Welcome: This is my first Substack (and an experiment)
If you lead a youth service, commission provision, or decide which consultants/trainers your organisation brings in, this newsletter is for you.
I write about how to build a meaningful, safe, and measurable youth service, without duplicating work, losing young people in systems, or relying on heroic individual effort.
Over the last year I’ve been building MindLit, from training into consultancy; supporting charities, organisations, and statutory services to move toward what I call the Integrated Youth Work Model (mapped below). In future posts I’ll unpack the model, share practical tools, and write the kind of thinking you can take into strategy meetings, commissioning conversations, and internal training.
A quick note on where I’m coming from: I started out in IT (including running my own small business), moved into health/fitness, and have spent the last 10 years in youth work. Along the way I completed a Level 3 in Youth Work, a Psychology degree, and a PGDip in Forensic Psychology. I’ve also got lived experience of things many young people face, enough to keep me grounded, but this newsletter is mainly about what we can do differently as leaders.
Across the sector I kept seeing the same patterns: duplicated work, difficult record-keeping, and young people getting lost between services with unclear pathways. I began building workshops for teams on the cultural and contextual factors that sit underneath practice, intersectionality, poverty, contextual safeguarding, and so-called “challenging behaviour”. Over time that evolved into a consultancy offer: combine frontline practice, psychology, and a systems/tech mindset to help organisations design an end-to-end youth service that is safer, clearer, and easier to run.
Why Substack?
Four reasons - and what you can expect if you subscribe:
I think in public. I enjoy writing, and Substack lets me go deeper than LinkedIn; frameworks, reflections, and practical leadership takeaways.
Free, useful ideas for leaders. If you’re making decisions about services, training, systems, or commissioning, you’ll get insights you can act on (and you can still find shorter versions on LinkedIn).
Tools behind the paywall. Paid subscribers get access to my workshop packs and training materials to use internally, plus longer-form pieces on youth work, safeguarding, education, and the tech/systems that shape young people’s lives.
Founder support. Founder subscribers get everything above plus a monthly 30‑minute call with me to adapt materials for your context and help you translate ideas into a plan your team can deliver.
If that sounds useful, subscribe (free or paid) and tell me what you’re wrestling with in your service: systems, pathways, culture, risk, quality, outcomes. Next up, I’ll start breaking down the Integrated Youth Work Model and how it helps leaders reduce chaos while improving safety and impact. And if you spot any rough edges, bear with me while I build this Substack; it’s all new to me.