About Life Skills Education Charity
2020 marked 25 years and over 10 derivations of our Life Skills Primary programme in the UK, delivered to over 400,000 students
A Little History
Behind Life Skills
Education Charity
We are Life Skills Education Charity. We help young people manage risk.
Originally brought to Mansfield in 1995 under license from DARE America, over 10 versions of our Life Skills Primary programme have been delivered to over 400,000 young people throughout the UK. Life Skills Education Charity believe that all young people deserve the right to lead safe and healthy lives and achieve their potential. We do this by providing evidence-based, professional resources to schools, local authorities and community groups.
Since 1995 there have been over 10 iterations / re-designs of the primary programme (now Life Skills Primary) as well as the creation of 2 secondary programmes and the Life Skills Game. Our development team have also worked on external resources such as On Track and Keep On Track in collaboration with local business as well as the Police and Local Authorities within Nottingham.
2018 saw the publication of the first independent, randomised control sampled evaluation of a UK based Life Skills programme, a combined effort by Nottingham and Nottingham Trent Universities involving 60 schools and over 1500 young people. It showed that the work that we do has a statistically proven positive impact on our learning outcomes.
Our Board of Trustees
Chris Cooke
Chris is a creative problem solver, coach, mentor and Customer Experience specialist. He currently works at Amazon Web Services helping Public Sector organisations to deliver improved service experiences for their customers using the latest thinking and technologies.
Matthew Phillips
Matthew Phillips is the Director of Education for a large group of all-through schools that operates in the UK and internationally. Alongside his undergraduate qualifications in Neuroscience and Master’s Level qualification in Special Educational Needs, Matt brings almost 20 years of teaching and educational leadership experience to the board.
Leslie Ayoola
Leslie grew up in Nottingham City and is a serving councillor for Mapperley ward. He has a Masters Degree in Youth & Community Development and a BA in Business. He has spent over 25 years working across the private, public and voluntary sectors and has established a number of SME’s and Social Enterprises.
Liz McIntyre
A visionary strategist and a person-centred leader, I value the power of people and believe that this is the way to get things done. I have extensive experience as a charity leader with a specialism in delivering education, significant exposure to managing organisational budgets and financial management through covid-19, board level scrutiny, volunteer management, collaborative working and on the ground service delivery.
Subhash Desai
Subhash Desai is a Risk Management Executive with over 25 years experience in leading and managing Credit Risk in Payments, Retail banks and Consumer finance businesses globally. He has held senior Risk Management positions in large institutions such as American Express, Citigroup and Barclays as well as smaller fintechs.
Thomas Wheatley
Tom Wheatley is a prison Governor with over twenty-five years of senior leadership experience in both public and private sector organisations. He is married with two grown-up children, both of whom have participated in Life Skills Education programmes whilst at school. Tom is also a Trustee of Unlock, a national charity that provides support & advocacy for people with criminal records to enable them to move on positively in their lives.
Reg Cox
Reg brings experience of how to deliver safe and easy to use digital experiences to consumers working with may high technology companies such as Vodafone and Ericsson. Reg is a newly qualified Yoga teacher providing Free yoga classes to anyone over zoom and in person in his home town.
Senior Management Team
Linda Ellis
Stuart Longcroft
Michael Donoghue
How are Life Skills programmes Delivered?
We offer several courses that each have different methods of delivery. Needless to say, our DAaRT Officers are selected because of their unique experiences in previous roles that give them a direct link and passion to the subjects that we deliver.
Every DAaRT Officer goes through an intensive 8 day training course that culminates with delivery of a lesson in a real classroom. Once qualified all DAaRT Officers are quality assured each term to ensure that they are delivering to the strict standards that we set out.
Our programmes use a blend of workbooks, presentations, videos, role play and Q&A to ensure that they keep young people interested and engaged.
Meet the Team
Our head office and delivery team are growing fast.
Katy White
Andy Clarke
Janette Beale
Natasha Davies
Alvin Cable
Anne Haycock
Anne Renwick
Caroline Hill
Carol Spencer
Claire Lisi
Heather Bartley
Linda Altoft
Maryam Khuzema
Michelle Begley
Nicola Swithenbank
Roz Manson
Sara Carter
Registered Address
Life Skills Education Centre
6 Sherwood Rise
Nottingham, NG7 6JF