Our Team
Karen Cottle (she/her) - Karen has worked with children and families in statutory and voluntary agencies for over 30 years, with a primary focus on adoption, fostering and kinship care. Karen was awarded a master's degree in Social work from Warwick university, in 2010, returning to the local authority, where she has gained a great deal of experience in her field, including court work, child protection work and life story work, along with training adopters and foster carers. She is a practice educator and has sat on adoption and fostering panels, and worked as a senior practitioner before deciding to work independently. She began working for Adopters for Adoption in 2018 as an independent social worker, and enjoyed her time so much, that she decided to make it a permanent arrangement! Karen, who lives in the West Midlands, has two adult children. When not at work, or in her sewing room, Karen can be found exploring the countryside in her newly restored motorhome, along with her partner Pete and their manic Border Collie Taz. She is very much looking forward to joining the AFA family and being a part of this amazing team! ... Mahongo Shibemba - Mahongo joined Adopters for Adoption, as a Team Manager, in October 2021 but has been part of AFA since 2014 as an Independent Social Worker. She has been delighted to witness AFA’s development from its inception, and is keen to contribute to consolidating the agency’s position as a beacon child and adopter-focused agency. Having qualified as a social worker in 1992, Mahongo has substantive experience in statutory child protection services, gaining management qualifications as her career progressed. Her roles in statutory services included locality management of statutory social work teams and oversight of a locality early help family support service under the Sure Start programme. This experience gives her insight into safeguarding services and the delivery of early help for children and families, including children with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) as she served as chair of a SEND resource allocation panel. Having worked in England and South Wales, Mahongo has good grasp of cross-border issues that can impact family life, particularly when children are placed across local authority and national boundaries. She is a strong advocate for families and is keen to support adoptive families navigate the complexities of adoption support services to access the early help they need to thrive. Mahongo has keen interest in performance management and enabling practice improvement and learning. In her spare time, she volunteers for a faith charity, loves gardening, cooking and baking, and looks forward to enjoying grandma time. ... Monique Oakley - Monique is a Family Support Worker for Safer, Stronger, Adoptive Families and has been in this role for 2 years. She has previously worked one-to-one with children with a variety of additional needs and closely liaised with their families for the past 12 years whilst working in school settings. More recently, she have worked as an Independent Supporter and Family Fund assessor. Monique is a qualified Triple P practitioner working with families all over the country and has personal experience of adoption as her niece was adopted 16 years ago. She have worked with children with speech and language difficulties and is trained to use Makaton. Monique was previously employed as a sports coach and has worked on projects to encourage children into sport to boost their self-esteem and improve social skills. She is very much looking forward to seeing how Adopters for Adoption is going to grow and how the Safer, Stronger, Adoptive Families project is going to develop. ... Kirsty Cooke (she/her) - Kirsty joined Adopters for Adoption in 2017 and for the last 2 years has been supporting the evidenced based intervention that supports the parenting of children who have experienced early life trauma. Kirsty’s working life has been dedicated to helping and supporting others, before joining Core Assets Kirsty’s roles have involved working with children and disabilities, children in care and child protection, working alongside parents with alcohol and substance misuse and running parenting groups. Kirsty firstly gained a degree in Early Childhood Studies and then went onto qualify and train in Triple P Teens, Solution focused brief therapy and is a trained Theraplay practitioner. Kirsty is passionate about her work and helping make a positive change for children and families. ... Lauren Norwell - Since completing her degree in Business & Marketing Management Lauren began her marketing career within the Leisure and Tourism industry before moving to a marketing agency, where she worked for both B2C and B2B businesses. Lauren then went on to train as a teacher where she worked as a primary school teacher in Bristol for 3 years. After relocating to Birmingham, she decided to return to marketing as she missed the creativity that the industry offers. Working at Adopters for Adoption now enables her to combine her passion for helping children with the digital world of marketing. She has really enjoyed learning all about the adoption process at Adopters for Adoption and working alongside such a brilliant team. So far her time has been focused on building a strong online presence through social media by highlighting all the wonderful services that AfA offers to potential adopters around the UK. ... Sarah Sharwin - Sarah joined Core Assets in 2014 working in the Parenting Team, also facilitating Gateway groups raising awareness and supporting people who were or had experienced domestic abuse. Sarah is the manager for AFAs adoption support overseeing the evidenced based interventions that support the parenting of children who have experienced early life trauma. Sarah's working life has been dedicated to helping and supporting others, before joining Core Assets Sarah worked within a youth offenders unit and a semi- independent home for teenagers and Sarah also worked as a volunteer for the Samaritans. Sarah firstly gained her advanced diploma in counselling and psychotherapy, and then went onto qualify and train in Triple P – 0-12 and Triple P teens, Gateway, Solution focused brief therapy, Video Feedback Positive Parenting –Sensitive Discipline (VIPP-SD) Sarah is passionate about her work, and said that she felt truly honoured receiving the award for “Adoption Support Practitioner of the year” at the National Adoption week 2018. ... Emma Lowday - Emma completed her MA in social work in 2007 and has worked for various Local Authorities since then as a Social Worker until beginning with Adopters for Adoption in 2018. Emma's roles have involved working with children with disabilities, children in care, child protection and adoption. Since 2010 Emma have been working solely in Adoption, it is an area she has a huge passion for and she loves the work that she does. Prior to qualifying as a social worker, Emma did a degree in Psychology and spent a year as a nursery nurse room leader before embarking on her Social Work MA. ... Jane Lees (she/her) - Jane completed her MA in Social Work in 2005 and has since worked in both Local Authority and Voluntary settings. Jane has spent the last ten years specialising in adoption work which is her passion. Jane has experience of working in all different stages of the adoption process from assessment work and matching through to adoption support, tracing and intermediary services. Jane has also enjoyed completing therapeutic work with children and their adoptive parents. Jane has qualifications in Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) and Theraplay. In addition to this Jane has experience as an Independent Panel Member for a Voluntary Adoption Agency. In 2017 Jane was shortlisted to the final four for Adoption Social Worker of The Year at the National Adoption Awards. ... Heather Liveston (she/her) - Heather qualified with a Diploma in Social Work and M.A in Social Work in 1995 and has worked with both adults and children. She has experience of completing fostering and adoption assessments as well as offering post adoption support. Heather has also worked as a Supervising Social Worker for families who foster where she has gained experience in helping families to care for children whose behaviour is complex and challenging. Heather has personal experience of adoption and is passionate about adoption as a means of finding forever families for children who cannot remain with their birth families. She is proud to have been a contributor to books on both adoption and parenting. Having enjoyed working as an Independent Social Worker for Adopters for Adoption for the last three years, Heather is delighted to be joining the team as a permanent member of staff. Heather lives in the South of England with her partner, two children, labradoodle “Hamish” and cat “Bella”. ... Angela Timmins (she/her) - Angela began working for Core Assets Children’s Services in April 2017 as an Independent Support Administrator, moving on to Senior Administrator Assistant, overseeing and co-ordinating administrative skills to Family Fund and Children’s Services contracts. She has worked in the care sector for over 20 years, working with Vulnerable Adults and Children within a private home setting, providing administrative and customer support roles and staff training. Angela is really looking forward to working with Adopters for Adoption, learning all the new processes and seeing the outcomes that this wonderful service provides. ...