StoryBridge Scotland

Mike, a biology and photography teacher, has 35 years’ experience raising young people’s aspiration and attainment in deprived areas. A former UK inner-city Assistant Headteacher, he spent four years turning around failing schools in Cape Town’s ganglands. In 2015, dismayed that young Africans in Limpopo were disconnected from their wildlife heritage, he founded Wild Shots Outreach. It has connected over 2,000 youngsters with wildlife through photography, trained unemployed locals as workshop leaders, and helped over 70 into employment or training. Its students have won global awards and exhibited at COP26, and University of Johannesburg PhD research assesses its impact.

Peter is a contemporary Scottish artist and educator who heavily incorporates social geography,  architecture, and personal history into his work, he lives in Kilsyth and balances his active studio practice with a full-time career as an art teacher in Falkirk Scotland. Peter graduated from the Glasgow School of Art in 2001, specialising in Environmental Art under artist David Harding. As a teacher of over 20 years, Peter has worked with a broad demographic of students and young people across Central Scotland working in both photography and art & design “Our life experience informs and fuels our imagination and ideas. The experiences we have, the people we meet, the stories we hear, the stories we live, those who we love or have loved and those we have lost. It’s all inside us -  it makes up who we are.”

Ray is currently studying fashion design at the Glasgow School of Art. She found her passion for photography began when she was studying the new towns of Scotland as a personal project, working in tandem with the skills she was developing in higher photography at school. She used photography as a story telling tool, capturing the backdrop of her childhood in Cumbernauld in a new found light and it fostered a new love for these familiar places. The skills she gained studying photography have continued to help her grow creatively in and out of her studies at art school. Ray believes that photography offers transferrable skills such as communication skills, social confidence, problem solving, and can offer a wider knowledge and new perspectives on life’s surroundings.

Adam has over 25 years' experience working in the creative industries, initially working as a photographer then cinematographer. Working for Canon EMEA since 2013 managing their creative advertising content. In 2020 he started leading  Social Value initiatives and the Canon Young People Programme across Europe, Middle East and Africa. The programme works with young people from disadvantaged communities in more than 30 countries in EMEA, creating educational opportunity and working closely with UN teams. He has just completed his MSc in Global Prosperity at UCL

Caroline has spent over 20 years working in global health and community development, collaborating with charities, governments and local communities in the UK and around the world. Her work has focused on improving health and wellbeing, bringing people together, championing equality and ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to thrive. She believes that lasting change happens when communities are involved in shaping their own futures. At StoryBridge Scotland, Caroline brings this experience and a passion for helping young people from different backgrounds connect, share their stories, build confidence and develop a real sense of belonging.