Meet The Team
Our Believe Team
Alison Hodgson – Project Coordinator
My name is Alison Hodgson and I was lucky enough to join the Motherwell team in July 2020. One of my first roles was as Project Coordinator for Believe. We approached Cheshire East and Cheshire West Child Protection & Child in Need teams and we now work in partnership with both teams. A Believe Quarterly Newsletter has also been created and is shared with both teams. We have been working as a team & I have been dealing with the referrals sent through all teams.
Believe was pretty well established when I joined but with the help of the great team we have, we were able to really push forward and put Believe exactly where it deserves to be.
To watch the women who come through this programme achieve what they do is so inspiring and we are lucky enough to be able to offer them up positions as volunteers within Motherwell when they have finished their Believe journey. I am extremely proud of the Believe Project and the rise in demand for this service has been phenomenal. It is such a privilege and an honour to have played a small part in its success.
Donna Davenport – Believe Project Lead/Support Advocate
My name is Donna, and I was delighted to have joined Motherwell Cheshire as the Believe Project Lead/Support Advocate. The Believe Programme is very unique. We aim to be the “Voice” of Mum’s whose child/ren are subject to a Child Protection Plan. Within my role, I am able to offer emotional and practical support including accompanying Mum’s to all Social Care Meetings.
Each Mum will have their own bespoke support plan that is personal to them. The plan is devised from our very own Well-being Flower, this is the core of the Believe Support. It helps women to evaluate themselves and to identify the areas they need to make changes, this empowers the women to take control by adapting strategies which suits their needs.
In my previous role I have supported young people for over 20 years within the Education Sector. I have devised and delivered Resilience, Anger Management, Mental Health strategy programmes for young people. I set up and delivered a parent support group, which enabled parents to support their children who were experiencing mental health and emotional difficulties.
I have gained a qualification in counselling which has enabled me to set up my own part-time private practice.
Kate Blakemore – Founder and Chief Executive
Ever since founding Motherwell Cheshire I wanted to offer a project that supports mums at risk of child removal. Previous to founding the Motherwell Cheshire charity I worked for many years in the homeless sector and recognised the lack of support available to mums at risk of child removal in particular supporting them with their mental health.
Over the years I have developed the “My Believe Journey” which the mums that we support use to develop their own bespoke support plan to help them achieve their goals often linked to the plan that social care have put into place.
I am passionate about creating the right environment for every mum that we support to feel empowered to make the life changing decisions.
I am also on a personal mission to help break the stigma around child removal. Every mum we have supported through the Believe project has experienced some element of Child hood trauma which has gone unsupported for many years, if supported at all. Child removal is not a life choice that any mum makes and with the right support many mums can continue to parent their children.
Meet our Patron
Sally Carmen
Sally Carmen is one of Britain’s leading female actors having stared in many well known TV productions.
Sally is an established actress, who attended the LAMDA drama school in London.
For the Believe project the roll that stands out was ‘Abi Franklin’ in Coronation Street. Sally’s character represents the amazing women that we support. These mum’s are very often misunderstood, living with mental health conditions after experiencing traumatic events, with a lack of appropriate support.