Episodes

Ann McLaughlin Author of WORLD CHANGE-MAKER: BUILD SKILLS IN INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENt & SOCIAL WORK. Ann discusses her book, World Change-Maker: Build Skills in International Development and Social Work. Ann’s book is full of stories – as is this podcast – to help people understand how half the world lives. People who grasp these gritty realities and have the essential skills are more likely to get an international job. Ann worked 20 years as a psychotherapist/ social worker and then worked i...

Grantown Remakery is a small but important charity which I talked about, a year or so ago, with George Livingstone as the guest.It seemed a good idea to see how they weathered the pandemic and did George have views on how the wider community could support the causes and challenges they saw. It is one of dozens of charities created to improve the quality of life of several vulnerable groups, whose chances in life are threatened by no fault of their own and an underfunded statutory provision. The...

Marina Lypovetska, head of 116 000 in Ukraine and head of projects in NGO “Magnolia”, board member of International Federation Missing Children Europe, talks to me about her work and the huge challenges they face. The difficulties of tracing missing children is obviously compounded by the impact of the pandemic and now the war. In her own words:- “From my early youth, I’d been definitely sure about what I shall do to make a difference – so I graduated National Dragomanova University as a maste...

Barnardo’s Ukrainian helpline has been operational since March 2022 and now gets over 800 calls per week. Those calling have changed from UK families with practical questions to now, when far more refugees with complex reactions are asking for help. Andrew Tubman is a Helplines Manager with Barnardo’s, the largest national children’s charity in the UK. Andrew joined Barnardo’s during the covid pandemic to lead the delivery of ‘Boloh’ a Helpline for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic families – th...

Carolyn Housman is the CEO of Children and Families Across Borders ( CFAB) the UK’s only NGO with a dedicated international social work team, Children and Families Across Borders http://www.cfab.org.uk, which alerts social services and professionally assesses long-term care options for children domestically and in 130 countries to ensure every child has a safe home. She is Vice-Chair of the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance, whose mission is to promote and strengthen the social service wo...

I talk with Professor Lena Dominelli on Ukraine. We talk of her new book ‘Putin’s War in Ukraine’ and the challenges of reconstruction and disaster management. She is a qualified social worker and holds a Chair in Social Work at the University of Stirling. She was previously Co-Director at the Institute of Hazards, Risk and Resilience (2010-2016) at Durham University. Lena has specific interests in projects on climate change and extreme weather events including drought, floods, cold snaps; wild ...

Professor Johnston Hong-Chung WONG is a welcome return guest. He co-founded —Social Workers Across Borders in 2005 and talks of social work in mainland China and Hong Kong. Since then, this ,mainly voluntary, charity, has responded to tsunamis, earthquakes and other natural disasters showing that social work skills are tranferrable into the front line and can help in the immediate aftermath of tragedy. It also demonstrated that they can operate in a humanitarian, neutral way. They can work along...

“Difficult, mothering challenging adult children through Conflict and Change”. is a new publication by Judith Smith just released by Roman and Littlefield. Judith R. Smith, PhD, LCSW, is a senior clinical social worker, therapist, researcher, and professor at Fordham University. She is a leader in gerontological research focusing on women’s experiences as they age. She is a Fellow at the Gerontological Society of America and a Faculty Scholar at Fordham’s Ravazzin Center on Aging and Intergener...

Raisa Kravchenko adds to more voices from Ukraine. She was, until very recently, Executive Director, Board Chair and co-founder in 2004 of the All Ukrainian NGO Coalition for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities. It is a network of 118 Ukrainian local non-governmental organizations and agencies for persons with intellectual disabilities representing about 14 thousand families from all the regions of Ukraine. https://www.facebook.com/vgocoalition,https://www.prosto-pro.com.ua/, www.inteldisabil...

Professor Oksana Boyko starts the series of social work voices from Ukraine. As the war continues, she shares her understandably strong feelings and begins the reflection on the activity of social work in the middle of this invasion. This recording is of an interview with her,led by Professor Tan Ngoh Tiong, Chair of the Global Institute for Social Work and professor of Social Work at Singapore University and I was asked to join in and agreed to publish this audio as a podcast. Currently Oksana...

Rachel Collins-White is the Head of Frontline Services at Unseen UK, an anti-slavery charity. She is responsible for the delivery of the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract through their specialist support services. Unseen is a UK charity based in Bristol who provide safehouses and support in the community for survivors of trafficking and modern slavery. Unseen also runs the UK Modern Slavery & Exploitation Helpline and works with individuals, communities, business, governments, other charities,...

Donna has 16 years public sector experience, including her last role as Head of Law for a leading metropolitan authority. Now a safeguarding adviser & trainer, Donna is involved in serious case reviews in both children’s and adults’ safeguarding, domestic homicide and is a SILP Reviewer and Mentor. S.I.L.P. stands for Single Incident Learning Process.. Donna offers ‘SILP School’ her university accredited training course, CPD for reviewers & a free online network for leaders in review practice. S...

‘No more knives’ by Christina Gabbitas is a book and animation for 10 yr old + primary children educating them about how to avoid grooming,county lines and knife crime. A valuable addition to safeguarding resources. Today I am happy to be back after the Winter break and Christina’s work is always worthwhile. She talks of the professional relationships she’s formed with several police forces and police and crime commissioners. Christina Gabbitas http://www.christinagabbitas.com is an award-winn...

Aagje Ieven is Secretary General at Missing Children Europe www.missingchildreneurope.eu , where she is responsible for the strategic development and day-to-day management of the organization. In this second podcast we talk of a significant group of missing children in Europe—those who run away. We look at why, from the obvious to the preventable and talk of the gaps in response and education surrounding this chronic problem. Aagje has a background in Health (Bachelor, Leuven 1998) and Politic...

Professor Johnston Hong-Chung WONG talks of social work in mainland China and Hong Kong as well as an organisation he co-founded —Social Workers Across Borders. Johnston Wong, Professor in Social Work and Social Administration, started his career as a youth worker in Hong Kong. His early academic interests focused on youth and family work, branching out to psychological stress, unemployment and industrial social work. In Hong Kong he participated in various district and central government commi...

Sonya Chowdhury is the Chief Executive of UK Charity Action for M.E., working with children, families and adults affected by the neurological condition M.E.; a role served since September 2012. Myalgic encephalomyelitis (M.E.) affects 250,000 people in the U.K., significantly impacting lives and not just their health. Unfortunately, a lack of understanding and awareness means men, women, and children experience the same disbelief. Some even experience discrimination from friends, family, health...

Aagje Ieven is Secretary General at Missing Children Europe www.missingchildreneurope.eu , where sheis responsible for the strategic development and day-to-day management of the organization.Aagje has a background in Health (Bachelor, Leuven 1998) and Political Philosophy (Master, Leuven, and Nijmegen, 2002). She has close to twenty years of experience in research and policy analysis on human rights in Europe and has worked for a number of EU civil society organisations advocating for the rights...

Sarah Goff, Development Manager – Safeguarding Young People Sarah is ACT Disabled Young People Manager, she has over twenty years’ experience in the fields of child protection and social care. She is an expert in the field of safeguarding disabled children and her interests include the impact of domestic abuse and child sexual exploitation. Sarah currently combines her role at the Ann Craft Trust as a lecturer at the University of Nottingham on their BA and MA Social Care programmes. Sarah als...

The podcast is back. After a couple of months or so break we head into the 7th year of reporting the world we live in. We talk of the way safeguarding has changed and the challenges for the future. Mike is still working full time with a residential provider , coordinating all safeguarding work for the group. My guest is Michael Hames, safeguarding expert, who I’ve known for 25 years and whom I worked with on several initiatives and investigations starting when he was at Scotland Yard. He was ...

Brian Iselin Slavefreetrade ….Brian is an Australian/Swedish counter-slavery campaigner. He is a former soldier (6 years) and Federal Agent (13 years) who, for the last almost 20 years has specialised in counter-slavery operations around the world. While posted aboard as a Federal Agent in China, he started seeing human trafficking cases, and switched priorities to counter-slavery work. He started slave free trade www.slavefreetrade.org in 2018 to shake up a number of things about the way we tac...

Lt. Joseph E. Laramie, ret. Program Manager National Criminal Justice Training Center of Fox Valley Technical College. Joe has been involved in combatting crimes against children for over three decades in senior law enforcement positions. He is a Program Manager with the National Criminal Justice Training Center (NCJTC) of Fox Valley Technical College working in the Missing and Exploited Children’s and the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Training and Technical Assistance Programs. He re...

ATII stands for the Anti Human Traffiking Intelligence Initiative http://www.followmoneyfightslavery.org a non profit organisation promoting corporate responsibility,awareness raising,intelligence integration,technical advancement and data collaboration.SAM GRABER is the chief Communications Officer of followmoneyfightslavery.org ATII We talk of the importance of identifying supply chains in traffiking situations and how front line workers can learn from financial analysts. Dr. Samantha Graber...

I talk with Laura Robertson from Children’s Hospice South West about how we offer end of life care to our young children and their families. Laura joined Children’s Hospice South West back in June 2017 after many years of fundraising for both small and large charities. A career that that she did not anticipate when graduating from University of Plymouth with a Theatre degree over 10 years ago, but one that is filled with highs, lows, daily challenges and so much to be thankful for. “What I love...

Christina Gabbitas http://www.christinagabbitas.com is an award-winning children’s author who has encouraged over 25,000 children nationally with an annual poetry initiative, giving her a Dame Beryl Bainbridge award in 2015 for her work and Sue Ryder Education Award in 2016. Founder and Trustee of Children’s Literature Festivals http://www.childrensliteraturefestivals.com whose mission is to give children from all backgrounds, cultures and abilities an equal opportunity of having access to books...