Welcome to our Team
Gaiena has been an Adopteens Project Worker since 2016 with a 15-year background in youth work, working with care experienced and adopted young people and their families within a local authority post-adoption
support team. Gaiena also has several years of experience supporting first-family families around adoption and contact and adopted adults who wish to access records and undertake trace and intermediary work. Gaiena is a qualified person-centred counsellor with an understanding of issues around adoption from all parties involved.
Gaiena enjoys working with adults and young people and feels the most precious part of this work is seeing people grow and move forward in their lives with the right environment and support.
Tanya has worked with the Adopteens project since 2015 working with teenagers from all over Yorkshire & Humber with the simple aim of helping young people who are adopted meet each other, build friendships, and if they want to, have an opportunity to share how they feel and think about adoption to improve the system.
Tanya also works with adoptive parents, delivering training and she supports First Families. Tanya thinks it’s important to work with all people who are affected by adoption
as it gives her the opportunity to hear people’s experiences from all sides. Tanya finds the most rewarding part of the work is getting to know people, building relationships and she always learns something new from every person she works with. She is avid about hearing from adopted people.
Jo works alongside Tanya and Gaiena as part of the Adopteens project and she has worked with Adopted young people and their families for over 20 years as both a Child and Family Therapist and Social Worker. Jo is also from a youth work background having delivered art-based projects to children and young people living in rural communities. Jo is passionate about the work we do with young people as they help us grow and learn both personally and
professionally and their voices are crucial in helping us develop and shape our support services.
Vikki (Victoria) graduated with a BA (Hons) in Health and Social Care in 2020 and has a keen interest in post-adoption support work following her own adoption and reunion experiences. Her dissertation ‘An exploration of adult adoptee experiences of adoption through the implementation of a storytelling approach’ was published through Bishop Grosseteste University’s journal, ‘Solertia’, and has catapulted her desire to further explore the means by which voices in adoption can influence service and policy change.
