Lewis Reid
Access and Inclusion Adviser
Lewis previously spent 5 years working for Barnardo’s around preventing children and young people going into care or carers placement breaking down. This included supporting parents and carers as a practitioner and delivering support such as play therapy, trauma informed practice, CSE, and adults impacted by adverse childhood experiences.
After being a practitioner Lewis was then made service manager in managing a team to deliver a mentoring service which was led by families to achieve set goals. Alongside this Lewis was part of the Children and Families Review by Dundee City Council as a coordinator for The Fast Online Referral Tracking System (FORT) which resulted in Lewis supporting professionals from education, health, social services and 3rd sector agencies to signposts for supports. Supports could be around finances, housing or an aimed piece of work for either a child, young person or adult.
He has also worked in Bristol as a practitioner for young offenders with a substance misuse background. This included support around the use of substances but also with an aim to support young adults engagement in education or employment.
Lewis expresses the importance of people receiving supports is something that he is passionate about due his own life experiences and previous roles.
“As a young person who struggled with education due to having dyslexia, I would not accept support and instead struggled with my own education at school. However, I eventually learned that accepting support helped me achieve my goals in getting my degree and to where I am today. In my past roles I have seen the difference support can help someone in achieving short term and long-term goals and look forward to continuing this as a Wellbeing Advisor. I truly believe everyone should be treated equally regardless of diversity or background”.