Team

CEO and Founder

Before Spiral started Maryann trained at the University of Cumbria where she qualified as a person-centred counsellor, she then went into private practice. Maryann founded Spiral in 2016 with 3 trustees. In the first 3 years Maryann worked as a counsellor supporting young people who used the service and has worked to develop Spiral services over the years and continues to do this. In her spare time, she loves to spend time with her family and friends, and enjoys walking. Maryann hopes for Spiral to continue to evolve as it has over the past years and make the positive changes it has to young people.

Training and Development Officer

My role also involves developing training for staff, volunteers, parents, and people seeking to increase their knowledge and skills to work with bullies and bullied young people. I intend to help workers to understand the dynamics of bullying. I also want to train people to coach young people to become unbullyable.

In my previous roles, I worked directly with young people as a therapeutic coach at Carlisle Youth Zone and Positive Steps. I have developed and delivered a range of training to staff and young people. These include Neuro Linguistic Programming, Emotional Freedom Technique, and the Chimp Paradox. I want to use my knowledge and experience to support staff and volunteers to help young people who experience bullying to become stronger and more resilient.

Work Mobile: 07562 691365

Youth Worker and Public Relations

Sol is a dedicated employee at Spiral, where he has been actively involved for three years. Spiral helped Sol achieve a Level 2 Youth Work qualification which has been greatly beneficial to his work. He also spent nearly a year volunteering at a youth group local to him. He works on multiple things here at Spiral including podcasts, working on promotional material, 1-2-1's drop-ins, events and more.

Work Mobile: 07562 691373

Treasurer

Sarah has been the secretary of Spiral since 2016 and was later made Treasurer. As you can see Sarah supports Spiral in many ways like Gelt Gladiator, abseiling and many more.

Sarah in the head of HR in a local business and enjoys travelling.

Trustee/Volunteer

My experience is in the field of social health and mental health. I am currently a Mental Health Nurse. I have worked in a variety of roles as a registered manager with the Commission for Social Care Inspection. I have volunteered for a number of Charities in the past. I wanted to become a trustee / volunteer with Spiral as I want to children to experience life without the added burden of bullying. Spiral is a vital service for young people, and I want to do everything I can to support the fantastic work that we do in the community.

Chair

Alan joined the Prison Service as a Prison Officer in 1972. During his career he served in 10 prisons across England. Alan served at every grade in the service and was Deputy Governor in 3 prisons. During a two-year period at Prison Service Headquarters in London Alan led a successful programme to replace all Computers in Prisons in England. Alan retired from the Prison Service in 2010.

In retirement Alan ran his own successful consultancy business and was recruited to run a large Private Prison as interim Director while a permanent appointment was made.

In 2008 Alan was made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) by the Queen for services to the Prison Service and prisoners.

Alan retired fully in 2016 and now enjoys travelling, cooking, walking, going to the gym and supporting charity work.

Trustee

Anne-Marie is a passionate and energetic Diversity and Inclusion specialist with nearly 25 years’ experience in a variety of organisations and sectors, including housing, transport, legal, criminal justice, media, the NHS, education, central and local government. She is an excellent facilitator and coach with the ability to interpret complex organisational objectives into interactive and participative learning interventions and possesses expertise in working with executive and senior leaders assisting them to recognise their responsibilities in creating inclusive organisational cultures.

Enhancing all the work Anne-Marie is a member of Anti Racist Cumbria which has a mission to make Cumbria the first anti-racist county in the country, including working with local Cumbrian schools to assist them to demonstrate an ethos of being actively anti-racist. She is a Trustee for Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal where the mission is to bring innovative and diverse experiences to its audiences, is a member of Cumbria Constabulary’s Strategic Independent Advisory Group working with colleagues to ensure that anti-racism is regularly highlighted, she is a Trustee for the Restoration Trust which is a Norfolk based charity working in partnership with heritage, arts and health and social care organisations to offer culture therapy to people who live with mental health challenges and a Trustee for Woman Up, an events organisation focusing on equality, women’s rights and empowerment of minority groups.

Youth Worker

Prior to working with Spiral, Lynda, ran her own hairdressing business for 13 years. She graduated with BSc degree in Applied Psychology at the University of Cumbria. She is passionate about her role within the Spiral team, providing psychoeducational coaching for young people who are want support with managing their emotional development and well-being.

In her spare time, she enjoys playing games with her children, walking their pet dog and keeping fit. She also enjoys shopping, playing music loudly and is a Newcastle United supporter.

Trustee

I have over 35 years' experience of working in the criminal justice system predominantly as a probation officer devoting much of this time to building expertise in assessment and intervention within the field of sexual offending.

In addition, I devised and delivered a wide range of training to an equally wide range of agencies, volunteers and university students.

I am now fully retired from paid work and my last position of employment was with a charity called Change, Grow, Live who were working towards the principal of ‘no more victims’ aiming to encourage the reintegration of sexual offenders back into their communities and support them to live a productive and non-offending life.

Although specialising in all aspects of sexual offending for the better part of 30 years I have also worked fairly extensively within the field of domestic abuse.

I am involved in the work of Spiral because I have always worked in an area where I can offer support and assistance to those who want or need to make changes in their lives in order to improve their happiness and well-being. I think it is so important that this is also offered to children and young people who find this difficult to do. I want to support Spiral to continue to do this.

I love music, working on my allotment but most of all I love my dogs!