Hannah Montgomery – Marketing, Sustainability and Care Lead

Hannah is a Chartered Marketer with a passion for social care. For over 18 years, she’s worked globally marketing within the care sector with her work recognised in The Times and The Guardian. She is always on top of regulatory changes and evolving agendas. Due to personal reasons, in 2016 she came back to her home city of Lichfield and set up a marketing consultancy firm, Golddust Marketing, which she continues to run today.

When she returned to Lichfield she also founded Re-engage Lichfield, a charity to tackle social isolation among older people in the region.

Recently, Re-engage Lichfield changed to become our first Grace Cares tea party group. Hannah is also involved in supporting Lichfield Dementia Friends who aim to gain dementia friendly status for the city.

Hannah was so concerned about the state of a sector she loved so much that she created the 360° social care debate. The mission was to ensure that the right people discuss the challenges for the social care sector from every perspective, to inform and create holistic solutions within the sector.

She brought together over 60 leading educators, charities, thought leaders, care workers, service users, home care, care home and care technology providers to discuss the timely issues facing social care. She then collated the 360 views to define the problems and form a white paper. This was launched with a panel discussion, which included the CEO of the Homecare Association, across the Care Show at London’s ExCel. The aim of the discussion was to help people understand the issues from the sectors’ point of view and make informed decisions on how to implement solutions. Also as pay and care costs are a constant concern for the sector, she paid all the care workers and service users for their time at £20 per hour, out of her own pocket. To ensure momentum is not lost she is now endorsing and supporting the Institute of Health and Social Care Management’s people plan which aims to provide a foundation on which true reform of the sector can be built.

Hannah has won several awards and accolades, including:

• Support Staffordshire’s Volunteering Support for the Over 65’s winner
• The SLTC (Sutton Coldfield – Lichfield – Tamworth – Cannock) Chamber of Commerce Young Professional of the Year
• Future Face of Sales, Marketing and Communication for the Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce
• Highly Commended for The Communications Guru award via the Women Achieving Greatness in Social Care Awards (WAGS).
• Awarded a Fellowship of the IHSCM (Institute of Health and Social Care Management)
• The Power List 2023 – Innovators in Care

She is also the Vice President role for Lichfield and Tamworth Chamber of Commerce. Her focus for the upcoming year is inclusivity and diversity in the workforce, supporting the future workforce and sustainability in business. This means she can use this platform to support others in the local community.

Please Link In with Hannah to see her full history: Click here.

Emma Smith – Customer Service, Product and Operations Lead

Emma’s initial career was in international exhibition and conference organising, she organised high-profile events with speakers from around the world including a former prime minister and foreign secretary. After several years of travelling, she wanted to settle in one place and opened and ran a successful, AA award winning restaurant in Lichfield. She loved being part of the local community by serving her loyal customers, employing local people and being an ear for all those who needed her. During this time, she also started a market research business and soon found she was working two full time jobs. Unfortunately, in 2011 Emma was diagnosed with cancer and this really made her evaluate her lifestyle. There had to be more to life than working the long hours of the hospitality industry and a way to take her foot off the gas for a little while.

After incredible and successful treatment from the NHS, Emma decided she needed to make some changes, both businesses were sold as she knew she needed to achieve a better work/life balance. She decided she would do at least one thing every year that would challenge her these included:

• Volunteering at a local school on a mentoring programme
• Completing an introduction to counselling course at Newman University
• Volunteering as a minibus driver for a local children’s charity
• Working as a volunteer at The Commonwealth Games
• Working as part of the committee on The Darwin Walk (to help protect Lichfield’s green spaces)
• Sleeping outdoors overnight to raise awareness of homelessness and raise money for the YMCA
• Walking 50K in a day, raising over £2K for a local youth and community charity
• Becoming part of the march for Birmingham Gay Pride
• Setting up a WhatsApp group of close family and friends and sending them a positive quote of love every morning for a year

She wanted to spend less time working and more time helping others. Hannah and Emma had often spoken about a wish to work together on a worthwhile project. When Hannah told her about the idea for Grace Cares, she instantly knew this was what they needed to be doing. She is particularly excited about the vision of a community space within Grace Cares HQ, a place for people to spend time so no one ever needs to be cold, hungry or lonely.
Please Link In with Emma to see her full history: Click here.

Adam Harrison – Logistics and Waste Management Lead

Adam has previously served 13 years in the RAF. during this time, he toured Iraq, Afghanistan, and Northern Ireland. Adam was a proud member of The Queen’s Colour Squadron and facilitated first aid and health and safety training throughout the RAF.

During a tour in Afghanistan two of his friends were killed. Unfortunately this traumatic situation had a profound impact on Adam, and he suffered from PTSD as a result. In a bid to understand why he was reacting to the situation this way, Adam took it upon himself to learn CBT, NLP practices and First Aid for Mental Health. This led him to leave the RAF and set up a training company to support others including civilian and ex-forces personnel.

Unfortunately, when the pandemic took hold in 2020, the ability for companies and people to attend training dried up overnight. This forced Adam to make the difficult decision to close the business and move in a new direction and into a new industry.

Adam is now supporting people via The Clear Out Co and is proud to offer the very best service in regard to clearances. Since 2021 Adam has been building his clearance business to become the most trusted clearance specialist in the UK, Adam actively engages in the brand’s zero-to-landfill philosophy, where everything collected is reused or recycled before going to a landfill. He is also part of a UK wide sustainable waste management consortium.

Please Link In with Adam to see his full history: Click here.

Adam is also an unpaid care worker. His mother (an Anaesthetist at Birmingham Children’s Hospital) had three brain aneurysms in 2010, liver cancer in 2011, was registered blind and had cervical cancer in 2012. This meant she was unable to fully care and support herself. Unfortunately, the family had a very bad experience with a domiciliary care agency – where Adam discovered that care staff were stealing from his mother. This resulted in Adam now supporting his mother full time as well as running The Clear Out Co and making time for his wife and four children.

With over 12 years of caring for his mother, Adam is truly passionate about making care equipment accessible for all. Once the idea for Grace Cares was formed Adam knew that this was exactly what he needed to do!