Toni is a Community Development Worker who improves the lives of families in Edinburgh.

Toni is community driven and inclusion focussed, with a passion for incorporating creativity and wellbeing into improving the lives of families and their unique paths. Toni has a psychology educated background, with recent completion of a master’s diploma in learning in communities – she focusses her work on building a meaningful connected community for those she works alongside – creating a space for everyone’s story to be heard.

Through this, she continues to develop sessions responding to her local community needs- including the recent development of her young mum’s group, supporting mums aged 16-25 through memorable experiences with their little ones and offering practical support, and a sense of belonging, confidence, and voice within their locality. Toni focusses on creating memorable experiences, and enhancing parents, children and young people’s opportunities throughout their journey – offering informative sessions on housing support and development workshops to name a few. She develops sessions and seasonal celebrations to ensure families each have the opportunity feel connected and part of a wider supported network- especially those who have limited additional support around them at these isolating times of the year. In addition to this, she supports families with accessing extra measures such as frozen meals and warm winter clothing to ease the financial pressure throughout the colder months.

Through her 10  years of working within communities, Toni has supported the development of young people, encouraging them to follow and strive for improved opportunities within their local area, advocating for additional youth provisions and opportunities for young people to engage in activities – she has supported over 50 young people to complete their dynamic youth awards, and developed visual art activities for young people to express themselves in an impactful manner.

Toni is passionate about not only creating a community, but building one that welcomes everyone in and works together collaboratively to sustain a strong and structured network for families. She is particularly passionate about adopting creative ways for individuals to voice their perspective and explore their wellbeing through arts and holistic measures, after experiencing the positive effects and opportunities this can provide through building her own art page during the pandemic as an outlet for exploring expression.

Toni is striving to create communities whereby individuals feel welcome- bringing the true sense of a community back to its roots – supporting one another, offering equal opportunities and creating connections in a world where everyone faces their unique challenges.