DayBreak Family Group Conferences

Daybreak Family Group Conferences
Daybreak was founded, as we have said, in Hampshire, in 1999. Its founders were Marilyn Taylor, who is our Chief Executive and at that time was a manager of a FGC programme, and Phil Taverner, who was a training officer who had been active in New Zealand at the time FGCs were first introduced. They were committed to establishing an organisation to provide family group conferences, which itself had a culture that reflected the underlying values of FGCs. These include a belief in the ability of extended families to make the best decisions for their own members, and a wish to empower them to do so through this process.

Daybreak works to reflect these principles and values in the way it operates. It has a strong ethos of participation by all those with a vested interest in the service, including children, vulnerable adults, family members, FGC co-ordinators, referrers and those who fund the work. It is a flexible organisation that puts a strong emphasis on people working together and having a voice in the development of the work.

Daybreak began operations at the start of January 2000. It was established as a company limited by guarantee and as a registered charity. The agency worked initially with Hampshire County Council, but quickly began to establish and provide other FGC programmes across the central part of England.

It pioneered work using FGCs to address situations of domestic violence, and continues to seek innovative and effective new contexts in which to promote this model. It comprises a team of people with a wealth of family group conference experience who work together to promote, manage and develop family group conferences. Daybreak now provides a wide range of programmes across the central southern part of England. Full details can be accessed through our Programmes webpage. The project's Chief Executive is Marilyn Taylor.

More recently Daybreak has expanded to provide the whole range of Restorative Practices. It has developed a wide range of training around FGCs, and can offer consultation about this process. It is seeking with others to promote the formal accreditation of FGC coordinator training.

Who is Who in Daybreak

Our Board of Trustees:

Lawrence Greenberg is the chair of our Board. He is the Independent Case Examiner for The Dispute Service, a not-for-profit company established in 2004 to provide dispute resolution and complaints handling in the private rented residential sector. He was previously the General Manager of Independent Housing Ombudsman Limited. He has worked in the public, private and voluntary sectors for organisations such as the Department of the Environment, Unilever and the Housing Corporation. He was Chair of the Parchment Housing Group until the culmination of its merger with the Guinness Housing Trust. Lawrence is an Accredited Mediator and a Chartered Arbitrator, as well as having degrees in social science and town planning. For ten years he was a Justice of the Peace. He is currently an Associate of the Institute for Entrepreneurship at the University of Southampton and Vice-Chair of the London Borough of Enfield Standards Committee.

Max Bullough is the deputy chair of our Board, and chair of our Business Subcommittee. He is the Head Teacher of the Hayling College (11-16 mixed comprehensive on Hayling Island). He has had experience as a Director of Portsmouth and South East Hampshire Education Business Partnership (six years), as a Director and then a Trustee, on attaining charitable status, of the Central Southern Connexions Service (four years) and have served as a member of the Corporation of Havant College for some ten years. He has been an experienced facilitator for the British Council’s International Programme for Headteachers. He is now a qualified facilitator for the National College of School Leadership’s International Leadership Learning Programme. He also works for the Hampshire Teacher and Learning College as a facilitator for their Future Changemakers’ programme and as an assessor for their Leadership Assessment Centres.

Gill Scaife is a retired social worker and has worked in the statutory sector as generic social worker and at a Family Centre. Since retirement she has continued to practice teach, as well as being tutor/assessor on the practice teachers' course for Southampton University. She is also an assessor on the P.Q. Child Care Programme for Portsmouth and Bournemouth Universities. Gill has worked as a self employed FGC coordinator, and so is very familiar with our work. She has been very helpful in assisting us to produce documents such as our Child Protection Policy.

Peter Bradley is the chair of our Practice Subcommittee. He currently works as Director of Academic Development and Quality in the School of Health and Social Care at Oxford Brookes University. His background is in social work as a practitioner and educator, focussing on and working primarily with children and their families and carers. He has been with Daybreak as a Trustee since 2000. He has helped us to be rigorous in thinking through the practice of our work. He has especially contributed to our work with Family Rights Group and the Accreditation of FGC coordinators via the University of Chester course. He and Gill are both taking a keen interest in the Accreditation Route via the Open College Network.

Geraldine Petrou has participated in a family group conference arranged for her granddaughter. She is a powerful ambassador for family group conferences, and has presented at various professional events in their support. She has an educational background, having worked as a teacher.

Our Daybreak Managers:

Lis Gohrisch – Daybreak manager for our child welfare work in Brighton and Hove, West Sussex, and in Portsmouth. She is a qualified social worker and practice teacher. She has been involved in FGCs since the early nineties as a practitioner, trainer and manager. She also has experience of working with FGCs and domestic violence.

Richard Chalmers – Daybreak manager for our child welfare work in Bournemouth and Poole, Dorset, and in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. He also co-managers our pilot using FGCs to address domestic violence in Bournemouth and Poole. Richard comes to us with experience in the world of commerce, and also in residential social work. He is a very experienced FGC coordinator, as well as manager and trainer, and has a special interest in advocacy to ensure that the voices of children are heard in their meeting.

Alison Powney – Daybreak manager for our work to address domestic abuse and violence. Alison has many years experience in work to address domestic violence and abuse. She is leading the development of our training in this field, and has a Daybreak wide remit for consultancy about FGCs and domestic violence. She is the manager of our Daybreak Dove programmes in Basingstoke, Portsmouth, and co manager of the programme in Bournemouth and Poole.

Linda Tapper – Daybreak manager for our work with vulnerable adults. Linda is a very experienced FGC coordinator, manager and trainer. She has led our work with developing FGCs to address elder abuse, and in the development of our work to address issues for vulnerable adults. Previous to working with us, Linda was employed as an Adolescent and Family Support Worker, and also for Mencap managing a pool of support workers for adults with learning disabilities.

Our Team at Head Office:

Marilyn Taylor is the co-founder and Chief Executive of Daybreak. She has qualifications in social work and probation, in Voluntary Sector organisation, and in adult training. She has been employed as a practitioner, manager and trainer in social work and in family group conferencing in both the statutory and voluntary sectors. She has worked in England and in Canada. She has been involved with family group conferences since 1992 as an independent co-ordinator, trainer and manager, and is an accredited FGC coordinator from the university of Chester. She has presented at many Conferences for FGCs in this country, Europe and the USA.

Rod Dale is our finance manager. He is an experienced financial accountant, and has experience at a high level in the commercial sector. He also has experience of working in a charity with St John’s ambulance, and currently also works at a local charity in Winchester.

Julie Ellis is our Senior Administrator. She has a wide range of secretarial and administrative experience, and has experience of running her own business which complements her interest in all things equine. She has undertaken our FGC coordinator course, and works also as an Independent Coordinator for Daybreak.

Kate Barker is our Administrative/Finance Assistant based at our Fair Oak Head Office. She has worked within the admin/finance area for about 9 years before joining Daybreak in 2009. She has two young boys, 3 years and 18 months, who certainly help keep her busy. She is looking forward to progressing her knowledge base and experience within Daybreak.

Andrea Dyde is our Senior Practitioner working in Portsmouth, covering our Child Welfare work and our pilot using community conferences to address anti-social behaviour. She comes from a nursing and health visiting background, where she has worked for many years. She studied law as a mature student and gained a legal degree and postgraduate diploma in Family Law. She worked in Health Service Management and Quality Improvement before becoming an advocate and training as a Family Group Conference Coordinator. She is passionate about respecting families and their abilities to problem solve.

Our team based in our Brighton office:

Becky Bevis is our Administrative Assistant based in Brighton, and is an experienced administrator. Becky has undertaken our FGC coordinator course, and now works also as an Independent Coordinator for Daybreak.

Rachel Barry is our Senior Practitioner based in Brighton. Rachel is a very experienced FGC coordinator, who brings a wide range of knowledge and experience of working in the voluntary sector to this post. Rachel has experience of working with HIV/aids, mental health and domestic violence as well as management experience.

Our Senior Practitioners in West Sussex are:

Zed Wolde-Lule (based in Crawley) has been an independent FGC Coordinator since 2005. Since 1991 she has worked with children and families in London and Brighton from the BME Community Projects, Mental Health Initiative and Children and Young People Services as a Community Development Worker, Drop-In Support Worker, Counsellor and Trainer.

June Wilby (based in Worthing and Littlehampton) has been working as a co-ordinator for Daybreak for 4 years. Her background includes working in Education with Children with challenging behaviour. She worked for 8 years in a Children and family Centre for Social Services. She is an experienced therapeutic Counsellor and has worked in a G.P.Practice and in a Hospice.

Support Our Charity

www.daybreakfgc.org.uk The website of Daybreak Family Group Conferences. Charity no. 1077607 Company no. 378026.

The name 'Daybreak' is translated from the Maori word 'Puao-te-ata-tu'.
This was the title of the report from which the concept of family group conferences first began.

Webdesign by www.summerlandstudios.co.uk | hq@summerlandstudios.co.uk




		This page tells you about the origins and history of the Daybreak organisation and gives more information about the people behind Daybreak including the Board of Trustees, Managers, our Head Office team and our Brighton team. A Brief History of Family Group Conferences Interest in using family group conferences in England emerged in the early part of the nineties. Six Local Authorities ran pilot schemes to see what they could offer in child welfare. They were seen offering a very successful way of working in partnerships with families to make the best plans for children and other family members. Their use has grown across many other places in the UK. They are now being used in a range of contexts, for instance to address situations of domestic violence and to make plans for vulnerable adults. One of these six places was Hampshire, where our organisation began.
Daybreak Family Group Conferences Daybreak was founded, as we have said, in Hampshire, in 1999. Its founders were Marilyn Taylor, who is our Chief Executive and at that time was a manager of a FGC programme, and Phil Taverner, who was a training officer who had been active in New Zealand at the time FGCs were first introduced. They were committed to establishing an organisation to provide family group conferences, which itself had a culture that reflected the underlying values of FGCs. These include a belief in the ability of extended families to make the best decisions for their own members, and a wish to empower them to do so through this process. Daybreak works to reflect these principles and values in the way it operates. It has a strong ethos of participation by all those with a vested interest in the service, including children, vulnerable adults, family members, FGC co-ordinators, referrers and those who fund the work. It is a flexible organisation that puts a strong emphasis on people working together and having a voice in the development of the work. Daybreak began operations at the start of January 2000. It was established as a company limited by guarantee and as a registered charity. The agency worked initially with Hampshire County Council, but quickly began to establish and provide other FGC programmes across the central part of England. It pioneered work using FGCs to address situations of domestic violence, and continues to seek innovative and effective new contexts in which to promote this model. It comprises a team of people with a wealth of family group conference experience who work together to promote, manage and develop family group conferences. Daybreak now provides a wide range of programmes across the central southern part of England. Full details can be accessed through our Programmes webpage. The project's Chief Executive is Marilyn Taylor. More recently Daybreak has expanded to provide the whole range of Restorative Practices. It has developed a wide range of training around FGCs, and can offer consultation about this process. It is seeking with others to promote the formal accreditation of FGC coordinator training. Who is Who in Daybreak Our Board of Trustees: Lawrence Greenberg is the chair of our Board. He is the Independent Case Examiner for The Dispute Service, a not-for-profit company established in 2004 to provide dispute resolution and complaints handling in the private rented residential sector. He was previously the General Manager of Independent Housing Ombudsman Limited. He has worked in the public, private and voluntary sectors for organisations such as the Department of the Environment, Unilever and the Housing Corporation. He was Chair of the Parchment Housing Group until the culmination of its merger with the Guinness Housing Trust. Lawrence is an Accredited Mediator and a Chartered Arbitrator, as well as having degrees in social science and town planning. For ten years he was a Justice of the Peace. He is currently an Associate of the Institute for Entrepreneurship at the University of Southampton and Vice-Chair of the London Borough of Enfield Standards Committee. Max Bullough is the deputy chair of our Board, and chair of our Business Subcommittee. He is the Head Teacher of the Hayling College (11-16 mixed comprehensive on Hayling Island). He has had experience as a Director of Portsmouth and South East Hampshire Education Business Partnership (six years), as a Director and then a Trustee, on attaining charitable status, of the Central Southern Connexions Service (four years) and have served as a member of the Corporation of Havant College for some ten years. He has been an experienced facilitator for the British Council’s International Programme for Headteachers. He is now a qualified facilitator for the National College of School Leadership’s International Leadership Learning Programme. He also works for the Hampshire Teacher and Learning College as a facilitator for their Future Changemakers’ programme and as an assessor for their Leadership Assessment Centres. Gill Scaife is a retired social worker and has worked in the statutory sector as generic social worker and at a Family Centre. Since retirement she has continued to practice teach, as well as being tutor/assessor on the practice teachers' course for Southampton University. She is also an assessor on the P.Q. Child Care Programme for Portsmouth and Bournemouth Universities. Gill has worked as a self employed FGC coordinator, and so is very familiar with our work. She has been very helpful in assisting us to produce documents such as our Child Protection Policy. Peter Bradley is the chair of our Practice Subcommittee. He currently works as Director of Academic Development and Quality in the School of Health and Social Care at Oxford Brookes University. His background is in social work as a practitioner and educator, focussing on and working primarily with children and their families and carers. He has been with Daybreak as a Trustee since 2000. He has helped us to be rigorous in thinking through the practice of our work. He has especially contributed to our work with Family Rights Group and the Accreditation of FGC coordinators via the University of Chester course. He and Gill are both taking a keen interest in the Accreditation Route via the Open College Network. Geraldine Petrou has participated in a family group conference arranged for her granddaughter. She is a powerful ambassador for family group conferences, and has presented at various professional events in their support. She has an educational background, having worked as a teacher. Our Daybreak Managers: Lis Gohrisch – Daybreak manager for our child welfare work in Brighton and Hove, West Sussex, and in Portsmouth. She is a qualified social worker and practice teacher. She has been involved in FGCs since the early nineties as a practitioner, trainer and manager. She also has experience of working with FGCs and domestic violence. Richard Chalmers – Daybreak manager for our child welfare work in Bournemouth and Poole, Dorset, and in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. He also co-managers our pilot using FGCs to address domestic violence in Bournemouth and Poole. Richard comes to us with experience in the world of commerce, and also in residential social work. He is a very experienced FGC coordinator, as well as manager and trainer, and has a special interest in advocacy to ensure that the voices of children are heard in their meeting. Alison Powney – Daybreak manager for our work to address domestic abuse and violence. Alison has many years experience in work to address domestic violence and abuse. She is leading the development of our training in this field, and has a Daybreak wide remit for consultancy about FGCs and domestic violence. She is the manager of our Daybreak Dove programmes in Basingstoke, Portsmouth, and co manager of the programme in Bournemouth and Poole. Linda Tapper – Daybreak manager for our work with vulnerable adults. Linda is a very experienced FGC coordinator, manager and trainer. She has led our work with developing FGCs to address elder abuse, and in the development of our work to address issues for vulnerable adults. Previous to working with us, Linda was employed as an Adolescent and Family Support Worker, and also for Mencap managing a pool of support workers for adults with learning disabilities. Our Team at Head Office: Marilyn Taylor is the co-founder and Chief Executive of Daybreak. She has qualifications in social work and probation, in Voluntary Sector organisation, and in adult training. She has been employed as a practitioner, manager and trainer in social work and in family group conferencing in both the statutory and voluntary sectors. She has worked in England and in Canada. She has been involved with family group conferences since 1992 as an independent co-ordinator, trainer and manager, and is an accredited FGC coordinator from the university of Chester. She has presented at many Conferences for FGCs in this country, Europe and the USA. Rod Dale is our finance manager. He is an experienced financial accountant, and has experience at a high level in the commercial sector. He also has experience of working in a charity with St John’s ambulance, and currently also works at a local charity in Winchester. Julie Ellis is our Senior Administrator. She has a wide range of secretarial and administrative experience, and has experience of running her own business which complements her interest in all things equine. She has undertaken our FGC coordinator course, and works also as an Independent Coordinator for Daybreak. Kate Barker is our Administrative/Finance Assistant based at our Fair Oak Head Office. She has worked within the admin/finance area for about 9 years before joining Daybreak in 2009. She has two young boys, 3 years and 18 months, who certainly help keep her busy. She is looking forward to progressing her knowledge base and experience within Daybreak. Andrea Dyde is our Senior Practitioner working in Portsmouth, covering our Child Welfare work and our pilot using community conferences to address anti-social behaviour. She comes from a nursing and health visiting background, where she has worked for many years. She studied law as a mature student and gained a legal degree and postgraduate diploma in Family Law. She worked in Health Service Management and Quality Improvement before becoming an advocate and training as a Family Group Conference Coordinator. She is passionate about respecting families and their abilities to problem solve. Our team based in our Brighton office: Becky Bevis is our Administrative Assistant based in Brighton, and is an experienced administrator. Becky has undertaken our FGC coordinator course, and now works also as an Independent Coordinator for Daybreak. Rachel Barry is our Senior Practitioner based in Brighton. Rachel is a very experienced FGC coordinator, who brings a wide range of knowledge and experience of working in the voluntary sector to this post. Rachel has experience of working with HIV/aids, mental health and domestic violence as well as management experience. Our Senior Practitioners in West Sussex are: Zed Wolde-Lule (based in Crawley) has been an independent FGC Coordinator since 2005. Since 1991 she has worked with children and families in London and Brighton from the BME Community Projects, Mental Health Initiative and Children and Young People Services as a Community Development Worker, Drop-In Support Worker, Counsellor and Trainer. June Wilby (based in Worthing and Littlehampton) has been working as a co-ordinator for Daybreak for 4 years. Her background includes working in Education with Children with challenging behaviour. She worked for 8 years in a Children and family Centre for Social Services. She is an experienced therapeutic Counsellor and has worked in a G.P.Practice and in a Hospice. Support Our Charity HOME \| CONTACT \| NEWS & EVENTS \| LINKS \| ABOUT DAYBREAK \| VALUES STATEMENT \| ABOUT FGCs DAYBREAK PROGRAMMES \| DOVE \| BLUEBIRD \| FAMILY STORIES \| YOUR COMMENTS TRAINING & CONSULTATION \| VACANCIES \| DONATIONS \| EMAIL headoffice@daybreakfgc.org.uk www.daybreakfgc.org.uk The website of Daybreak Family Group Conferences. Charity no. 1077607 Company no. 378026. The name 'Daybreak' is translated from the Maori word 'Puao-te-ata-tu'. This was the title of the report from which the concept of family group conferences first began. Webdesign by www.summerlandstudios.co.uk \| hq@summerlandstudios.co.uk Photographs courtesy of Stock.xchng www.sxc.hu and copyright of the individual creators © 2009