You may say I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one…

Dream Big

Can you believe 1992 was 30 years ago? Time flies by at an alarming rate doesn’t it? So why was I thinking about this? It’s because the summer of 1992 was a significant defining point in my life. It’s fair to say that before then I was a bit chaotic, working things out in my head and unfocussed on where I’d like life to take me. Looking back, I could easily have gone one of two ways. My mental health wasn’t brilliant. I was a parent to my three-year-old and I was homeless for the second time in my life. It was time to really work out what I was going to do so I took some time to do some dreaming and I came up with a plan of action.

I was bright at school, and I knew I wanted to do something to help children that needed it so I thought college would be the way to go but first I needed to put a roof over our heads. I am eternally grateful to Riverside Housing for giving us a flat as this provided us with the stability we needed to enact my plan. Several years later I became a non-executive on Riverside’s board to give a bit back for their kindness.

Along the way I met a social care professional who was there to support me called Tom and he asked me what I wanted to do with my life. He saw my potential and I told him I would like to do his job. I bet he doesn’t even remember me, but I have never forgotten him. February 1995, I did it. I started my career in social care work as a residential social worker for Liverpool City Council. Ten years after that summer I was a social work manager responsible for 30 social workers and 600 children in care. I bumped into Tom again when I was speaking at a conference, and he told me he was very proud of me. My dream had come true – all I had needed was that dream and a plan.

Defining moment.

Another defining point was the day I walked into the Institute of Directors in London to see a sea of sober looking (mainly men) people sitting at tables looking very serious and right in the middle was a stunning woman with pink hair. Thank goodness I wasn’t in the wrong place after all. It turns out that both of us had been beavering away trying to get children’s voices heard in services and realising the importance of tech in our professional worlds and how this should be enhancing practice. This was the start of a beautiful collaboration with Yvonne.

That day Mind Of My Own was born.

We both firmly believe in a world where all children can have their voices heard and there was most definitely a meeting of minds that day. We are not your average tech entrepreneurs. Well, we certainly weren’t back in those days, but we are on a mission and we dare to dream big.

We want to give children the way to speak up all over the world and this year we have started to do just that with our apps now being used right across the UK, New Zealand, France, Romania, Hungary and soon in Australia too.

We collect good people.

Connections we make, make the world go round. We always say we collect good people. We collect them and we nurture those relationships. These good people have helped us on our way. Our team is jam packed full of good people. People on a mission and who work so hard every day to help us all achieve our goals. 

My dreams have grown over the years, and I will keep dreaming because everything you dream really is possible. 

Jill, co founder Mind Of My Own