Claire Bolton (CF 2012) from London is a multi-award-winning independent speech and language therapist who has been delivering online therapy sessions to families during the pandemic. However, there are many disabled and vulnerable families who are unable to afford private therapy and are currently experiencing long waiting times via the NHS.

Claire will use her grant to deliver online speech and language therapy free to vulnerable families and children who have experienced lockdown-induced language delays. The funding will cover Claire’s income to carry out the therapy one day per week during term time in 2022. Claire will reach out to NHS services in low socio-economic areas and invite them to refer vulnerable families to her for language stimulation groups. After assessing their needs, she will offer online speech and therapy training to parents and carers in group sessions. Any remaining time will be used to deliver online therapy to children in individual sessions. Claire hopes to reach as many vulnerable children as possible, by supporting their families with education on speech and language stimulation.

Claire’s Fellowship to Canada and the USA in 2012 explored how music can support speech and language therapy. It was supported by the Baring Foundation.

Julie Stokes OBE (CF 1992) from Gloucestershire is a consultant clinical psychologist and Executive Coach who has spent three decades championing services for bereaved children, most notably by founding the pioneering charity Winston’s Wish, named in honour of her Churchill Fellowship. During the pandemic, Julie published a guide to grief for bereaved children aged nine or older called You Will Be Okay. This guide is one of the first for this age group and offers ways for bereaved children and young adults to cope during a difficult time.

Julie will use her grant to work closely with The Childhood Bereavement Network (CBN) to provide professionals in the Network with a free copy of her book to read, review and share in their settings. Julie will also work with schools and particularly ELSAs (Emotional Literary Support Advisors) to target hard-to-reach older children and teenagers who have been bereaved to ensure their needs are carefully understood and met. Using social media platforms (@juliestokesobe), Julie will promote the book more widely in the hope of reaching the 10,000+ children who have been bereaved by Covid-19 in the UK. Through this, Julie aims to equip older children, parents, carers and professionals with the resources and support they need to reduce the risk of complicated grief.

Julie’s Fellowship to Canada and the USA in 1992 explored pioneering services for bereaved children.

Anna Wardley (CF 2019) from Gosport in Hampshire is a communications professional and endurance swimmer. During the pandemic, she began to develop a range of suicide bereavement support for children, based on her own lived experience of parental suicide,aged nine, and informed by her Churchill Fellowship research. The support includes training for professionals (which she has piloted with several local councils), a series of resources created in partnership with Portsmouth City Council and a suicide bereavement protocol for local schools and colleges.

Anna will use her grant to develop, formalise and extend this work to schools, mental health services and other youth settings, first locally and then across the UK. She will produce branded resources and create a website to share these nationally, supported by a research-informed social media presence. She will lobby decision-makers on behalf of children and young people bereaved by suicide, and will share her Fellowship findings and recommendations through events and partnerships. Anna will develop a panel with lived experience of parental suicide to help guide her work. She hopes her work will lead to increased awareness of the impact of suicide bereavement on young people and new ways to support them better.

Anna’s Fellowship to Australia, Denmark, Sweden and the USA in 2019/20 explored support for children bereaved by parental suicide. It was supported by the John Armitage Charitable Trust and Samaritans.

Sacha Brakenbury (CF 2000) from Colchester in Essex is the founder of six education charities including the original Ipswich Town Community and Education Trust, all focusing on supporting disadvantaged and vulnerable families. She works closely with local schools which, on reopening in September 2020, reported increased evidence of children's trauma.

Sacha will use her grant to develop a long-term, school-based pilot programme in Essex, supporting around 13,000 families, particularly those at risk of domestic abuse. This will involve collaborative research with more than 30 schools on local incidences of domestic abuse, and development of a page on each school's website to invite self-referrals to core services in a safe way. As such, those experiencing trauma and abuse can still be heard, even during lockdowns, and schools, as trusted institutions in a position to observe and recognise cases, can be used as a bridge for vulnerable families to access support from specialist services. Sacha hopes the pilot can be rolled out to other regions across the UK.

Sacha's Fellowship to Canada and the USA in 2000 explored approaches to health promotion for young people.

Yvonne Osafo (CF 2016) from Mitcham in London is a psychotherapist specialising in infant-parent psychotherapy (IPP), which encourages good early relationships between parents and their children to offer them the best possible start in life.

Yvonne will use her grant to launch a year-long infant-family clinic pilot project providing ten low-income and high-risk families with free infant-parent psychotherapy. The pilot will involve developing organisational structures and operations, providing specialist IPP supervision to clinicians, recruiting and training staff, establishing links with potential referrers to develop a network around the service of perinatal mental health teams, community paediatricians, health visitors and GPs, and establishing an online presence and visual identity. At the end of the pilot year, Yvonne hopes to be able to establish an infant-family institute and clinic, working with infants up to two years of age, and to train a specialist IPP professional workforce.

Yvonne's Fellowship to Czechia, Norway, Sweden and the USA in 2016 explored best practice in infant-parent psychotherapy and was supported by the WAVE Trust.