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Emily Gill-Howe
Emily Gill-Howe
Emily is new to the Wellbeing Centre having joined the team in May 2023 to continue our expanding service to the community.
Emily’s role is to ensure the centre is a well-managed facility that operates for the benefit of the café members, local community and partner organisations on a daily basis.
Emily’s background is operations, health and safety and venue management in the arts and charity sector, having previously worked for four years at Attenborough Arts Centre as Venue Officer before coming to LWC.
She is passionate about supporting mental health and neurodiversity and encouraging everyone to feel they have a place to feel safe and welcomed by providing a venue which is both accessible and inclusive.
Centre Manager
Helen Carter
Helen is a founding member of Loughborough Wellbeing Centre and has overseen the development of the Wellbeing Café Project over the past few years.
Helen’s background is varied with an Army career in the Royal Military Police before completing 20 years in the Civil Service in various Government Departments, including the Home Office in London.
Helen is passionate about mental health after members of her family have suffered with a range of mental health issues over the years. She is a mental health advocate and Mental Health First Aider and designs and delivers bespoke Mental Health Awareness Sessions in various settings.
Chief Executive Officer
Joanna Atkinson
Joanna Atkinson
Jo joined the expanding team at the Wellbeing Centre in February 2023, and works as our Administrator. Her previous work experience has all been in charities, previously working in administration, training and team management roles. She is fluent in British Sign Language, having worked for many years and in different roles with deaf people.
Jo’s role in the centre is to provide administration support to the centre and CEO, keep the centre systems running and to contribute to a friendly and welcoming atmosphere to all centre attendees. Jo’s strong customer service skills mean that she is a great fit for the Wellbeing Centre and is excited to see the charities’ work expand as we reach more people in need.
Administrator
Angela Martin
Centre Support Assistant
Angela Martin
Angela has spent most of her working career in Education, primarily involved in the care and welfare of students living away from home whilst studying at Loughborough College.
She has a long-standing passion for looking after children, also working for the onsite nursery managing one of the after school clubs.
In recent years she has seen a big increase in the number of children with SEN needs and young adults simply needing some one to talk to. This has resulted in her wanting to work at the Wellbeing centre. A simple hello and warm welcome can go a long way and help to signpost people in the right direction
Angela also has a passion for Arts and Crafts as well as cooking and looks forward to meeting a lot of new people.
Gareth Isaac
Session Leader and Mindfulness Coach
Jemma Bagley
Session Leader
Jemma Bagley
Jemma has been involved with the Wellbeing Café Project since the beginning through her work in participatory arts. She plans and delivers creative activities for café members.
Jemma has 30 years experience of participatory arts practice including working with the NHS and Charnwood Arts. Her specialism being working with adults with mental ill health to achieve creatively.
She has a degree in textile design and as an artist has sold her work in galleries nationally.
She is an original member of ArtSpace Loughborough and was chairperson for two years.
Jemma runs the Creatives sessions for the Wellbeing Café Project and designs many of the creative activities run by the project.
Gary Siddons
Sessional Support Worker
Gary Siddons
Gary works as one of sessional support workers, working with our Veteran’s and Mankind group since February 2023. His work with the Veteran’s group involves supporting 1:1 with casework where needed, and befriending new attendees. Also working with the men’s group on Friday afternoon, facilitating activities and encouraging a friendly environment to the members.
Gary has experience of dealing with his own mental health journey, previously being a centre attendee himself, and therefore providing a positive role model to new clients. He is also a great advocate and peer support to all centre users. Gary says that one of the most rewarding things about his job is seeing people thrive through attending the groups and the positive stories that come from that.
Julie Booker
Shepshed Wellbeing Cafe Worker
Julie Booker
Julie facilitates the Shepshed Wellbeing Cafe at the Glenmore Centre in Shepshed. She has developed the cafe over many years “the members have enjoyed art and craft activities, visiting speakers to tell us about other groups and activities in the local area as well as potting plants and bulbs, Ukulele sing a longs and gentle exercise to name a few of our weekly sessions.”
She says that the reason she does this work, is because it makes a difference to each member’s life and she feels privileged that the members enjoy coming along on a weekly basis and everyone works together to make the sessions positive and welcoming for all.
John Sharpe
Veteran's Hub Group Leader
John Sharpe
John served in the Army for 16 years, starting as a Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) apprentice before serving as a regular. Post Army career he then worked in the Defence industry, primarily based in the Arab world & Africa in project & marketing roles, consequently he is an Arabic speaker having worked in Sudan, Somalia ,Syria & Saudi Arabia to name but a few.
John brings with him a huge heart for the wellbeing of our Armed Forces Veterans, welcoming new people through our doors each week and working on a variety of cases and supporting people to achieve positive outcomes. He has a grown up child who has mental health issues himself so can empathise on a personal level with cases he meets on a regular basis in our Hub meetings.
Nicky Morgan
Patron
Nicky Morgan
Nicky is one of the Founders of the Loughborough Wellbeing Café Project, which came about after a younger constituent contacted Nicky when she was Loughborough’s MP to say that there was nowhere for her to go in the community to meet those who were also suffering with poor mental health. From that suggestion came the idea of a drop-in café which started once a month on Friday evenings.
With family experience of mental health challenges and through working with service users and their families and carers and mental health professionals as an MP, Nicky has spoken out about mental health care and needs for many years. She co-led the first ever general debate on mental health in the House of Commons in 2012.
Peter Cannon
Patron
Peter Cannon
Peter is a founding member of Loughborough Wellbeing Centre and has recently been asked to become the first Patron of our Charity on his retirement as a GP.
Peter has been an enormous support to the Project and has assisted many cafe members who needed his professional advice and guidance.
Peter is passionate about supporting people's wellbeing and was the Lead GP for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland for Mental Health and Substance Misuse for several recent years.
Peter is married to his wife, Alison and has 2 grown up children who he is enormously proud of.
We will miss seeing Peter regularly about town as he has now moved to Devon but we look forward to his input as our Patron.
Tom Walters
Chair of Trustees
Tom Walters
Ilona Berry
Trustee
James Poland
Trustee
James Poland
James got involved with the Wellbeing Centre because he has seen, both personally and throughout his career, just how important taking care of our mental health is. James said “mental health is central to everything we do in life. I know from my own experience how even low-level depression can fundamentally alter a person’s outlook on life, their motivation and their hope for the future. I am therefore keen to do whatever I can to support them in this work.”
In his career, James has worked in Occupational Health as well as an MPs' Case Worker, previously for Loughborough and currently Melton and Syston. He has also served for nearly ten years on Charnwood Borough Council and since 2017 has been the Leicestershire County Councillor for Syston Fosse.'
Mark Bailey
Trustee
Nick Simpson
Trustee
Dr Nick Simpson
Nick qualified in Medicine in 1976 having trained at Oxford and St Mary’s in London. He had a surgical career until becoming a GP in 1983 at Barrow on Soar. He has been a principal in General Practice for 39 years before retiring in April 2022. He continues to be an appraiser for doctors and has a special interest in Cardiology, Surgery and Mental Health.
Nick is married to another doctor who is a Community Paediatrician and specialist in developmental paediatrics. He has four grown up daughters, three of whom live in London and one of whom lives in Quorn. He has 3 grandchildren and has lived in Quorn since 1996.