Photo of Tammy Banks of Taye Training

Tammy Banks

Tammy Banks has been nominated by Inspiring Women Changemakers member, Dorothy Hodgkinson. Dorothy says “Tammy Banks is a co-Director of Taye Training, which she set up with Faye Fox. Her work is strongly directed at helping and supporting vulnerable people through all her roles in charity, social care and criminal justice services. The aim is that individuals get a service appropriate to their needs, delivered by a specialist with true understanding, empathy and relevant skills.

Taye Training has delivered workshops to over 200 organisations, working with professionals who work on the front line. This includes staff and volunteers within charities, police and social work at all levels of their organisations. By helping build each individual worker’s resilience and skills, Taye Training workshops help them be the amazing worker they want to be – even when they are in a failing system.”

Who has she helped/who will she help?

Tammy says “Me, I was the homeless person, the vulnerable, the stressed operational worker trying my hardest to make a difference. Now I am in a position to help others avoid this.

Life is full of sliding doors moments and we never know whether we would have achieved what we’ve achieved if we’d taken a slightly different route. Would I have chosen the career I’ve chosen if I hadn’t ended up homeless? I’ll never know, but what I do know is that my early life experiences have given me a passion and determination to change the face of the criminal justice and social care sector.

One of my biggest sliding doors moments came when a college lecturer allowed me to attend college which eventually led to me studying psychology at university. She did much more than that, though. She gave me support and belief. Not just belief that I could make something of my life, but belief that I mattered. Her dreams for me fed my dreams.

This might sound like a scene from a fairy tale, like my transition was seamless and straightforward. Actually, the journey from living in a homeless hostel to living in halls of residence was tortuous, but it also fuelled my belief that if I could survive that, I could achieve anything.”

What’s worked?

Dorothy says “Tammy’s mission and purpose in life is to prevent the cycle of abuse wherever possible, working with the most vulnerable and those with multiple disadvantages. She developed ‘Training for Influence’ to build an army of trainers/consultants delivering training to front line professionals who work in social care, charities and criminal justice such that the training they receive will enable them to transform lives.

All the trainers are operational in the field and supported and mentored through Taye Training to become amazing trainers that deliver a variety of life changing sessions in topics as diverse as safeguarding, risk management, managing challenging behaviour.  In addition, irrelevant of the subject, all training sessions also build emotional resilience, challenge bias, encourage values-based decision making and highlight the impact of a trauma-informed approach.

In addition to all this, Tammy role models her change perspective by also volunteering in charity governance roles and strategically through a role in Parliament on the Committee of Standards assessing and adjudicating complaints about MPs.

Tammy is keen to see society change – the more the cycle is changed the greater impact. Equal opportunities to succeed create generational changes in families. What has worked for Tammy is being authentic, learning constantly, helping others, sharing knowledge and passion, building a team. She has also learned to let go of system frustration and start her own system of change.”

What has she learnt? Any challenges?

Tammy says “So much! That together we are stronger. Collaboration is key. There are more good people in the world than bad. Try, Try, try again!”

What’s next?

Dorothy says “For Tammy, the future is filled with continuing to build and help others to train the “Training for influence” way so that more and more frontline professionals treat people in a way that enables change. Taye Training has begun applying for national tenders in order to make a difference in statutory services. As Tammy herself says, “It’s all about culture change. It’s not you and me, it’s us and we.”

Despite austerity and political changes Tammy is convinced that helping the professionals to be emotionally resilient and not vulnerable, to give them the knowledge and tools they need to change lives, will enable them to do so.  “Overall” Tammy is going to “keep championing that change is possible and the cycle of abuse can be stopped.”

As Tammy says, “People change people” and she is certainly enabling many people change the approach to training, to service delivery, to those individual conversations between professional and client so that the vulnerable can, as she has done, stand up and be counted.”

What advice, contacts or resources would help her?

Dorothy says “A continued self learner, Tammy is always seeking out new learning opportunities. Audiobooks, podcasts, collaboration and making inspiring connections on linked in are top of her list. She constantly seeks advice and guidance from other business leaders about purpose led business, impact and scaleability. Tammy would love to build her contacts with inspiring women leaders, collaborators and changemakers.”

Why we’re sharing these stories

An individual or organisation from each of our five categories will be recognised at our Igniting Inspiration recognition event in November, but we want to publish all relevant stories to spread awareness of all the positive work that goes on in the North!