Meet Russell, the heart behind our project and community. He’s been confronting the hurdles young individuals face when they can't fit into the standardised school systems that were not built for them - the trauma, burnout, isolation, and everything in between.
Russell's son, who's autistic, experienced these challenges during his EBSA, and couldn’t engage with conventional home-learning. Russell decided to introduce him to game design and development.
Seeing his son's increased engagement, with the realisation that EBSA is a common struggle for thousands of young autistic minds, Russell was inspired to make a broader impact. He personally funded and founded Game Changers to help neurodiverse kids that can't do school the way it is set-up today.
Russell, once a struggling student, taught himself design and coding while working in welding and construction in his teens. Without GCSEs, he founded a tech company at 21 pioneering a system to protect poeple’s current and savings bank accounts from fraud attacks by organised crime. The system is still in use today by many UK retail banks. In 2014 he sold the business with 70 engineers, and went onto lead one of the world’s largest AI companies helping governments and banks fight organised crime, as Regional Director of Europe, Middle East, and Africa. After two decades of working in the field, he went onto advise UK Government on its digital strategy.
Yet, alongside Russell's professional attainment, his personal life told a different tale as his son grappled with EBSA and mental health. In 2022, Russell took the decision to leave full-time work and provide the day to day support his son needed.
Russell had prior experience of mental health issues and trauma. As a child and through to the age of 17 he had 7 ACEs. As an adult he experienced several life threatning events, one of which lead to a six-month journey of respiratory and mental health rehabilitation, and PTSD that affects him to this day.
These experiences alongside training in suicide prevention from the Royal College of Nursing, and his ongoing work with young people and their families only continues to fortify Russell's commitment to young people's mental health advocacy.
He has identified a need to assist young people facing battles, including disengagement from standardised school systems not designed for them (or the age we live in), school based trauma, loss of friendships, damaged self-esteem, depression or negative perception of an autistic diagnosis. Some of the kids we work with are also supported by CAMHS crisis teams.
Our mission is clear: to make young people happier, confident, and to prepare them for a future where technology and hyper-focus might be their greatest ally.
