Linda Sargent  - brief summary of experience (April 2007):

• Originally trained (postgraduate) as teacher late 1970s, subsequently worked in schools, with school refusers and adults.
• Outreach/community development worker from 1986-2002; initially (1986-1988) in Sussex for the Open University, where I also compiled and ran a course for the University of Sussex's Continuing Education Department, called "Understanding Disability". 1989-2002 outreach worker/tutor for Oxfordshire Community Education Department (including work with older people, a variety of return to learn groups and the travelling community and as a storyteller).
• During 2001-2002 seconded to South East Museum Library and Archive Council (SEMLAC) to work on the Drawn from Memory Project, funded by the DfES, to write  "Words and Wings", a training guide in creative reminiscence work, with accompanying c.d.
• Since 1990 I have also worked on projects as a freelance trainer/writer and mentor for Ithaca Arts.
• I also write fiction and have had poems, reviews, short stories and children's stories published; Egmont Press, Frances Lincoln, and Disability Arts Magazine.
• Author of  "Outreach and Partnerships" one of the guides in RESOURCE'S Disability Portfolio (The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries).
• Completed a Master of Arts in Creative Writing and Personal Development at the University of Sussex in 2003.
• Currently working as a freelance trainer/consultant in the reminiscence and also disability fields, with an emphasis on arts and creativity. Also working for a publisher in Oxford.