Welcome to our new project workers

Since April 2016 our two new project workers have been widely welcomed by  kinship carers, volunteers and the team.

Meet Ancha Stoodley

Hi, I’m Ancha Stoodley.  I started as a Project Worker with The Relative Experience Project following a 5 year post as a Parenting Worker at Northumberland Youth Offending Service, supporting families where a young person had committed an offence.  Prior to that, I have extensive experience in the drug and alcohol field, spending 6 years as part of the Therapeutic Care team at Phoenix House residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre in South Shields.   I have a further 3 years experience working in drug and alcohol services in Worcestershire and Birmingham on both a paid and voluntary basis and hold a BA (Hons) in Sociology.  I am passionate about volunteering and working with families and have two children aged 8yrs and 13yrs.

I currently attend the Newcastle and South Shields Kinship carer support groups fortnightly on a Tuesday as well as meeting kinship carers in their homes and the community. I am thoroughly enjoying meeting all kinship carers and volunteers currently accessing the Relative Experience Project.  It has been humbling to hear kinship carers’ stories and I have been incredibly touched by the unconditional care provided to these children by their carers.

Meet Darren McGlen

Hello! I’m Darren McGlen.  I worked in the community sector for the past 12 years having previously worked in various roles within the NHS for over 10 years.  I have vast experience working with voluntary sector with particular focus on young people and their families, those with disabilities, behaviour problems and involved in the justice system.  I am a parent of two as well as being a qualified foster carer.

From the onset I realised what a great team we have in the Relative Experience Project which made my induction so easy.  Meeting many of the Kinship Carers so quickly also gave me a great insight in to the challenges faced and how we, as a project, can help make their journey that bit more manageable.  Being a Kinship Carer is sometimes a very daunting and demanding  responsibility and one which they should be offered help with.  We have an amazing bunch of people who are on this journey so being able to be part of helping them through this an absolute pleasure.