Marc Gardiner

I have worked all my life in my home town, Plymouth, in multifarious community work and social care settings: with people with learning disabilities, people using mental health services, young people in care, in youth clubs, with people with alcohol or drug issues, and with inner-city communities facing big challenges.  I have recently taken up a new temporary role, working in Nepal for 3 months supervising the youth exchange programme  under Zebra’s contract with Global Xchange, before returning to Plymouth in January to oversee the 2nd phase of this programme.

Through all this I have developed a good overview of the scene and a very useful network. In the years up to 2002, observing what worked well and not so well, I began to imagine co-creating an organisation driven by strong values of social justice and a commitment to working to a high standard.  The dream came true with Zebra: I was a co-founder and, eight years on, working in and growing this workers’ co-operative continues a fulfilling challenge, a job I feel like doing however tough. My work experiences – as a hands-on practitioner, a counsellor, a manager, and a board chair – have fostered my abilities as a group facilitator and trainer.

I lead on Zebra’s solution-focused communication work.

“He said that most men were in their lives like the carpenter whose work went so slowly for the dullness of his tools that he had not time to sharpen them.” Cormac McCarthy, The Crossing