We are an education and support community - and a family...
CalmFamily operates as a unique matrix structure. Under leadership, the community supports itself through a lattice of specialist knowledge and experience. Individuals who want to lead, can just do so by supporting others and implementing their ideas. To achieve our collective goals, we work in groups and project teams that are non-hierarchical. Every individual who trains with us becomes a part of the decision making process, has a real voice and has the opportunity to develop and lead.
The leadership team
Emily Wilding |
Danielle Heap |
Jen LittleJohns |
Em Taylor |
Jeni Atkinson |
Emily Wilding and Danielle Heap founded CalmFamily, a social enterprise and collaborative community organisation, in the midst of saving and restoring the BabyCalm and ToddlerCalm programmes. In a subsequent merger with It's a Sling Thing, and a move to make CalmFamily strategically successful, CalmFamily gained three new directors, Jen Littlejohns, Emily Taylor and Jeni Atkinson. Each member of the leadership team are long-standing parent educators, successful entrepreneurs, and mothers. We consider our roles as directors to be care-takers (or the parents) of the community and the organisation (the family) and we try to take the same approach to leadership as we do to all relationships; by collaborating for solutions, acceptance of situations and people as they are, by learning and growing together, meeting and balancing everyone's needs, empathising, and responding to others with compassion. Between us we have 15 small humans to care for and more than 5 businesses.
Consultant leadership group
Rather than adding a level of hierarchy, our consultant leadership advisory group is there to ensure the community is heard, even when consulting the whole community does not make sense for business operations or is premature. This means both collaboration and effective and efficient decision making can take place.
Katie Olliffe |
Michelle C-G |
Emma Williams |
Luisa McSharry |
Cindy Charest |
External specialist advisors
We have a fairly wide scope to cover in terms of specialist knowledge and we think it is essential to stay up-to-date and evidence-based. Our external specialist advisors offer ongoing support to leadership in relation to their area of knowledge.
Consultants
Our consultants are badass change-makers who take what they love and give it to others. It isn't easy being self-employed or doing this work alongside parenting or other professional roles. It takes dedication, a sense of humour, determination and a community around you. We work together as colleagues to keep each other going and support each other when we struggle.
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Parents and professionals
The parents and professionals with whom we work in the community take the knowledge and skills that they gain the working with us and they pass them on to their family, friends, colleagues and most importantly their children. Don't forget that the way all of these people adapt their actions in their interactions with children in every day life, has the biggest impact on the future of our society. They, and us as parents ourselves, are literally raising a generation of calmer humans.
Community affiliated organisations
We are all about community and family, and that means building close relationships with like-minded organisations so that we can serve parents in the best possible way. All the people who we work with believe in empathy, equality and empowering parents, all on a foundation of evidence, excellence and ethics. We work closely with the organisations below because we believe in them.
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Would you like to work with us?
We love to hear from people who like what we do and want to be a part of it all. If you want to get involved then contact us.