Our Team
The Pelican Project belongs to its members and has 5 directors:
Charlie
Founding director Charlie started out in Care, supporting neurodiverse adults in residential settings. He went on to teach in SEN further education colleges, where he supported individuals and families to transition from school to adult life. Here, he specialised in sensory curriculums for young people with profound and multiple learning difficulties. He has taught in mainstream settings, where his roles have included managing Education, Health & Care Plans and designing short term interventions for students with specific access needs. Charlie has run Pelican since 2017.
George
George is an illustrator and printmaker who we first worked with at Pelican and Exeter Phoneix’s collaborative visual art group, Freefall+. George specialises in delivering projects that bring together creative practitioners and young people from across the community, like his national lottery heritage fund project, Mary of Exeter (https://www.doubleelephant.org.uk/mary-of-exeter). George is also a director at our base in Exeter, Positive Light Projects. At Pelican we have benefitted from George’s extensive network of collaborators in Exeter and beyond. George teachers across our program and as Director of Culture & Community, he helps make the most of the opportunities our community has to offer and promotes our members work in key community hubs.
Izzy
Izzy is one of our neurodiverse members. She is pursuing roles in the creative industries and has a passion for acting and art. She is currently delivering a series of inclusive Caberet shows with our drama teacher, Phil. Izzy has lived experience of the challenges facing neurodiverse young adults. Izzy gives us a vital insight in her role as ‘Member Director’.
Ben
Ben was a founding member of The Pelican Project back in 2017. Since then he has acted on stage at The Northcott Theatre, had artworks in exhibitions at Exeter Phoenix, created countless products at the FabLab with Exeter Library and taught students at Exeter College about disability rights issues.
When he's not at Pelican, Ben has many passions and interests. He loves vintage children's television and finding his favourite characters and DVDs in charity shops. He enjoys a party, especially his annual trip to 'Beautiful Days' festival. More recently he has been exploring the wild in his off-road wheelchair, and exploring the country on trips with his family and enablers.
Ben is an integral part of the Pelican family, and continues to be a guide and mentor to its founding directors. His commitment to living life to the full and his experience of the challenges facing school-leavers is a huge asset to us at Pelican.
Ashton
One of Pelican’s best moments in terms of integrating our members with mainstream community and peers came through a collaboration with Ashton’s Health & Social Care class. Ashton was the program leader for level 1 students, supporting learners who were “low achievers” in the context of their college, with significant socio-economic barriers to community themselves. Ashton brings an understanding of SEN and the Education, health and Care Plan (EHCP) process in the context of mainstream provision. In her latest role as lead teacher for SEND at a local college, Ashton is part of the network that supports individuals and families to work towards their EHCP targets. Ashton supports Pelican to to maintain relevant and up-to-date policies.
Helen
Helen has a BA Theatre, Film and Television from The University of Bristol. She worked as a Production Co-ordinator before moving to an outreach role at The University of Exeter. Here, she was responsible for helping young people from ‘non-traditional’ higher education backgrounds to find a pathway in to higher education. Helen has extensive experience in the project management of a variety of events, both strategically and operationally. As creative admistratior, Helen’s role at pelican includes overseeing the organisations finances, policies and communications.
Alison
Alison has worked in the voluntary sector for many years. She was Director of Fundraising for the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew where she led a team which raised over £17million for the Millennium Seed Bank Appeal.
Alison was Corporate Fundraising Manager at Save The Children, where she was responsible for raising a multi-million pound budget. She has been a Management and Fundraising Consultant for a number of smaller charities both in a paid and volunteer capacity including WWT (Wildfowl and Wetland Trust based at Slimbridge), and Integr8 (refugee support) and The Otakar Kraus Music Therapy Trust. Alison supports fundraising at Pelican.
“As a parent of a Pelican, I've seen first hand what an amazing project The Pelican Project is. I am committed to offering my expertise and energy to this wonderful organisation.