Shaun is a paramedic and worked in the ambulance service for 4 years. As a result, he became interested in health inequities, inclusion health and the role of communities in creating health.
In this role, he co-wrote an article about social prescribing in the ambulance service, researched the rate of GP registration amongst homeless patients who present to the ambulance service and presented at a conference about the role of paramedics in promoting public health. He also wrote about democratic decision-making in the NHS for the Centre for Welfare Reform.
During these years, he also became interested in Permaculture food-growing methods and Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) through the Gaskell Garden Project, a permaculture-led human rights project in Manchester. The project was attended by a large number of asylum seekers, and it was particularly watching the way that ABCD approaches made a difference here that inspired his interest in ABCD. He has further pursued his special interest in refugees by working in Europe’s largest refugee camp on Lesbos for four months in 2019.
Shaun has now left the NHS in order to explore how the intersection between ABCD and permaculture can play a role in meeting the great challenges of our time: reconnecting our communities, food security, the climate crisis and the accompanied mass migration.
