Sean Soulsby took the helm at The Children’s Foundation in 2019, and leads the team in offering health and wellbeing services to children and families in the North East. The charity develops early intervention and prevention strategies focused on the key child health challenges of now, namely early years, physical and mental health.
What was your first job (and what did it pay)? My first job was a paper-round at Corbridge Paper Shop. I got paid £7 a week and £10 extra with chocolate bar of my choosing if I went in at 5.30am on a weekend to add the inserts to the papers! My degree is in Environmental Science and Agricultural Ecology which led into landscape gardening for a while before ending up with a job at Divet Hill Quarry, near Great Bavington, as a plant technician, but I was running two youth sessions at the same time – I was questioning what it really was that I wanted to do for the rest of my life and I ended up leaving the quarry to become a full-time youth worker and never looked back. I still sit as a trustee on the board of Corbridge Youth Service where I started my career in youth work.
What is the best advice or support you’ve been given in business? Two pieces of advice have really stuck with me. Firstly, to have confidence in yourself and trust your gut; it’s ok to get it wrong as long as you recognise the problem and learn from it. Secondly, my fundraising manager is always encouraging me to ask for forgiveness not permission, which I’m trying to take on board!
