Making life better for families

Leila Dantes-Michael from Lewisham, and Jasmine Wilson-Daze from Norfolk are the joint winners of the Parent Champions Coordinator of the Year Award 2025.

The Coordinator of the Year Award recognises the Parent Champions coordinator who has demonstrated outstanding levels of dedication, creativity, and boldness in bringing communities together – and has worked hard to support and encourage Parent Champions in their roles as volunteers, as well as in their personal development.

Leila

Leila is described by the volunteers who work with her in Lewisham as ‘courageous and dedicated’. She organises the Parent Champions team with great care, staying in regular contact to offer support. She is actively present during outreach sessions, helping Parent Champions and giving them confidence and guidance. 

Leila also delivers excellent training sessions, ensuring all the information is clear and accessible to everyone. Her supportive approach has helped Parent Champions feel well-prepared and motivated.  She has also worked with Coram’s Books Together programme which is co-delivered by Parent Champions.  Leila has recruited a good number of volunteers, particularly because of the successful trainings offered such as ‘BAP’ (Being a Perfect Parent) and “EPEC” (Empowering Parents Empowering Communities).

Leila explains how she first became involved in working with families:

“I was one of the first cohort of Parent Champions in Lewisham. I joined the scheme as a volunteer in 2018 after giving up my job in a private hospital due to challenges in childcare costs with my two under-five children. I was an immigrant, and the process of UK’s early education was all new to me, and I did not know where to access information about childcare entitlements, or what my options were so I could go back to work. I found my inspiration in joining the Parent Champions scheme. I wanted to be of help to other parents, who like me, found themselves needing help and guidance but had no family and a limited network of local friends. My volunteering work has helped me gain an amazing network, new transferrable skills and a new employment path that I did not know I would be in. After a year of active volunteering, all my voluntary experience and learning helped me find the courage to apply and become the first Parent Champion Coordinator Apprentice for Lewisham. After completing my apprenticeship, I became a Family Information Outreach officer, and assigned Parent Champion Coordinator for Lewisham. Starting as a Parent Champion volunteer and ending up leading the Parent Champion team has been a privilege that I will always be grateful for. I feel blessed to work with our amazing volunteers who are selfless and resilient. The essence of what I do is reflected in the respect and love that goes around for everyone within our team”.

Leila Dantes-Michael from Lewisham, and Jasmine Wilson-Daze from Norfolk are the joint winners of the Parent Champions Coordinator of the Year Award 2025.

The Coordinator of the Year Award recognises the Parent Champions coordinator who has demonstrated outstanding levels of dedication, creativity, and boldness in bringing communities together – and has worked hard to support and encourage Parent Champions in their roles as volunteers, as well as in their personal development.

Jasmine 

Jasmine’s colleagues say: “Jasmine’s passion is key to the programme’s success”. 

Jasmine was nominated by her manager Carla who says that since beginning in her role Jasmine has been committed to making the Parent Champion scheme a success in the area. She thinks strategically and provides guidance and support to colleagues and directly to parent champions.  This year, Jasmine has worked with over 60 volunteers in Norfolk.  She created a comprehensive induction training package to supports parent champions volunteers in their roles with families in the community. Some of the volunteers work to support refugees from Ukraine. Jasmine has worked closely with the REDI team in Norfolk supporting and developing the offer to international families.

Jasmine explains why she became involved in working as a Parent Champion Coordinator:

“I had been working with families as a Library Manager, but didn’t understand the complexity of family life until I had my own daughter in 2022. After returning to work I saw the role of the Parent Champion Coordinator advertised and I felt compelled to apply because it connected my work skills with a passion – supporting families to be able to make informed choices and to get the support they need, when they need it”.

The winner of the Parent Champions Biggest Personal Development Award 2025 is Becky Harris from Wrexham.

This award recognises the Parent Champions volunteer who has made significant positive developments to impact their own life.

Becky was nominated by her colleague Lisa who says:

“Becky has been a Parent Champion volunteer since our local scheme began in 2022.  She has played an active role in supporting parents in the local area. She uses her own experience as a parent to offer advice around caring for children with additional needs and accessing services.  When Becky joined as a volunteer, she had faced struggles in parenting her daughter, who has complex additional needs, and had given up a career in nursing due to her own health needs. She found it hard to recognise what a considerate and proactive parent she is, and battled a lack of self-confidence”.  

Over the last three years Becky has grown hugely in confidence and has had a lasting impact on the parents she has supported.

Becky has spoken at two professional events in the local area, sharing personal details about the challenges she faced and the battle to overcome these. She has used her experiences to inform professionals working with families as well as the families who are looking for support themselves. Becky gave a talk in the local Wellbeing Hub, which was attended by the local mayor and many other professionals.

Her colleague says Becky was truly amazing, she opened up about her early struggles and everyone could see how she goes above and beyond for her daughter. Lisa says “There was not a dry eye in the house”.

Becky has also organised three Autism Acceptance events in the local Wellbeing Hub and supports other local organisations, for example as a volunteer parent mentor for the charity Family Friends, and as a mentor in a Challenging Behaviour Pop-Up Group.

When she was told she had won this Award, Becky said:

“I was shocked to hear that I had won this Award as the nominees all had inspirational stories. I am delighted to have won this Award”.

Lisa says Becky is truly an inspirational volunteer as she meets each new challenge with a smile and a can-do attitude. This transition—from someone receiving support to someone providing it—has been inspiring to see.

The Parent Champions Best Newcomer Award 2025 winner is Sarah Sumner, from Blackburn & Darwen.

This awards recognises new Parent Champions volunteers who have made significant progress or impact since joining the scheme.

Sarah was nominated by her colleague Catherine who says:

“Sarah is new to the SEND Parent Champions volunteer scheme, having joined a year ago, but in that time, wow, she has made an extraordinary impact. Her enthusiasm, dedication, positivity and drive to help others has truly set her apart as a standout newcomer”.

From the moment Sarah joined the scheme, she hit the ground running and quickly began connecting with local families who needed support. Her ability to engage with parents, listen to their concerns, and offer practical advice has been exceptional. Sarah has been especially effective at making parents feel heard and valued, creating an immediate positive impact in the community. She has helped recruit others and provided really good insight about what’s needed for the scheme.

Sarah explains why she wanted to get involved as a Parent Champions volunteer:

“As a parent of a child with SEND I am aware of that feeling of isolation and loneliness. After leaving full time work and putting everything into my sons education and well-being my goal is to now help and support other families on that same journey – sharing all my knowledge. Being able to solve problems is a passion of mine and that’s why I chose this role. I also participate in other community projects and all my roles work nicely together”.

The winner of the Parent Champions Biggest Impact Award 2025 is Diane Price from Blackburn.

This award recognises the Parent Champions volunteer who has demonstrated outstanding levels of dedication, enthusiasm and team work.

Diane was nominated by her colleague Cathy who says:

“Diane has had an extraordinary impact on our SEND community over the last year. She has consistently gone above and beyond in her role as a SEND Parent Champion, not only through tireless efforts in reaching out to isolated parents but also by developing innovative strategies that have allowed us to connect with even the most hard-to-reach families”.

On receiving this award Diane says:

“I was absolutely delighted to receive this award and will continue in my volunteering role working as a SEND Parent Champion.”

Diane’s empathetic approach always makes parents and carers feel listened too, believed, valued and heard. She has led a series of monthly virtual support meetings for isolated parents and families, and developed a partnership offer with 35 local schools to offer this session to SEND parents. 

She has helped to recruit, train and mentor new SEND Parent Champions, providing them with the tools to reach out to isolated parents and build trusting relationships. 

The annual Parent Champions Awards recognise and celebrate the work of Parent Champions volunteers and coordinators.

The winner of Parent Champions Scheme of the Year Award 2025 is Parent Champions Islington.

This award celebrates the incredible achievement of a whole Parent Champions team.

Parent Champions Islington focuses on supporting residents with children under five, sharing key messages around health, early education and home learning as well as helping shape future services. Since it launched in January 2018, the scheme has recruited and trained over 119 parent volunteers. This includes 22 parents of children with SEND, and 39 different languages spoken. There are currently 56 parent champions still active.

Parent Champions Islington is run by Coordinator Selda Aygun, who has worked with passion, upskilling and empowering parents over the past 18 years, seeing the changes which create a better start for children.

On receiving the Award Selda said:

“I am bursting with pride and joy! I am so proud to have set up and to be running such a successful Parent Champion scheme within Bright Start Islington that is deemed the best in the UK. Thank you for Coram’s input and continued support, and to all my colleagues as it’s great to be working with the best colleagues anyone could ever wish for. And a very special thank you to our fantastic Bright Start Islington Parent Champion volunteers who are doing an amazing job of sharing information and increasing take up of Early Year’s services, making a huge impact on our communities living in Islington.”