’ve researched a diverse range of topics including criminal justice, welfare to work, attitudes to disability and people’s experiences of social exclusion. I set up NatCen Learning in 2005 to share NatCen Social Research‘s expertise in doing social research and led external and internal capacity building and development programmes for a decade. I am fascinated by how we learn and grow as individuals, organisations & communities. In recent years I’ve been exploring digital spaces & the challenges & opportunities they present for how we live, work and create meaning personally & collectively.
You can follow my daily musings on Twitter @jess1ecat or find out more about me here and on LinkedIn. Outside of work I’m a big fan of social justice, cats, crime thrillers, baking and learning to sketch. On the odd occasion I also like to find a secluded beach in the sun and relax!
This is my personal blog, views & opinions are all mine! I’ll be exploring a range of topics, reflecting on my own experiences & hoping to learn a little by pushing at the edges of my comfort zone & hearing your thoughts on my journey. I also post on Linked in you can see my posts here:
Pushing at the edges... 