Our Founding story

Our CEO and Clinical Director, Sue Bell OBE, founded Kids Inspire in 2007

From a young age Sue had an interest in human behaviour: a keen performing artist with a passion to share her knowledge and support young people to find healthy ways to express themselves. Throughout her teaching career, she related to the young people she worked with and they to her. Young people whose behaviour often led them to be excluded found refuge in her drama studio. Despite the authority that more senior educational positions brought with them, Sue still felt powerless to put a child at the ‘centre’ of a case regardless of her role.

In 2007 it became clear to Sue that there was nowhere for children who were victims of distress, abuse or neglect to turn to for support.  As a result, children who she worked with were engaging in self-harm and risky behaviours, such as alcohol/drug abuse, abusive relationships, educational exclusion and social isolation, instead of receiving positive intervention.

Distressing situations of intergenerational family child abuse and flippant remarks from those in a position of power about “children being sorted out once they were in the criminal justice system” were the final justification Sue needed to set about change. 

Already a qualified counsellor - working with behaviour support - and training to be a child and adolescent psychotherapist, Sue opened Kids Inspire, and for two years worked unpaid to prove how these children could be helped. In collaboration with a consortium of local schools, in the first year alone the newly founded children’s charity received over 250 referrals. The work didn’t stop there, with Sue working tirelessly fundraising and securing grants all alongside seeing her clients. 

Early in the foundation of Kids Inspire, Sue identified the importance of family inclusive treatment, which meant families often received therapy alongside the child to support long-term sustainable outcomes. The aim for Kids Inspire has never changed - the charity’s goal is to meet the needs of the child at the centre of each case in order for the child to thrive once completing a bespoke treatment plan.

Sue is now qualified in Somatic Experiencing - and is a NeuroAffective Touch Pracitioner, specialising in helping individuals resolve symptoms caused by trauma - and runs a unique organisation with over 100 paid or voluntary staff. Working across Essex, the organisation has made a difference to over ten thousand young lives.