OUR STORY

Hi, I’m Elle, the founder and CEO of Children’s Voices in Action 

This charity was created over 10 years ago, following my experiences naively working in orphanages, young offenders units and with children living in poverty in the UK and abroad. It soon became really clear to me that they all had the same challenges. Whilst adults around them would hypothesise about what was going on for them, and what they needed, the children would sit at the heart of it, without ever being asked! At best I saw that this made services inefficient, and at worst I saw cases of sexual abuse go un-discovered for months longer than it needed to.

This prompted me to set a mission: to place all children at the heart of their own solutions to any challenge they faced, or service they received. Alongside working with as many children in as many contexts as possible (refugee camps, orphanages, UK primary and secondary schools, young offenders, private nurseries, SEN centres), I also undertook academic studies to ensure that everything I did was based on solid evidence, ethics, rights and experience.

Over the past 10 years, we’ve learnt and grown so much.

These principles continue to underpin everything we do, and ensure we are forever evolving, learning from the beautiful honesty of children’s voices.