We announce further speakers including Dan Norris (West of England Metro Mayor), Hannah Green (Author & Spoken Word Poet), Gabe Davies (Patagonia), Amira Patel (The Wanderlust Women) & Tom Hewitt MBE (Surfers Not Street Children)
Dan Norris loves the West of England. He grew up here, went to school here and is now the West of England Metro Mayor. His deep local roots mean he knows the West of England is a unique and wholly special place. Dan previously worked across the area as an NSPCC-trained child protection officer and local Member of Parliament, as well as running his own businesses.
Hannah Green is an author, freelance journalist, spoken word poet and the Lived Experiences Specialist at the Centre for Homelessness Impact. She is also a surfer and passionate about the sea’s power to both save and change lives, as it did with her own. She is a big fan of using real life stories to create change and own experiences of homelessness drives this passion to change things for other young people. Hannah’s first book ‘My Journey Home’ is out now
Amira Patel is the founder of The Wanderlust Women, an adventure and hiking group for muslim women diversifying the outdoors, breaking barriers and misconceptions of Muslim women. Her vision is to normalize Muslim women exploring the great outdoors. Currently, Wanderlust Women focusses on hiking and adventure days, skill based workshops, navigation courses, water sports and outdoor retreats.
Amira knows there is an image & stigma of Muslim women who wear the niqab and hijab, and this may be because the look is not ‘outdoorsy’ which can oftentimes form barriers. Her aim is to change these misconceptions, and have conversations with different types of people and share our experiences.
Gabe Davies is a four-time British surfing champion and big wave surfer from Newcastle, UK. He has appeared in award-winning surfing documentaries such as Joel Conroy‘s Eye of the Storm in 2002 and in 2009 he co-lead with Richie Fitzgerald in the documentary, Waveriders. Together they tow-surfed the biggest swell ever ridden off the Irish Atlantic Coast for which Gabe was nominated for a worldwide XXL big wave award. A fervent environmentalist to the core, in 2013, he joined Patagonia, where he found a true calling and is now their European Surf Director.
Tom Hewitt MBE is founder and CEO of Surfers Not Street Children. He has worked in the field with street children in Africa for over 28 years. Tom was awarded an MBE by HRH Queen Elizabeth II in 2011 for his work with street children in Africa. Tom is perhaps most well known for his successful advocacy campaign to end the forced removals of street children in Durban, South Africa. These round-ups used to take place to “clean” the streets ahead of international conferences and events. He assisted the national Department of Social Development in South Africa with its development of new policies around working with street children there.
