PeoplePlus' Inspirational Women

Sally Bond

Sally shares with us her journey to motherhood and balancing this with a successful career

I am a mum of a young child. I describe my being as she makes my heart full, while my career makes my heart tick. Seeing me as a mum, or indeed as a Senior Leader is only half of me. I’m at my best when I am that whole person. The juggle is real! It is constant and it is tough, but anyone who knows me; knows I say a lot – if it’s easy it’s not worth having. You get out what you put in and I put in everything I have, every single day.

Having been on a really difficult fertility journey with many procedures and 4 full IVF cycles, over 300 injections, in toilets, on trains, during breaks of meetings, a covid baby and we lost her beloved twin. Petrified but I didn’t tell a soul, well until I had to. At this point I hadn’t thought as far as actually being pregnant. I needed to tell someone! I told my boss at the time who was very supportive. I remember starting with, “I’m still very ambitious”…… Like I was making sure it wasn’t seen as a weakness. There it is, the stigma is still there, right?

Everything was weird from then on. Talking about other people picking up my division, a time where I wouldn’t be available was starting to make me feel strange. My career is part of my DNA, what would I do without it, even temporarily?

Being 43 with a two year old wasn’t the plan! It was supposed to happen years ago. I couldn’t wait to come back to work, but the guilt, an inevitable part of being a mum which I now understand, was very real - guilt if you work too many hours, guilt if you don’t, guilt if you read emails while singing twinkle in the bath, guilt if you enjoy work, guilt if you don’t, – so much guilt.

When I did go back to work, the first weeks were muzzy, but it quickly dissipated, putting on a suit felt good (even if it was a little tight!) and drinking HOT coffee – what a treat! Leaving your child with a stranger 40 hours a week is a new one on me too. Finding that right someone is like an infinite search for a person that doesn’t exist. If I’d done any more due diligence on my childminder I’d have been arrested for stalking and harassment. Friends were asking me why I wasn’t taking a year off – me thinking they must be mad!

The guilt for going to work quickly faded and the mum career struggle was becoming very real. I’d never had to say I can’t make a call at 5:30 as I’d need to pick my child up. I’d never had a hard stop before, I was so conscious that it was seen as a weakness. And if we are all honest, I’m sure some people thought that some of the time.

I felt frustrated by my own feelings, not that anyone made me feel that way, but that I felt I had this stigma … inside I’d be screaming “I gave birth to a baby, I didn’t lose my ambition!” In fact I’m more ambitious than I’ve ever been. I have a little girl that every day I want her to be proud of me and have her own aspirations and big ambitions.

I still do as much as my husband does with our daughter. I’m so mindful of being present when I am around. He’s an amazing dad by the way, but we do equal drop offs and pick-ups, alternate the through the night time debacles and of course he looks after her alone if I’m working away, that’s when he would say he takes the weight and I guess he is right. It's only us, with no outside support. However, I still do the logistics, batch cooking, ironing, sorting my daughter’s clothes out, organising the parties and the presents. Oh my, I’m tired just writing that, but I wouldn’t have it any other way!

I won’t choose. Why should I have to? Most men don’t have to. I want both. I want to be a mum - and I remain ambitious, hardworking and connected to having a career that’s meaningful to me and helps me serve a purpose. My career makes my heart tick and my baby girl makes my heart full.

Tracey Morley

Tracey shares her remarkable career journey from hairdresser to director

I hated school right from a young age, I wasn't very academic, I am sure I was and am dyslexic, but there wasn’t the support available when I was younger, unlike the excellent support we offer in prison education today! All I ever wanted to be was a hairdresser! I messed about at school and spent most of the time being sent out of class to talk to the tree. But I did become a hairdresser in the end and I spent 20 years working in salons and building up my own mobile business.

When my son was 10, I got divorced and remember thinking to myself, “I need to earn more money so Callum can go to university. But what can I do, I don't know anything?!” I went on the local college website and I saw a teaching course, and that was it! I could teach hairdressing.

I spent the next four years working full time and going to night school to get my teaching qualifications. I did the assessors, IQA, level 3 teaching qualification then on to do a teaching degree…but the hardest part for me was having to do my maths and English (why did I not pay attention at school?!) I got a job at the local college teaching hairdressing, then moved on to a secondary school, ironically where I went myself as a child and hated! I achieved my Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) and passed my Newly Qualified Teacher Status (NQT). I was an outstanding graded teacher and soon I was coaching and supporting other tutors to improve their own teaching and learning practice. I then moved on to start my 9-year journey in prison education. I taught hairdressing at HMP Foston Hall and maintained my outstanding teaching grades. I then became Regional Quality Lead for a few years before progressing on to be Education Manager at HMP Nottingham, after 18 months I became a Regional Manager which then led me into my current position as Director of Operations for Prison Education.

My determination and struggles through my own education and career are what makes me so passionate about prison education and why it's so important that we make a difference to as many lives as we can. I have faced many challenges and I do understand others challenges because I have been in their shoes. I have made many mistakes along the way, but we are all human and we all make mistakes, but the key is to learn from them and move on.

I have a great team in prison education that work so hard, despite the challenges they face day to day, and I thank them for their continued support to drive the contract forwards.

Callum is now 26, he did go to York University, and he is a qualified accountant.

Emma Grigson

Emma shares with us the inspirational charity work she does for people with neurodivergent needs

I grew up in a single parent family with a disabled mum who struggled financially. We often relied on benefits, fending off bailiffs. My fierce mum was determined I would avoid a life of poverty and she made sure I had a good start in life.

Fast forward, I’ve been privileged to work in Parliament, head up the Government Affairs team at Vodafone UK and lead the Corporate Communications, Education and CSR division for the UK’s largest water company.

When my son was five years old, he was diagnosed as autistic. That led to me to move 300 miles to Cornwall to find the right environment for him. The ‘struggling’ boy we’d worried about in London began to thrive. It was attitudes towards neurodiversity that were – and are – the problem. At that time, I felt compelled to play my part to end this discrimination. Timing is everything and my role at PeoplePlus came along – an organisation which has also wholeheartedly supported my neurodiversity work.

With my sister, I also founded a not for profit, Access Cornwall CIC. I spend one day a week mentoring and training neurodivergent people. We now employ three people who all have disabilities, the board comprises only neurodivergent individuals and we have helped over 100 people change their lives for the better. I feel hugely proud that PeoplePlus and Access Cornwall allow me to make a real difference – one life at a time.

Amanda Brogan

Amanda uses her own lived experience to make a difference to other peoples lives

I’m Amanda the Partnership & Development Manager for PeoplePlus in Scotland. My journey to this position has been passionate and poignant to myself to ensure the work that we commit to do is achieved & accomplished.

I have worked in employability since I left school at 16, this was a chance situation that led me to this vocation. Due to my personal family circumstances, I was removed from the family home at the age of 15 under the supervision of Social Work and lived with a friend and her family until I secured my own tenancy at 16 years old. While doing my work experience in school I was placed in a local community project to learn admin skills. The project was based in a deprived area of Glasgow and was funded to support and assist women who had suffered with various mental health and domestic violence abuse issues. The staff at the project saw my potential and offered me a YTS position and helped me with my housing situation.

Being in the project triggered my passion for community development and social inclusion in my area; I started to understand that living in a deprived area we were a static and never really had a chance to thrive in life due to lifestyles, environment, housing, and inequality to the more affluent areas in the city. I then started to attend local committee meetings and local projects AGM’s to find out more and what improvements could be made for the youth and young people in the area to enhance their skills and development.

I secured a permanent post with Health City’s Glasgow through Glasgow City Council and became a Community Advocate Worker at 17. I was pregnant with my 1^st son at this time and found it hard to secure a full-time nursery place for him while I worked. At that point in time, it was only “At Risk” children that secured a ringfenced full time nursey place in the Local Authority Nurseries. I had to place my son in a private nursery and paid a large amount of my wages for the fees. I found this unfair as I was working and contributing to the state and my son’s welfare was safe so I couldn’t get a place. This then led me to One Plus who support lone parents with employment, education and training. I worked with One Plus to start up nurseries, afterschool, and breakfast clubs to enable lone parents to have the childcare support in place they need to move into employment.

I continued my career through many DWP & Local Authority employability contracts supporting various groups such as lone parents, long term unemployed, and those with health conditions and disabilities. I continued to use my community contacts to access activities, additional funding and support for everyone that came on the programmes to ensure that they sustained in employment.

I’m currently on four management committees for local community projects and continue to work with local projects and organisations to promote PeoplePlus. We have made a real impact to the community in Glasgow over the past two years and the partners are grateful for our support.

I have the lived experience that our participants have experienced, and I understand the hardships that they face daily from my own experience of homelessness, domestic violence, being a lone parent, carer and sufferer from bereavement. I understand what the challenges are for people and believe that is why I have been successful in my role and career, and I hope my story can inspire others to go for their dreams and know they can be whatever they want to be.

Yuliia Kulikovska

Yuliia has moved to Scotland as a result of the war in Ukraine, she's now helping others

My name is Yuliia Kulikovska (pronounced Julia) – I am from Kyiv (the Ukrainian spelling) and have been living in Glasgow, Scotland, since October 2022. I am 22 years old and have a Bachelors’ Degree in International Business and Management from the Ukrainian American Concordia University.

When the war started on the 24^th of February 2022 I was living with my boyfriend in a flat in the centre of Kyiv. In the early days of the war, it was kind of like the stages of grief, I was in denial. My dad is licensed to have a rifle and showed me how to use it – I was like, “Are you sure that shooting a fully-equipped trained soldier wouldn’t make things even worse for our family’s safety?” But very soon I understood. We had seen multiple cases of Russian barbarous war crimes on our land. Also, my parents’ home is close to Bucha where mass graves of civilians have been found. If I had to use a gun or anything else even remotely close to being called a weapon, in order to defend myself and my family now, I wouldn’t hesitate.

I have a visa with a Biometric Residential Permit which allows me to work and live here for up to 3 years. I have no idea what happens after that.

I don’t really see what I am doing as having challenges. I am incredibly grateful to Scotland, Glasgow, the UK, to the people here who have been so friendly and compassionate. I see working for PeoplePlus and earning money as a chance to give something back in the taxes I pay, and I send some money to the Ukrainian forces. It was just pure luck that I found this job – I had been volunteering at the Job Centre doing translation for Ukrainians and asked about doing paid work in the same way – but was advised I needed a qualification. Then someone said PeoplePlus was looking for a Ukrainian speaker – I met with the team in Glasgow and started work in November. It was all so quick!

I miss home, my boyfriend, my dad, my grandmother, my friends, who are all in or near Kyiv – my Mum and sister are here also - we are living in a hotel in the city. I think travelling and coming to Scotland have opened my horizons – I just wish it wasn’t war that had pushed me into leaving Ukraine.