Jayne Leeson

Chief Executive

Jayne Leeson is the Chief Executive of Changing Our Lives. In 2002 Jayne supported a group of self advocates with disabilities to establish the charity. Since then, Jayne has worked alongside self advocates to develop Changing Our Lives into an organisation that is recognised locally and nationally for its best practise.

Jayne is committed to the equal citizenship of all people with disabilities and ensures that this is a core value which underpins all of the work Changing Our Lives undertakes.

Claire

Project Development Officer

Claire Mahmood works as a Project Development Officer supporting self-advocates to lead on various work streams.

Claire works on Making Our Voices Heard where she supports Auditors with disabilities and mental health issues to check the quality of in-patient services within the Black Country Partnership Foundation Trust.

Claire also supports a Patient Council in a local low secure unit for men with learning disabilities and mental health issues, as well as supporting Auditors with disabilities to audit residential homes, supported living, day services and health services.

Sarah

Project Development Officer

Sarah Horton is a Project Development Officer who works alongside the young people in Changing Young Lives. She supports the young people to run the Young Voices Network, she also supports young people in the Quality Crew Audit Team and the Rights Squad Training Team.

Sarah has worked for Changing Our Lives for 2 years, prior to this she worked for 5 years in both short break and long term residential services which provided care and support for young people with severe learning disabilities and profound and multiple learning disabilities. As a result, she is an active champion for the rights of people with PMLD and believes everyone has a right to be heard and that with creative thinking people's lives can be socially inclusive.

Lucy

Project Development Officer

Lucy Dunstan works across Sandwell People's Parliament and Changing Young Lives. She supports MPs to run the Parliament, enabling them to have a powerful voice to change policy and help improve services in Sandwell.

She also supports young people to challenge policy and existing services in areas like participation and adolescent health and teenage pregnancy.

Prior to working with Changing Our Lives, Lucy worked for Mencap in community development and consultation. She is driven by an ambition of equality and diversity and actively promotes equal opportunities and fairness.

Subtan

Multi-Media Project Development Officer

Subtan is a Project Development Officer who specialises in multi-media.  He also works with with Quality Auditors to inspect Residential / Supported Living Homes, Day Services, mental health in-patient services and health services.  Subtan has been working with people onthe autistic spectrum to raise the profile of autism supporting them to make short films about themselves and share their experiences. He has also been involve in developing innovative multimedia and web resources for people with learning disabilities.  You will also see Subtan working with people behind the mixing desks at our Open Mic nights.

Ruth

Project Development Officer

Ruth Clinton works with our auditors, supporting them to monitor the quality of residential services and in-patient units across the Black Country. Ruth strongly believes that all people who have a disability have the right to be listened to and is committed to improving the awareness of good communication within people's lives.  She will also support self-advocates to research the history of services for people with learning disabilities who also have mental health issues.

Helen
Project Development Officer
 

Ellie

Project Development Officer (Part Time)

Ellie Horton has recently joined Changing Our Lives as a project development officer and will be working with young people in Wolverhampton to support the Young Voices Network.  Ellie has worked in various jobs supporting people with disabilities for over 14 years. She is very passionate about supporting people to have a voice and making sure that their rights are upheld. She is currently studying autism at University and has a special interest in this area.

Siraaj

Self Advocacy Officer

Siraaj Nadat has joined the steam as a self advocacy officer and will be working on the Health self assessments.  He ia also part of the Quality of life Auditing Team and is leading on the development of People's Parliaments in Walsall and Dudley. This year Siraaj will also lead a project to develop 'Rights for All', a leadership programme for people with learning disabilities from BME backgrounds. This will not only focus on developing their leadership skills, but will support black leaders to develop an understanding and awareness around issues like race and culture.

Dan

Self Advocacy Officer

Daniel McNamee has joined the team as a Mental Health Self Advocacy Officer. He will be carrying out quality of health audits of mental health services around the Black Country and general health services such as general hospitals, GP's and Pharmacists. Dan will be leading on the development of a Black Country Mental Health People's Parliament.

Carol 

Office Manager

As well as managing day-to-day in the office, Carol also looks after the website to make sure that all the information is up to date and accessible. She makes sure that people know about Changing Our Lives by looking after publicity and marketing and taking lots of photographs at our events!  Carol is the first person you will speak to if you call Changing Our Lives.