Clare Davies-Jones joined Afasic in November 1996 as the Development Officer for North East London.

During her time with Afasic Clare was instrumental in developing a number of key projects that went on to be replicated across the country and when she retired in 2015  left behind a legacy of innovative and inspirational work with young people with SLCN.

Clare’s passion was to provide young people with SLCN with the life skills necessary for leading independent lives. She did this through developing various models of support that included:

  • Summer transition courses for those facing the key educational move to secondary school. These continue to this day in a range of locations across the country.
  • The Afasic youth project in NE London that provided a range of activities and support to enable young people to thrive. This model of support was replicated in other parts of the country and as far afield as Spain, featuring in academic journals; with volunteers, young people and staff presenting at many conferences.
  • A programme of ‘activity days’ for children and young people to boost communication through art and creative activities.
  • Innovative support projects for parents in London including the Kheli-Boli (play talk) project for the Bangladeshi community to encourage parents to use play as a way to promote communication with their children.

With Clare’s guidance a number of young people with speech and language difficulties went on to present to a range of audiences including parents, professionals, politicians and funders, at conferences and seminars about their experience of growing up with these difficulties.

Clare had a huge impact during her time with Afasic, and on the lives of many children, young people and families impacted by speech and language difficulties.

She will be greatly missed.