Gavin Hoole's Page

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About me: I am passionate about forging the right opportunities for dynamic change, greater awareness and cohesion, both for individuals, organisations and communities. In my volunteering career, I've used education as the driving force for such change, designing and supporting Access programmes to support people with interrupted or negative experiences of education into mainstream opportunities, be it in formal higher education or through informal community partnerships. I currently work within the voluntary sector mental health field through which I support people's recovery. I believe that the validation of lived experience of psychosis and mental illness is key to the recovery process and that the implicit trauma of mental illness, referred to in some cultures as "awakening", presents opportunities for fundamental change, insight and connectedness from which the individual and the wider community alike can benefit, not least through the erosion of fear and stigma and the resurgence of pride, mutual respect and renewed vigour in tackling social inequalities, exclusion,Learning difficulties and disengagement.