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19th May 2025
By Lynne Stockbridge

How Leila and Jasmine encourage their teams of amazing Parent Champions volunteers

Leila Dantes-Michael from Lewisham, and Jasmine Wilson-Daze from Norfolk are the joint winners of the Parent Champions Coordinator of the Year Award 2025.

The annual Parent Champions Awards recognise and celebrate the work of Parent Champions volunteers and coordinators. Coram Family and Childcare’s 41 Parent Champion schemes reach almost 50,000 families a year (2023/24). Thanks to the amazing work of more than 350 Parent Champions volunteers, parents and carers are supported by their peers in their own communities.

The Coordinator of the Year Award recognises the Parent Champions coordinator who has demonstrated outstanding levels of dedication, creativity, and boldness in bringing communities together - and has worked hard to support and encourage Parent Champions in their roles as volunteers, as well as in their personal development.

Parents who come forward to volunteer may themselves be lacking in confidence initially and may not have been in employment for some time. Coordinators like Leila and Jasmine recruit and train volunteers, encouraging them to develop in their roles and in their personal development. Volunteering can help lead to paid employment.  

According to the volunteers they recruit and work with, and this year’s panel of judges, both Leila and Jasmine certainly deserve this award.

Leila

Leila is described by the volunteers who work with her in Lewisham as ‘courageous and dedicated’. She organises the Parent Champions team with great care, staying in regular contact to offer support. She is actively present during outreach sessions, helping Parent Champions and giving them confidence and guidance. 

Leila also delivers excellent training sessions, ensuring all the information is clear and accessible to everyone. Her supportive approach has helped Parent Champions feel well-prepared and motivated.  She has also worked with Coram’s Books Together programme which is co-delivered by Parent Champions.  Leila has recruited a good number of volunteers, particularly because of the successful trainings offered such as ‘BAP’ (Being a Perfect Parent) and “EPEC” (Empowering Parents Empowering Communities).

Leila explains how she first became involved in working with families:

“I was one of the first cohort of Parent Champions in Lewisham. I joined the scheme as a volunteer in 2018 after giving up my job in a private hospital due to challenges in childcare costs with my two under-five children. I was an immigrant, and the process of UK’s early education was all new to me, and I did not know where to access information about childcare entitlements, or what my options were so I could go back to work. I found my inspiration in joining the Parent Champions scheme. I wanted to be of help to other parents, who like me, found themselves needing help and guidance but had no family and a limited network of local friends. My volunteering work has helped me gain an amazing network, new transferrable skills and a new employment path that I did not know I would be in. After a year of active volunteering, all my voluntary experience and learning helped me find the courage to apply and become the first Parent Champion Coordinator Apprentice for Lewisham. After completing my apprenticeship, I became a Family Information Outreach officer, and assigned Parent Champion Coordinator for Lewisham. Starting as a Parent Champion volunteer and ending up leading the Parent Champion team has been a privilege that I will always be grateful for. I feel blessed to work with our amazing volunteers who are selfless and resilient. The essence of what I do is reflected in the respect and love that goes around for everyone within our team”.

One of the volunteers who nominated Leila said: 

“Leila is a role model. She really inspired me with her way of teaching”.

Another said “Since Leila first invited me to learn how to volunteer, I was a tired Mum after Covid, stuck at home. But after training and volunteering, I achieved confidence, and success in my personal life. I started working in Saturday's Lithuanian school, delivering EPEC and BAP courses, and working in Childcare and gardening”.

Jasmine

Jasmine’s colleagues say: “Jasmine’s passion is key to the programme's success”. 

Jasmine was nominated by her manager Carla who says that since beginning in her role Jasmine has been committed to making the Parent Champion scheme a success in the area. She thinks strategically and provides guidance and support to colleagues and directly to parent champions.  This year, Jasmine has worked with over 60 volunteers in Norfolk.  She created a comprehensive induction training package to supports parent champions volunteers in their roles with families in the community. Some of the volunteers work to support refugees from Ukraine. Jasmine has worked closely with the REDI team in Norfolk supporting and developing the offer to international families.

Jasmine explains why she became involved in working as a Parent Champion Coordinator:

“I had been working with families as a Library Manager, but didn’t understand the complexity of family life until I had my own daughter in 2022. After returning to work I saw the role of the Parent Champion Coordinator advertised and I felt compelled to apply because it connected my work skills with a passion – supporting families to be able to make informed choices and to get the support they need, when they need it”.

Jasmine has enabled parent champions to attend significant events like the Family Voice Conference for SEND parents, which the Parent Champions say was highly beneficial for them. Jasmine has successfully linked the Parent Champions to family hub sites and teams, ensuring they have access to a wealth of information and resources, and strengthening their network and support system. She has successfully led the peer support partnership group, brought together system partners and provided opportunities for sharing best practice when working to recruit, train and retain volunteers. The number of training courses, feedback forms and active parent champions have seen a significant increase this year. There are currently 60 Parent Champions, 21 of which are international. The hard work of Jasmine and the wider team has been recognised in being nominated and short listed in the CYP Now awards and the LGC awards.

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