OUR TEAM

CHANGES UK-A TEAM WITH VISION AND INTEGRITY

Anthony Cokeley

Director of Operations

Anthony first came to Changes in 2009 seeking recovery, he progressed from service user to volunteer to paid staff member employed as Care Coordinator. He went on to develop our successful Recovery Academy and was instrumental in developing both our staff and peer mentor training.
Anthony left us in 2016 to go onto project manage various initiatives in the voluntary sector, designing and developing an award winning digital platform for children and families with special education needs and disabilities. During this time Anthony remained closely involved with the design and delivery of the service at Changes UK as an active Trustee. We are delighted to welcome Anthony back full time to Changes UK as Operations Director, his knowledge of the sector, and passion for ensuring that clients are at the very heart of recovery services qualifies him to take Changes UK into the next stage of our development.

Steve Hatch

Care Services Manager

A carpenter who worked on big construction projects in New York, where he lived for 12 years, Steve struggled with addiction. After a spell in rehab in Florida Steve came to Birmingham where he became a member of the recovery community and decided on a career change. Steve joined Changes UK as a volunteer support worker in 2011 and was promoted to Manager of our detox facility in 2013. In 2015 Steve was promoted to his current role; “I am very happy in my new role and have an excellent team of Peer Mentors and Recovery Coaches who help to ensure that our projects run smoothly.”

Nic Romano

Funding & Partnership Manager

Nic brings with her over 25 years experience in business development, a passionate communicator and connector bringing together groups and individuals to create powerful and effective change making partnerships.

Central to Nic’s work is the belief that when we collaborate, communities not only discover that they hold the solution but have real power to be a genuine force for positive social change.

A former Trustee for Changes UK, Nic’s mission is to work with both the private and the public sector to challenge the stigma that surrounds addiction by fostering conversations that are inclusive and transformational in establishing recovery.

Nic loves nothing more than being amongst friends and family cooking and creating memories – A self confessed food snob, ridiculously passionate about bringing people together around a table to talk, share and connect with really good food at the centre.

If she’s not cooking she’ll be outdoors, Mum to teenage son Elijah and a crazy hyperactive spaniel Harley. Nic is in her first year of study in Transpersonal Psychology.

Shella Amaya

Finance Business Partner

Coming Soon.

Liz Statham

Deputy Finance Manager

Coming Soon.

Ben Palmer

Wellbeing Coordinator

Ben had a history of drug use for over 20 years and he came to Changes after he completed a residential rehabilitation and wanted to continue on in recovery and to find a bridge to normal living. He came into the service and began volunteering within the Recovery Academy and our stage 2 property. He eventually began assisting within the office and was successful in gaining employment within the organisation.
Ben is our Peer Mentor and is responsible for assisting our service users with their benefit claims, debt management and facilitates weekly house groups with the service users to check in on their weekly progress and deal with coping strategies and how to build upon their recovery capital.
Ben says “I was so grateful to finally be clean that I wanted to help others achieve the same, the greatest part of my job is seeing people come into the service who have lost everything, are broken inside. get clean, get some hope back in their lives and go on to turn their lives around and achieve their dreams.”

Nicky Dwyer

Recovery Co-Ordinator

Nicky started his journey within ChangesUK as a volunteer in 2012 and went on to develop and deliver a programme at New Leaf recovery. After 3 years he moved on to a management role at Bayberry Clinic, returning to Clarity House in 2017. Nicky is a father to two beautiful little girls and took a little time out of his addiction foundations degree to spend time with his family, but has now picked back up with his studying and is engaged in a Psychology and Counselling degree through university.

Stuart Marsh

Senior Practitioner

Stacey Smith

Volunteer Coordinator

Stacey has worked in the drug & alcohol field since 2000, moving from roles in drug education, to treatment, to training professionals in the social care and criminal justice sectors. Alongside this she has helped many people to move forward in their recovery offering therapeutic interventions via her own Community Interest Company in detox and treatment provision across Solihull and Birmingham including Changes.

Promoting the visibility of recovery and connecting the community is close to her heart and she has worked on projects including Communications and Marketing Lead for Birmingham Recovery Walk, the launch of Recovery Central and the promotion of Small Changes and Changes Coffee.

In her spare time she enjoys heavy metal, good food, and travelling the great outdoors with her partner and young daughter in their campervan Doris.