Our Team
Get to know our staff team
The paid staff team are responsible for the day to day running of the organisation.
Meet Our Staff
Amanda Kent
CEO
Amanda’s role is to work with the Trustees to provide leadership to the organisation, responsible for delivering and developing services. Amanda has previously worked in law, and her first contact with Speakeasy was as a volunteer advocate.
Lynda Awan
Senior Advocate
Lynda’s role is a senior practitioner, line managing and offering practice support to the team as well as provide a wide range of statutory and non statutory advocacy to vulnerable adults and children. Lynda has previously worked as a Psychiatric Nurse and a Learning Disability Nurse.
Ruth Jewell
Project Officer
Ruth’s role is to provide project support by co-ordinating referrals and monitoring and act as the Finance Officer. Ruth has previously worked as a Group Restaurant Manager, in HR and volunteered with the Citizen’s Advice.
Ally Burridge
Advocate
Ally’s role is to provide a wide range of statutory and non statutory advocacy to vulnerable adults and children. Ally has previously held senior management roles in education.
Pam Oddy
Choices CEO
Pam is working closely with Speakeasy on developing and delivering new services, including our Hospital Avoidance and Discharge projects for people with a learning disability and autism who are at risk due to their poor mental health. Pam has previously worked as a Learning Disability Nurse with people in long stay hospital units and community placements.
Day In The Life
An advocacy day can look like any other job – start the day by checking your phone and emails, update the case recording system and write reports or complete monitoring information. What makes it different than other jobs is that we work at your pace, building a relationship with you in the way that you want. Sometimes that means we have text conversations, or we meet in your home, or we go to a meeting with you so that people listen to what you have got to say.
Working together is better
We have been working collaboratively with local advocacy organisations since the 1990s. The specialist advocacy organisations in Hampshire quickly realised we could give a louder voice to the people we worked with by working together, and formed Hampshire Advocacy Reference Group or HARG. The consortium membership changed over the years to include other disabled people’s groups and larger mental health charities who were also providing advocacy. We currently work in partnership with Choices Advocacy, as well as Basingstoke Voluntary Services who provide ‘back office support’ and office space.
